Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan

Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Shanaya Kapoor, Vikrant Massey, Zain Khan Durrani

Director: Santosh Singh

What’s Good: Vikrant Massey and Shanaya Kapoor

What’s Bad: Stretched sequences, length, and fundamental illogic.

Loo Break: Whenever you feel a sequence, or a song, is going to go on!

Watch or Not?: Your choice, if you are a love story buff!

Language: Hindi

Available On: Theatrical release

Runtime: 140 Minutes

User Rating:

The story moves between Mussoorie in Uttaranchal to “somewhere in Europe,” where trains can be caught to London, and Indian performers, such as piano-playing Hindi singers, are seemingly in demand. A blind, aspiring musician, Jahaan (Vikrant Massey), and a method actress, Saba (Shanaya Kapoor), meet on the train journey from Delhi to Dehra Dun and beyond that to Mussoorie, and that changes their lives for good.

Saba is going there to go to extremes as a method actor trying for an acting break in the movies. She blindfolds herself all the way from Delhi, being the daughter of a stage luminary who wants her to continue (note the word) doing theater. Jahaan, who has lost his eyesight in a childhood accident that also took away his parents’ lives, has been brought up caringly by his grandparents (not seen in the film) and enjoys life in his own way, creating songs on his guitar.

They are co-passengers in a train compartment, and after some minimal sparring on normal things (like how strangers should behave and talk with each other), they start becoming friends. He does not let on that he is blind, and she tells him she has decided to blindfold herself for a purpose! As her accompanying friend dumps her midway for her personal reasons, Saba requests Jahaan to cart her along to Mussoorie. Never mind the man waiting at Dehra Dun station with a placard stating her name! Nothing more is seen or heard in this connection!

Jahaan checks into a service apartment, and as no spare room is available, Saba decides to stay in his drawing room. The friendship grows with outings and Jahaan’s music, and they soon fall in love. But astonishingly, Saba does not remove her blindfold even when they kiss and more. After some typical dialogues (including poetic ones), she decides they will reveal each other’s faces after a Valentine’s Day Ball for which she has registered.

Already a shade nervous about her accepting him, Jahaan disappears after the dance before she removes her blindfold. Years later, having failed the screen test, Saba is doing theater and is in Europe. And guess what? Jahaan, who has not forgotten Saba, is there too, now having changed his name to Kabir, shed his guitar and taken to the piano, and is an acclaimed performer in a restaurant. Saba’s troupe (she is the lead performer) includes Abhinav (Zain Khan Durrani), and the two are in love.

And then Jahaan re-enters Saba’s life as she recognizes his voice, and Abhinav unknowingly hires him as the new musician for their play. A love triangle is formed. Eventually, misunderstandings are cleared, Abhinav does his sacrifice, and the lovers unite, as very much expected.

Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan Movie Review: Script Analysis

Despite the predictability of a love story, the script almost decides to blindfold itself to its own illogic. Forget the mundane absurdities, the script (adapted from Mussoorie-based Ruskin Bond’s The Eyes Have It) goes haywire in core illogic where Saba does not even remove her blindfold to just check who is Jahaan, even when they are kissing, exchanging life stories and even taking a walk, with Jahaan’s white stick. And that’s just one example.

The second half (which one can term the ‘triangular’ half) is stretched to absurd extents, especially in terms of runtime, and is as convoluted as the most predictable of love sagas in Hindi cinema. A better, sharper, crisper script where the idea to recognize love as something to be felt deep inside and not just physically or superficially would have added great emotional dimensions to this story. I am sure that Ruskin Bond did not write the original tale as a clichéd drama, but had a profound message in it.

The dialogues, though, are generally good, and I liked Jahaan’s comment on the term, “specially-abled.”

Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan Movie Review: Star Performance

Where the role is good, few actors are known to bother about the whole picture. Vikrant Massey, a fundamentally good and natural actor, has also done this in most of his films so far and scores here as Jahaan / Kabir, though when he removes his dark glasses, his eyes do not always convey that he is visually challenged.

Like Anjini Dhawan in Binny And Family, Shanaya Kapoor makes a brimming-with-confidence debut, sparkling in her bright moments, good in the dark phases of her life, passionate when demanded, and with perfect expressions in face and dialogue delivery.
The two lead actors raise the bar of a film from humdrum and super-ordinary to something the script does not deserve.