Movie review: Barfi!

One of the few Bolloywood movies to have crossed the 100 Crore mark (in terms of money grossed). Sent as India's official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film nomination for the 85th Academy Awards in February 2013. "Barfi! is the most deserving film to go for Oscars", said Anurag Kashyap. "It's pure plagiarism. Every scene including the music is copied from different international movies", says social networking posts. For good (or bad) Barfi! is trending nation-wide. The name Jhilmil will be a difficult one to forget. I was double-lucky this week, for I got two accidental chances to see this movie. First one, when I met my friends yesterday, and today, after I was half-way through this blog entry, when my roomies asked me, "Let's go for some movie" which ended me up in watching it one more time. Burfi! was the only available show in that theater. 

The key characters of Barfi!

The plot takes you through a lot of flashbacks, and if you are not paying close attention, you will be lost. While some found it confusing - shuttling between past and present - the screenplay actually leaves you puzzled, popping up a lot of WHYs and HOWs, and answers them one by one with a flashback. At times, you laugh out louder (LOL), and at times, you cry out louder (COL if such acronym ever existed). Barfi's unconventional mix of positive and negative emotion leaves you 'disturbed'.

The epic of the movie is Priyanka Chopra. The last time I was this impressed by an actress was Rani Mukherjee in Black. How did she manage to suit so well to the Jilmil Chatterjee character, only God knows. This is possibly the most different Priyanka anyone would've ever seen on screen. She steals the entire show. Keeps you at your feet when she feebly voices, "Baarrfiiiii...Baarrrffffiiiiiii", running around the farm. That wink. That blush. That gasp. That frown. Unmatchable. Unteachable. Impeccable. This ugly looking differently abled lady still steals your heart with her facial expressions.

Ranbir's deaf & mute acting - almost as beautiful as Priyanka, having only one dialogue - that contained only one word - his name. Makes you smile whenever he introduces himself by whistling his name - "Furpphhhiiii". Throwing shoes around windows, Giving directions with signs, Flirting around trams and tea shops, Cycling around the beautiful Darjeeling, evading the cops in a chaplinesque style, hiding behind horses, riding bullock carts, venting out sheer frustrations in a sign language -  Ranbir has done a lot of hard work. 

Most of my attention was glued to the breath-taking cinematography. It's the prime skill I watch out for in any movie I go to, and I was in for a great treat of Darjeeling. The background score - irrespective of whether it is copied from a French movie or not - deserves adulation. The songs are beautifully directed, cinematographed and edited. They complement the plot. They are part of the plot. They never distract you from the main plot like how traditional Indian movie songs do. This is the 9th time I'm blogging about a movie, with Burfi! being the first non-tamil flick. Barfi! justifies its append of the exclamation character to the movie name. It leaves you surprised. It leaves behind a lasting impression of its characters. It leaves you exclaimed, from beginning to end!