Thursday, September 20, 2012

Barfii...Kuchch Meetha Ho Jai

          Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Ileana D'Cruz,
 Rupa Ganguly, Akash Khurana, Jishu Sengupta
Direction: Anurag Basu


If I have to box the story I will say it is a romantic comedy, a love triangle...but then saying so will generalize the movie...so for the moment I will say it is a beautiful movie. 

As it has been common knowledge, the hero has hearing and speech impairment, and the heroine has autism. But haven't we seen such movies earlier, be it Koshish (1972) in which Sanjeev kumar and Jaya Bhaduri had hearing and speech impairment, or in the recent past Black in which Rani Mukherjee is visually impaired, or Tare Zameen Par in which Darsheel Safary suffers from dsylexia. In each of these movies an effort has been made to draw sympathy towards the characters. 

This is where Barfii is different...to put it in Priyanka Chopra's words, it is not to arouse any sympathy from the audience,  it is just a story of two individuals with disabilities.

google image
 It is a simple story based in Darjeeling, the movie begins in early 70s and ends in the current day. As the name suggests the story is about Barfii (Ranbir Kapoor), he was named murphy by his mother but over the years the name changes into Barfii. Barfii has hearing and speech impairment, and Jhilmil (Priyanka Chopra) has autism, that means the lead actors have no dialogues. But inspite of this the movie tells the story of their lives and their love effortlessly. And there is Ileana D'Cruz, who comes to Darjeeling and falls in love with Ranbir. But the twist is she is engaged and doesn't know whether to listen to her heart or not.

Ranbir effortlessly transforms in to Charlie Chaplin, there is a scene where he takes his heart out and puts it at the feet of Ileana D'Cruz, which she kicks playfully. But Ranbir would not give up, so he follows her into a restaurant, and this time he presents his heart on a platter along with flowers. 

There are many scenes which can be picked for their sheer brilliance. The movie is a montage of beautiful scenes captured brilliantly on camera and sewn together with crisp editing. Be it Priyanka Chopra's jealous for Ileana which is shown in subtle ways, where she stares at Ileana's waist and later tries to have a look of her waist in the mirror. Or Ileana who transforms into a Bengali married women with elan, the way she carries her saree and the way she walks, every bit adds to the character.

 The movie is full of life, there isn't a moment where one will find it dragging. All the actors have contributed to make it a perfect entertainer.