Starring Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and Aditya Roy Kapoor. In Hindi with English subtitles. Rated PG.

Like all of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s films, Guzaarish is more focused on the evocative aesthetics of each frame than the realism of its narrative structure. Ostensibly about euthanasia, the film is actually an elegiac poem about powerlessness, desire, and the human body.

Ethan Mascarenhas (Hrithik Roshan) was a world-famous magician who, for the past 14 years, has been a quadriplegic after one of his performances went wrong. He lives in isolation in a massive old house in Goa where he is cared for by his nurse, Sofia (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan). The two of them have an unstated love that remains distant despite the intimacy she has, as his primary caregiver, with his inert body.

From his home he hosts a radio show called Radio Zindagi (Radio Life), through which he inspires people to live fully and joyfully. Despite his seeming commitment to living, he asks his friend and lawyer, Devyani (Shernaz Patel), to petition the court for him to be allowed to end his life. This is met with anger and disapproval by the few people who remain in his life, including his protégé, Omar (Aditya Roy Kapoor), as well as all of his radio listeners. Yet each testimony to the preciousness of his life is also a further erasure of his limited agency.

This film does not realistically engage with the medical, legal, or political aspects of this issue. Roshan does a credible job of transforming his statuesque form into a restrained body, and Rai Bachchan convincingly embodies the silence of a woman trapped between an abusive marriage and an unrealized passion. The film is shot almost entirely in a haze of diffused light and a blue palette interrupted only by the red lipstick worn by Sofia. This is a film to be felt rather than watched.