Barfi! – A Guilt-free Indulgence

Barfi!, written and directed by Anurag Basu, is mushy and soft when you first taste it, slightly chewy in the middle, but gives a memorable sweet aftertaste.

It is a simple yet well-conceived and well-enacted story of Murphy, or Barfi (as the incredible Ranbir Kapoor ‘calls’ himself), about the women he meets (the brave Priyanka Chopra and beautiful Ileana D’cruz), about how they change his life, and most importantly about how he changes theirs. Barfi is both hearing and speech impaired since birth, who, to the dismay of the audience, never once fishes for sympathy. Dismay; because the Hindi film industry has unfairly raised multiple generations of Indians using characters who leverage their disabilities to tug heart-strings with gay abandon. So Barfi provides an element of cognitive dissonance to the audience. A rather enjoyable dissonance if I may add.

In this age of large scale media bombardments, it is difficult to surprise viewers with a plot that they have not already guessed from the promos and over-enthusiastic reviews. Hence I will resist the temptation of re-exposing the story and inadvertently giving away more plot-lines. But remember this: some stories are less about what is unravelled and more about how it is unravelled. A discerning viewer may be able to predict the story before it is told but will enjoy its telling nonetheless.

Ranbir Kapoor, as Barfi, is fabulous. One may allege that he has borrowed quite a few pages from greats like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and his showman grandfather Raj Kapoor. But I feel that it takes great audacity for even undertaking such an endeavour and it is not unethical either. if Jean Dujardin can do it in ‘The Artist’, then why not Ranbir? Talking of audacity, a round of applause should go to Priyanka for even attempting to play Jhilmil. Yes, she sometimes blurs the line between autism and mental retardation but that can be forgiven in the larger scheme of things. Ileana D’cruz is a revelation. I know that she is not new to acting and that she has had quite a successful career down south. I also know that she is more known for starring rather than acting. So Ileana’s Shruti comes across as a very pleasant surprise.

I’ve always believed that a good movie is like a good subway sandwich. The sauces you choose are as important as the the bread or the filings, if not more. Barfi has a great supporting cast comprising old faithfuls like Akash Khurana, Ashish Vidyarthi, Rupa Ganguly and Saurabh Shukla. Although if I were to nitpick, I’d have preferred to see Ashish and Akash interchange roles in order to make the Jhilmil plot less predictable.

Director Anurag Basu can finally be forgiven for Kites. He writes and directs Barfi with equal love and care. Cinematography by Ravi Varman is so great that I wouldn’t be surprised if Darjeeling sees more honeymooning couples this wedding season. Pritam does a very good job with the music and the picturization only makes the songs more memorable.

If I were to be pushed against a wall to pick out problems, I’d say that it has to be the length of film in the second half. Specially Barfi and Jhilmil’s journey from Darjeeling to Kolkata. No doubt West Bengal has been picturized beautifully but it does come across as the director’s indulgence. Also, Pritam and gang playing in the background, a la ‘Life.. in a Metro‘, starts getting on the nerves after a while.

Movies like Barfi challenge conventional wisdom that you need unconventional actors to make an unconventional film. Go indulge, guilt-free.

Rating: 8/10 (one each for Ranbir, Priyanka, Ileana, Anurag, Pritam, Ravi and Darjeeling; with one more given by me for good measure)