Barfi - A Review

Barfi - Poetry on Screen

A trailer that gets the people buzzing is always wonderful, but  if the movie fails to live up to the expectations, then its a bigger disappointment. But this is an exception. The movie was better than the trailer. A simple story said in an absorbing manner with a delightful mix of romance, comedy and emotions is a perfect "cocktail". By the time some of you might read this review you would have heard great things about the movie and I can vouch that all of it is true.

The movie tells the story of Barfi (Ranbir kapoor), a deaf and dumb happy go lucky charmer,  from Darjeeling. Set mostly in Darjeeling and Kolkata, his story is narrated by his acquaintances. Named after the his mom's favorite Murphy radio, his name gets transformed to Barfi. He has the knack of being chirpy even in the most serious of situations. And his happiness is epidemic!! We audience, like the rest of the characters, are the gleeful victims. Entering his life is the gorgeous but engaged Shruthi (Illeana), whom he falls for instantly. She is also charmed and falls for him slowly. Their interaction scenes are a delight to watch. But reality strikes and she ends up with the more affluent Ranjeet ( Jishnu Senguptha) leaving Barfi broken.

Then there is Jilmill (Priyanka Chopra), a childhood friend of Barfi, who is mentally challenged and seen as an embarrassment even by her own parents. A twist in the fate makes Barfi kidnap Jilmill and spend more than intended time with her. Jilmill is a complex grown up child who is in awe with Barfi and he also slowly but surely realises that he has been second time lucky in finding love. They move to Kolkata and start afresh. In the mean time they are continuously pursued by a police officer (The brilliant Saurab Shukla).  Another twist in fate, Sruthi enters their life as Mrs Senguptha. What follows is the story of bitter sweet relationship of the three and how this turns their life upside down.

The caste is wonderful starting from the irresistible Ranbir Kapoor. His off screen persona could be under question, but on onscreen he is an absolute delight to watch. With this performance he has left most of his contemporaries trailing in his wake. Then Illeana as Sruthi has given an adequate performance. Her transformation of Shruthi to Mrs Senguptha to Post - Mrs Senguptha (But why should liberated women end up as social workers?? - its getting cliched) is truly wonderful. Just like Mrs.Senguptha Illeana's acting matures throughout the movie. Its a complex character and Illeana does justice to that role. Hopefully bollywood has got its new Dream Girl. Now coming to the actual screen stealer - Priyanka chopra. This has to go down as one of the best performances ever seen in Bollywood and possibly Indian Cinema. One has to watch the movie to really appreciate the beauty of the portrayal of Jillmil. You can run out of superlatives. But Jillmil will stay in your heart for a long time. The supporting cast is wonderful lead by Saurab shukla. Special  mention should also go to person playing Jillmil's caretaker. The ensemble of able actors have delivered a masterful performance.

Anurag Basu comes back after souless Kites with a wonderful story. The attention to the details is absolutely wonderful. Like Barfi learning words (so that i guess a predominantly righthanded ranbir made to write in left), the dyslectic 'B' taught to him by Jillmil, the trams of darjeeling and many more. This is a story that made me think a lot while viewing. This is something of a rarity in Hindi movie where everything  happening on the screen is blared out atleast twice. That leads to the next point that should be applauded. The dialogues for this movie would be as long as this review. Such a strong impression without dialogues is first of a kind in Hindi cinema. The scenes involving Jillmil and Barfi in the second half were shot without a word spoken and viewers are captivated. Pritam comes up with a BGM that stirs our soul. Cinematography capturing Darjeeling is a feast to our eyes. Technically, this movie must be up with the best.

On the downside the first half drags a bit towards intermission, the tortuous chronology of events tests viewers' patience as well as shoddy make up for the characters in their oldage is an eyesore. Also few scenes have the influence of Notebook and Charlie chaplin comedies. These minor irritants are plastered by a wonderful end product on screen. Its a story about inherent goodness of the people in a utopia envisioned by Anurag. After watching the movie many of us will fall in love with falling in love. But lets not carried away as we are not the Ranbirs and illeanas and we dont have puppeteer like anurag making us that charismatic. Like any good poetry just enjoy this journey w/o too many questions and you are sure to get your moneys worth.

The simple truth

As he mounted the jeep, it was rather satisfactory."We did it. We have Wriggled our selves a niche position in the history" said the enthusiastic youngster holding his Yugoslavian Mauser M-48BO with pride to his fellow comrade. It has been less than 20 hours since their troops successfully captured the country's capital from the incumbent President. These two youngsters had the painful job of segregating the corpses along the city markets so that a semblance of  normality could be restored to the war ravaged city. The dead military personal as well as the insurgents and the common denizens were heaped together and were being burnt continuously in a nearby corner. They also had ended the misery of a few police men who were still alive.

 The place that was once a picturesque trade center was shredded to peaces. But these boys were particularly chirpy, though stench of the rotting corpses was crossing the bearable limits. Add to that the cold wind was not helping their cause either.  They had been to the University together and were unceremoniously evicted following articles against the autocratic regime. They joined the uprising rather at the end. The cause and the hope of a free future was an ethereal dope that kept them going even under the most extreme of the situations. 

"Finally we can get back to the university." "People of this country would be very proud of us." The task at the hand was rather finally getting to them. "I wish we could have reduced this carnage. The human loss has been colossal" said the first kid who was collecting the limbs of a dead person. They went at it for more than six hours and had another couple of hours work left. Totally drained, they sat down on a huge boulder near by and put aside their weapons. This was previously a park at the city center which was a huge attraction. The people around the area either migrated to the northern part or lost their homes and shifted to a local relief camp. The whereabouts of those who had decided to stay on were unknown and many had lost their lives in the cross fire.

Suddenly they heard a rumble behind one of the bushes followed by what sounded like a human snoring. The kids got their Soviet NR 43 Combat Knife ready to strike and followed the snoring sound. On a stone bench laid a person who looked to be sleeping. These two were surprised. They themselves has not slept for more than 40 hours and the stench around the place was rather unbearable. A rag covered most of his body. They went and shook of the rag. Inside was a middle aged man, injured, but alive and sleeping. But what caught their eye was the military coat he was wearing. The second kid wanted to kill him straight away. As he was ready to use his combat knife, the first kid stopped him. "Look at his pants and shoes. He does not look part of the infantry." "He could be in disguise." "We have killed enough people today. Lets just give him a chance." Saying so the first kid, shook the person who was atleast 20 years elder. The guy wearily opened his eyes to the rifle pointing to his face.  "Comrade, introduce yourself and what are you doing here?" asked the first kid. "I am one of the guys from this neighborhood. I lost my home in the bombing. And i am here just to catch some sleep" said the weary person. He held out his identity proof that was issued by the insurgents to differentiate between normal people and infantry. Convinced that he was just a common man, the first kid asked him angrily "Then why the hell are you wearing a military coat?"   "Is it  a military attire? I had no idea. It was just too cold!!"

The unique sojourn

Source : abighairyspider.blogspot.com

Through my hawkish vision
I look back at my mission
The might of the tortuous choice
In the large labyrinth, shattering my poise

Though there is a need for a guiding hand
To disperse the confusion with a magic  wand
It's a luxury that I can ill  afford
traversing the horizon on my own accord.

 

The journey has never been even paced,
I sure  want a few paths retraced,
An adulation for where I am,
And my destination shown without a qualm.

But scripting every rule,
Making decisions like a fool,
Has gains that's Unwritten,
That keeps me glued and smitten.

The sojourn of a fellow higher animal,
Has effects in you that's minimal,
Never fearing their dis-repect,
Its your strength that you will not suspect.

Avoiding the jitters to venture alone,
Than connect being someone's clone,
Revering hands that guide,
And travel ahead as their comrade.

All can say if its good or bad,
Point at things that went right or wrong,
But I will always be glad,
And claim its my song!!