Barfi!

Barfi - CATCH IT (A-) Barfi, an unlikely love triangle of a normal girl, mute boy and autism girl. This is an unlikely combination, which Doesn't seems like to work in Indian Cinema but things have been changed and great success of Barfi proves that even if the hero and heroine are not stereotypical a good story can lead to utmost success. Barfi is not a perfect movie, it was too long and becomes complicated as we travel back and forth between 1976, 1979 and 2012. Besides that life being so easy and cheerful for a mute boy and autism girl is hard to accept, there is a time they live alone for 6 months in big Calcutta city, he can't talk and she doesn't understand but apparently they are happier than ever, how they communicate with world is not explained. Anyways I know it's a movie and i should not go onto that much dept. So, kudos to Anurag Basu for making and attempting a brave subject matter. Ranbir Kapoor is great as always, though his performance is almost the same as in a movie "Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani" with Katrina Kaif "where he tries to get her affection". This time he was only mute. Priyanka Chopra did a fine job and looked the part. Ileana D'Cruz is a fresh faced beautiful girl. Standing next to too famous young actors and still getting noticed is a huge achievement. In the end, Barfi maybe long but it's fresh, beautiful and heartening.

It does not revolutionize Bollywood in any way nor is it an example of superlative cinematic brilliance. There are flaws, and lots of them. But, at the same time it's a lesson in the long-lost art of simple filmmaking without being pretentious. The effort is so genuinely heartwarming that it comes out through the characters in the film. I've been extremely critical of Ranbir Kapoor in the past. Maybe he is dumb, but he can surely act! In Junior Kapoor, we do see glimpses of his grandfather. His goofiness is so bloody infectious. He does not play the sympathy-card, he just lets the film carry him along instead of trying what Bollywood heroes desperately try to do - to carry the film on their shoulders. The character is central, not the hero. One of the very few Hindi films I've seen where the audience connects with the character, and not the hero. Ileana is effortlessly sweet and quite unexpectedly brilliant. Saurabh Shukla delivers a standout and stellar performance. The strength of the film lies in the characterisation - so under-toned, and pitch-perfect to counter-balance the trappings of melodrama. The cinematography is breathtaking and so is the music. The visual imagery adds to the emotional quotient of the film. The earnestness of Anurag Basu does suffer a blow because of the predictability of the plot since the temptation of repetitiveness unwittingly underwhelms the magic created in the first half, and, of course, the disappointing performance of Priyanka Chopra. Instead of under-emoting, she overdoes it. Somehow she goes retard trying to portray an autistic girl. Don't judge this film through the prism of cerebral dissection and critical analysis. For once, listen to your heart, not the critics.

India's official entry to the Oscars - Barfi! might as well have been an acronym for: Breathtaking (cinematography), Astounding (acting), Ruthless (breaking of stereotypes about the disabled), Fantastic (music), and Invigorating (feeling in your heart as you leave the theater).

This is essentially a love triangle between Barfi (played endearingly by Ranbir Kapoor), a hearing and speech impaired son of a poor chauffeur, Jhilmil (played brilliantly by Priyanka Chopra), an autistic girl almost abandoned by her rich parents, and Shruti the narrator of the tale of love (played convincingly by debutante Illeana De Cruz), the soon to be married tourist visiting Darjeeling along with her parents.

The writer and director - Anurag Basu uses non linear storytelling to traverse between 1972, 1978, and 2012 Darjeeling, Calcutta, and little known places of Bengal as they three protagonists try and grapple with Love and its various heart rendering implications to their lives. For a film with hardly any dialogs, 'Barfi!' amazingly manages to say a lot, using a combination of sign language, facial expressions, first person narration, and sometimes simply stunning silences to convey a gamut of emotions.

Several sequences stand out for their sheer brilliance, be it Barfi's reaction at Shruti's choice of her fiancé (Jishu Sengupta in a small but significant role), Shruti and her mother's (played beautifully by the veteran Roopa Ganguly) exchanges on certain choices in Love, Barfi and Jhilmil's night in the forest illuminated by fireflies, Barfi's cutting off of the lamp posts to test the loyalty of his friends, Jhilmil's fantasy about getting married as she watches a 'Chau Dance' in a village, Daju's (Haradhan in a superb supporting role) tear stricken face as he finally accepts Jhilmil's fate and let's her go, the unfolding of the photograph's at Shruti's house to finally reveal the truth about her entire life, and lastly, the finale. All these, and many more, are sure to be etched as a memory, not in your mind, but rather in your heart.

This film shows how one can find happiness in the small things in life, and how disabilities, be in financial, mental, or physical can never really appear as a handicap to an otherwise soaring spirit that does not know how to give up on life. This film reminds us that falling in Love is natural, while staying in Love a decision that must be taken with the heart, rather than the mind. And finally, this is a film that tries, without trying too hard, to help you understand that the language of Love does not necessarily require the wisdom of words.

One might argue that certain portions of the film are 'inspired' from other films. For example, certain dialogs between Shruti and her mother might remind you of the Notebook, certain mannerisms of Barfi as he tries his best to escape the bungling cop (played aptly by Saurabh Shukla) cause you to recollect sequences from the films of Charlie Chaplin, while the way Barfi tries to entertain Jhilmil & Shruti remind you of Singing in The Rain and Mr Bean. Yet, Barfi manages to stand on its own for the way it interprets these classic scenes and the logicality of their inclusion in the proceedings.

The Hair and Makeup department, however, especially when it tries to show the same actors playing aged characters, is the only one that takes a slight dent. Yet almost everything else manages to come together in unison to more than compensate for this slight glitch. And it does so, at numerous places managing to make you think, smile, cry, and sigh, sometimes all at the same time, and in quick succession.

Watch it for the performances (especially that of Ranbir and Priyanka), the vision of the director Anurag Basu and cinematographer Ravi Varman, the terrific score of the music director Pritam Chakravarty, and last but not the least for the innumerable ways in which Love has been expressed between the characters. Trust me - this is the perfect example of art that can forever stay in your heart.

I went into this movie with very high expectations and guess what Anurag Basu did it again.

I am always a fan of movies which are slightly different from traditional bollywood style where hero heroine and villain engaged. This movie was comic most of the times and lovely.

The message I liked the most was "Follow your heart" Well movie can't be good until the actors do their job. Ranbir, Priyanka and Illena were spot on. Though a lot of credit to be given to anurag basu. Most of the gags were new.

Seriously I didn't expected the story to be so twisted in the middle but again credit to Mr Basu, the way he streamlined at the end.

Fantastic.

People this is definitely one of the bestest movie released in bollywood. Lot of intelligent directors are doing great job, kashyap, basu etc.

Must watch 10/10

Barfi:in a word, a magnificent Indian movie..the features that should be in a movie are present in this movie. An Indian made movie that should be watched well, proving that love can't be expressed only with sanity and language.. Charlie Chaplin movies came to my mind in the first minutes of the movie.