Be Barfi!

UTV's latest offering and director Anurag Basu's unconventional film Barfi! starring Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and southern actress Ileana D'Cruz is the talk of the town these days. Anurag Basu's last film Kites(2010) was not successful at the box-office but got along well with the critics. Basu's directorial style has been largely appreciated from the time he made hugely successful films like Murder (2004), Gangster (2006) and Life In A Metro (2007). It is not amiss to say that through Barfi! Anurag Basu has taken the Hindi film industry to an all new level (all Anurags are doing the same thing!). It offers you an experience you've never had before.

Murphy a.k.a Barfi (Ranbir Kapoor) is a happy-go-lucky, deaf and mute boy. Barfi always has a prank up his sleeves and is a famous name in his hometown Darjeeling because of his charm and grace. He meets Shruti (Ileana D'Cruz), a Bengali girl and starts wooing her but to his hardship he comes to know that she's already engaged. A big jar of optimism, Barfi forgets his proposal and befriends her. Shruti also starts loving him but could not indulge herself and gets married with her fiance leaving Barfi heart-broken. The soul of Barfi's life is happiness and he moves on seeking it. He then meets his childhood friend Jhilmil (Priyanka Chopra), an autistic girl of a wealthy family who is abandoned and lives in a special school. Jhilmil gets kidnapped for money issues and somehow Barfi gets involved in the case. In the meanwhile, Barfi falls for Jhilmil and they start living their lives together until he meets Shruti again and Jhilmil gets missing.

Anurag Basu is also behind the story and screenplay of the film which stands evident of his brilliance. There isn't a point of imperfection in the screenplay of the film, the back and forth narrative looks great and balanced the length of the film quite well. The story is though simple but it tells you a rather simple but very interesting quote "Be Barfi" which means "be positive", "be optimistic" and "be happy". Kudos to Basu for elucidating us on how to live our life.

Ranbir Kapoor is absolutely brilliant in the film and acts admirably good. As you watch the film you'll forget who he is and you only remember him as Barfi and not RK as you move out of the theatre. Acting in a 150 minutes film without a single dialogue and yet attracting full attention is a work of a genius (no doubt, he looks like his grandfather at times in the film). Priyanka Chopra amazes everyone with her flawless performance as an autistic girl (at par with what SRK did in MNIK). Ileana D'Cruz is no new to films and gives a stunning performance (and looks too) in her Bollywood debut film. Saurabh Shukla is funny and witty as always and Ashish Vidyarthi is natural (after a long gap).

The cinematography by Ravi Verman is frame by frame an artistic experience, editing is terrific, soundtrack is lovely; Pritam's one of the bests. "Main Kya Karoon" is soothing and a very sweet romantically picturised song which is up on the charts too.

There are so many shoulders (rather hands) who are responsible for making the sweetest Barfi! ever made. Anurag Basu, the head sweet-maker gives all his master strokes, the actors who added an extra dose of sweetness and the music which is the silver lining on the top; the main ingredients of this delicious honeyed Barfi! Don't watch it only if you're diabetic; this one is a toothsome!  

"Sometimes Being Alien Is The Only Option" - Are you serious?

Shirish Kunder started his career in 2000 as a film editor and later on entered into direction with Jaan-E-Mann (2006) starring Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar and Priety Zinta which got him positive response from certain critics but was a box-office failure. After a six-years long gap, Shirish once again jumped into film direction with his latest offering Joker, a fantasy film (for whom?) starring (and co-producing) Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha. The film has always been in the limelight since its inception and it was said that Joker will be the best 3D film of Bollywood (if this is best we don't need a 3D, do we?). There were also talks about Shahrukh Khan refusing to sign the film which also lead to some unfortunate events (Kha.One, remember?). Now the film has released with the latest controversy being Akshay Kumar pulling off his hands from the promotion saying he was cheated by the makers, let's see what this much talked about film has to offer.

Agastya (Akshay Kumar) is a space scientist working on a project of communicating with the aliens, which he believes he can if provided some more time. His senior officials gives him a one-month ultimatum to develop the model otherwise the project would be taken from him. Agastya's girlfriend Diva (Sonakshi Sinha) informs him about his father's illness and they both reaches his native village Paglapur (what a shitty name?). Apparently, Paglapur is the sole village which is not on the map of India due to some reasons (idiotic) at the time of partition in 1947. Agastya finds out that his father is doing well and he was called on a false note; he decides to move back but on his way he comes to know that Paglapur is going through a water problem as the rivers are blocked for the village people. Agastya requests the ministers and other politicians to solve this problem but in vain. He then comes up with an idea to make a hoax crop circle suggesting the arrival of aliens which eventually attracts the whole nation towards this village. The problem comes when a scientist from the US, Simon (Alexx ONell) comes and reveals the hoax game Agastya and his team is playing with the media.

It would not be incorrect to say that this film "does not have anything to watch out for". An absolute rubbish writing of the story and the subsequent plot including the screenplay, a nonsensical direction and some irritating dialogues (all credit to Shirish Kunder) is all that Joker has. There is so much exaggeration and an overdo of the "alien" thing that this film stands "alien" to its other counterparts. A village named "Paglapur" (are you serious?) where only "mad men" (yeah! only men) lives, where there is a school-like 'title' board when you enter that village, man-made aliens made only from vegetables (is this going ridiculous? Wait, there's more) and the arrival of a skinny stupid looking thing described as an "alien"; you need to think at least 10 times before you dare to watch this flick.

Apparently, this is Akshay Kumar's 100th film (what a century! boss) and if he's serious with these kind of movies in his career, it's high time that he should retire. He's one of the finest actors we have in this era but his film selection is just terribly wrong (coincidentally he also produces these trash films). Although he plays his part quite well, but what the hell? Why is he doing this? Sonakshi Sinha once again has to play a role of a "doll" and she did so (she's experienced now). Joker marks the complete wastage of some extremely good actors like Asrani, Shreyas Talpade, Darshan Jariwala, Sanjay Mishra and Vrajesh Hirji. There was no scope for acting and as a result all the performances are dull.

Joker is a film no one could have dared to make except Kunder, the reason would be very well imbibed into your minds as you watch the film. No one could ever guess the genre of this film (fantasy, comedy, drama) as it neither make you or your children fantasize about this absurd world neither it tickles your any bone (funny is a strong word) and yes, it doesn't even make you cry. But one thing it surely does is to make you angry (literally) and make you wonder how can they even make this kind of a film (it's an insult of the viewers). Even Chitrangada Singh doesn't put the screen on fire this time (sadly, but she looks hot as ever). So, if Shirish Kunder asks you who is the JOKER in the film? Tell him "Just-aa-you" !!