A refreshing change from the barrage of thrillers, action flicks and slapstick comedies recently churned out by Bollywood is Aankhon ki Gustaakhiyan, which hits completely different. It is a film that tells us a beautiful love story that seems too perfect and sometimes almost too good to be true. Loosely adapted from Ruskin Bond’s The Eyes Have It, the film is about a visually-impaired man named Jahaan (Vikrant Massey) who meets a young woman named Saba (Shanaya Kapoor) on a journey by train and strikes up an unlikely relationship with her.

Director Santosh Singh also marks a rare departure from trend, not merely by focusing on an old-fashioned romance but also with his style of storytelling. Mounted on a soft, serene canvas, Aankhon ki Gustaakhiyan is full of lyrical beauty and poetic moments. Personal, intimate emotions and universal philosophy come wrapped in humour and realism. Though the air is thick with the passion and possibilities of an unexpected, exciting love affair in the beautiful surroundings of Mussoorie, and the duo are clearly attracted to each other, Singh never makes the lovers go overboard with their demonstrations of love. Sensuous and enchanting songs by Jubin Nautiyal and Vishal Mishra like Yeh chalti hawaein and Koi toh aisi jaga hogi heighten the romantic atmosphere but some genuinely comic situations come to the rescue of potentially intimate and romantic scenes in the first half of the film, reminding us of the happy-go-lucky, old-school romances of an earlier era.

Aankhon ki Gustaakhiyan is, however, anything but a traditional romance. The complicated and unconventional love story also brings to the fore and handles with great sensitivity several themes, which until very recently, had been shunned by the sphere of mainstream Indian cinema. Its apparently simple, linear storyline about love that is lost, found and lost again, underlines important home truths about inclusivity in a modern world. Its message that specially-abled persons are as capable as everybody else and deserve love, dignity and equal opportunity instead of sympathy, is conveyed with impact. What is beautiful about Aankhon ki Gustaakhiyan is that its message, though powerful, is perfectly balanced with the love story, which develops into a triangular romance in the second half, and whose mood, tone and temper changes dramatically post intermission.

Vikrant Massey and Shanaya Kapoor, who make up a strong screen pair, display intense chemistry not only in the first half as new lovers who look cute together, but also as estranged lovers who meet by chance in another place and time. Massey, who has proved his acting prowess in a gamut of roles already, validates that he is no ordinary romantic hero. With a look that is completely different from any we have seen him sport in the past, he appears to be that ideal, kind-hearted, humorous and handsome romantic hero who women consider their safe space and more significantly, is someone who is totally unlike the hyper-masculine, alpha males who mainly rule the screen these days. Though friendly and helpful by nature, his hesitation in initiating a romance reminds us of his role in 12th Fail, where his poverty and lack of urban sophistication came in the way of his confidence as a lover. Shanaya Kapoor, making her debut, shows great promise in a role that seems to have been tailor-made for her and which has served as the perfect launchpad that any aspiring actress could have hoped for. Also deserving of praise is Zain Khan Durrani as Abhinav, who pulls off a tough role that surprised everyone at the theatre and had them cheering for him in the end for a very special reason.