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.