Thoughts on barfi

Just like satyajit ray’s classic kapurush the picturesque location of Darjeeling becomes the backdrop of story of barfi with its vintage location and here again backdrop of story start with protagonist who is married and the dilemma which she faces after her marriage and ironically the guy who played the husband in kapurush( haradhan bandhopadhyay and was part of many of ray’s movie ) played jhilmil’s mentor in muskaan  and come back with a wothwile role after a long time.

The hide and seek game and the nautghty antics of barfi tries to imitate and portray the body language of Charlie Chaplin which is evident in the huge cutout of Chaplin in one of the scenes of the movie whose antics is lovable and has been the inspiration of generations starting from raj kapoor to mr bean in recent times and ironically the same portrait scene was used in cinema for the first time during that peirod only(during raj kappor’s era)
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wI4jJq98tU&list=PLD7FA150B5BA19009)
Film run on documentary style of narration describing the central character and ironically the name barfi( which took inspiration from classic Murphy radio of old time) is mute unlike its source.
Unlike bhansali’s version of handicapped who derive there strength from there defect(black khamoshi and even guzaarish)here the backdrop of story concentrates mostly on sympathy factor and unlike the landmark movie of indian cinema on same theme gulzar’s koshish  which focus entirely on handicapped struggle and motivation of winning over it or for that matter a vintage love story of pushpak anurag basu try to hollywoodize with mixture of thriller, romance and at time comic angle with strong background music which takes the narration forward infact the only cause for handicappedness comes from a normal girl who abandons her husband and for a morally right thing devotes her life teaching sign language but she is equally selfish when she finds jhilmil is gone and she is the sole oener of barfi or when she marries other guy for a secure life
Movie works mostly on emotional connect which at times are forced but anurag basu never concentrated on post martial life (except in form of climax) and lack of children unlike koshish where two handicapped person in reel life faced the real struggle and make their children normal which was normalcy for them which gives the message handicapped people need separate and different company and the inherent layers are certainly missing in both the female characters which is unable to describe there sudden transformation at times
Anurag basu should be lauded for innovativeness where he used many popular sequences of both Indian cinema as well as western cinema on same subject to form some real beautiful moments which is the strength of the movie to get some emotional tear jerkers which at best could be called inspiration and cleverly used mostly from the old classics.

Darjeeling’s portrayl in bollywood in form of toy trains continues and ranbir’s haunding of people on train through wheel was certainly innovative ( especially the modified version of kamal hasan’s sadma  climaxwhen illeana is leaving Darjeeling and barfi hounds her) and so do the music (pritam is a big surprise) and also the chase sequence of the movie between barfi and inspector which pays homage to another master mani ratnam and his famous chase sequence in thiruda thiruda(acknowledged in credits)

Picturesque location and the meaty role given to sub characters (who all very much competent and proven performers) much like the kahaani in recent time is praiseworthy but it surely lacks  the script of kahaani which was much linear and to the point a case which is further evident with just to many songs randomly taking the story forward much like basu’s life in metro where focus was mostly on hard rock to show chaos and here it shifts entirely to melody and silk sootiness and at times simple lyrics exhibiting 70’s.

Use of background music as haunting score to elevates the movie pays homage to martin scorsese style of filmmaking but at times it makes the movie loud . Unlike the main protagonists its saurav shukla of kallu mama ( satya fame) with his restraint act and with minimum dialogues makes the maximum impact.
Script is taut and various sequences converges nicely but it lacks linearancy and plays to the commercial angle

Ranbir kapoor at times mostly concentrate on using facial feauture and chaplin antics but when at times he is restraint and underplayed that’s where he is effective but certainly having a chocolate look and being decent dancer helps . Priyanka has almost negligible dialogues and concentrates mostly on body language and at time she got the nuisance of charcter but at times she annoys and illeana does her job of looking great and being restraint at perfection.
Its certainly a film which can be watched easily with family (having almost clean content ) and is watchable but it could have been much better and could have been a benchmark with elevated status