Barfi!
Stars: Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Ileana D'Cruz
Directed by: Anurag Basu
Released: September 13, 2012
Let's get down to business: Murphy, or Barfi (Kapoor) as he calls himself, is a deaf and mute man living in Darjeeling, India. His mother died shortly after his birth and so he depended heavily on his father throughout his life. He is street smart and cunning, but also has a habit of getting into some trouble. When he meets Shruti (D'Cruz) he falls head over heels in love with her beauty and her own charm. She, however, is already engaged (because it wouldn't be an Indian film if that wasn't the case, right?). Despite this fact, they become fast friends and spend their days getting into silly antics. Shruti enjoys being alive and carefree and Barfi enjoys making her happy and having her around. However, her engagement does not go away and therefore causes some issues for the two. In the middle of all this, we meet the young, sweet Autistic Jhilmil (Chopra). She is ostracized by most of her family, but have friends in her teachers, her nanny and her grandfather. Unfortunate events in both her and Barfi's lives cause them to cross paths, and create yet another eye-opening friendship.
Barfi was perhaps the most loved film of the year. It has comedy, romance, mystery and sadness. All enough to keep you happy and interested. The acting is top notch. Ileana - who has this credited as being her debut even though it is far from it - is gorgeous and holds her own next to Chopra and Kapoor. Priyanka impresses with her ability to play the Autistic but still lovable Jhilmil and Ranbir - of course - steals the show from the both of them. I often argue whether or not his contemporary Imran Khan is better and while Imran wins in most aspects in my opinion, Ranbir takes the cake in the acting arena. He cannot be beat when it comes to these roles. He amazed me when I watched Rockstar earlier this year and reinforced it with Barfi.
The music is another win with this film, Ala Barfi and Aashiyan being my two personal favorites although Main Kya Karoon is also a pure and epic win. However, like all good things, there is a fatal flaw and in Barfi, this flaw is their borrowed scenes. One that stuck out to me the most was when Shruti's mother drives her out to see her first love - the man she turned down to marry Shruti's father. It was taken right out of the Hollywood blockbuster The Notebook. Because of that and other stolen scenes, my rating was lessened. However, one cannot take away the mark this film leaves on your heart.
The biggest proof of this is what I just witnessed. I rented the film and had my brothers and sister watch it without subtitles. They are no strangers to Indian films as they have seen My Name Is Khan and parts of Devdas, but both of those were with subtitles to help them along. Even without this help, they were able to see the purity and sweetness that is Barfi and were even able to understand it. All four of them said that they loved the film when it was over and begged to watch it a second time. This was amazing to me as they often make fun of me for my interest in Indian films and music. "Why would you watch something or listen to something that you don't understand?" And now they see why.
I highly recommend this film. It's somewhat artsy and unconventional as far as Bollywood films go, but I think it is one of the best I have ever seen. It's a shame the Academy Awards didn't see that as well.
Rating: 9/10
