Barfi: Brilliant. In Parts

The problem with Barfi is that despite all its brilliant subtlety and poignant humor, this is a film that is too good and sweet to be true and can leave you with a feeling that this can only happen in a cinema. As a cinema, however this is a superior effort from everyone involved.  Anurag Basu shares some of the bitterness towards arranged marriage with Imtiaz Ali and drives home the point that husbands after all are poor suckers. We find the scenario where a daughter asks her mother whether she loved her husband at all on more than one occasion. Now that was a uncomfortable question for any mother to face that can only be answered by a tight slap and that again is only because it is neither a yes or a no.

Barfi boasts of superlative performances from its entire cast with Ranbir Kapoor walking away with huge accolades and Illeana following close by. The Chaplinesque humour works well with his infectious smile and his work was as earnest as it was confident. Priyanka’s act as an autistic girl can put you off if you do not have the kind of sensibility for it but to her credit she does not ham much. Illeana plays the normal girl in the triangle and her role was shot and etched so beautifully that no one can blame the poor guy falling for her, marriages and engagements be damned. She largely has to work with silences with big eyes and a bigger sticker on her forehead, and she puts in a confident debut. The romance between Illeana and Ranbir was dangerously close to what we saw earlier in Rock Star but Barfi was nowhere as passionate as Jordan was.  Saurabh Shulka gets a meaty role as the cat and mouse game between him and Barfi runs on for the entire length of the film and he is competent and good to have around.

For someone looking for quirks and nuances this is a brilliant film made with a lot of conviction and the scenic beauty of Darjeeling largely helps in garnering a laidback attitude. Basu’s script refrains from being highhanded despite dealing with specially abled protagonists and comes up with a winner till in the first half of the film, but could not continue the good work in the later half and the ending was predictable. The moment where Jhilmil calls after Ranbir who was a deaf-mute guy, after he choses to leave disappointed with not finding her and the dilemma in Shruthi whether she wants both of them to be together or if she wants Barfi for herself speaks a lot about the thought and skill that went into writing and making this film. 

Barfi is a film with a lot of heart and is easy on all your senses. It has enough endearing moments for two films and for a while it can even make you believe that love can be special and worth living for. At Times.