Billu Barber, to make an understatement, is a bad film with a SICK climax. The ‘Barber’ was clipped from the title for the people of the same profession (read politicians) objected to it, for they found it insulting. What was so discourteous to name a profession is beyond my understanding, but our 'Lotos-eating' politicians are always in the look-out for ‘sensitive’ issues (read vote-bank saving agendas) which nonetheless unveil the potential hypocrisy that define them all. In any case, if ‘Barber’ was dropped, it could have been very well substituted by ‘barbaric’, an adjective that describes not Billu, but Shah Rukh Khan, the narcissistic producer of the film, who has ended up endorsing an ode to himself, rather than making a movie. His biggest mistake was perhaps to cast Irrfan Khan in the lead role, for it is Irrfan’s presence which ‘incidentally’ by contrast highlights in vivid details Shah Rukh’s shortcomings as an actor. Even Priyadarshan could not save the film! He strings up a series of predictable comic sequences which ‘incidentally’ have a tragic impact on the viewers, and even veteran actors like Rajpal Yadav and Asrani get on your nerves with banal lines and predictable reflex actions.
Budbuda, an unknown village in one of the remotest corners of the country, sees its biggest ever carnival when Sahir Khan comes to shoot his technological thriller. Billu, the barber, gains popularity overnight as Khan’s childhood friend. The underdog rises in prestige much to his own embarrassment, for he believes he would not be able to keep the requests of his neighbours who want to get personal with the megastar through his contact. It is revealed later in the film that Sahir Khan was born and brought up in the village, before he migrated to Mumbai. Isn’t it strange that with the media flashing every single detail of a star’s life at the drop of a hat, the villagers did not know that Khan belonged to Budbuda only? Nobody raises that question, unfortunately.
Many other things about this film are unfortunate indeed. Is Shah Rukh suffering from some strange inferiority complex that he had to celebrate himself so blatantly, so as to reassure himself that his throne is still intact? Budbuda’s going berserk over his arrival is realistic; no two ways about that. It could have happened at the arrival of any star. But, the level of madness the villagers show is completely unbelievable. Only Billu keeps his cool in the midst of such midsummer madness, and his detached participation in the euphoria is perhaps the only credible thing in this movie.
Badly scripted, Billu becomes intolerably shoddier every time the ageing Shah Rukh breaks into unmusically boring item numbers with the divas, none of whom leave any lasting impression. Roping in Deepika, Priyanka and Kareena is another way of proving to the world that the best in the industry are sycophantically at SRK’s beck and call. Too much of SRK is what makes Billu so hideous! His cutting irony in “The film industry is like a family and the actors are like brothers” (recall his falling out with the other two leading Khans and his growing insecurity with Akshaye Kumar mounting the ladder of success too fast) leaves him hilariously hateful.
The film ends with the most awful climax ever seen in the last few decades. It is literally ‘emotional atyachar’. You feel like banging your head against the wall or whatever solid object is in the vicinity for the climax leaves you in the climax of your painful realization that you could not have wasted your money in a worse way. I guess SRK has also realized that his romantic hero image is now history, and it’s time he made way for the Youngistan crowd. The termination of his Pepsi contract bears testimony to the truth which SRK refuses to admit.
Budbuda, an unknown village in one of the remotest corners of the country, sees its biggest ever carnival when Sahir Khan comes to shoot his technological thriller. Billu, the barber, gains popularity overnight as Khan’s childhood friend. The underdog rises in prestige much to his own embarrassment, for he believes he would not be able to keep the requests of his neighbours who want to get personal with the megastar through his contact. It is revealed later in the film that Sahir Khan was born and brought up in the village, before he migrated to Mumbai. Isn’t it strange that with the media flashing every single detail of a star’s life at the drop of a hat, the villagers did not know that Khan belonged to Budbuda only? Nobody raises that question, unfortunately.
Many other things about this film are unfortunate indeed. Is Shah Rukh suffering from some strange inferiority complex that he had to celebrate himself so blatantly, so as to reassure himself that his throne is still intact? Budbuda’s going berserk over his arrival is realistic; no two ways about that. It could have happened at the arrival of any star. But, the level of madness the villagers show is completely unbelievable. Only Billu keeps his cool in the midst of such midsummer madness, and his detached participation in the euphoria is perhaps the only credible thing in this movie.
Badly scripted, Billu becomes intolerably shoddier every time the ageing Shah Rukh breaks into unmusically boring item numbers with the divas, none of whom leave any lasting impression. Roping in Deepika, Priyanka and Kareena is another way of proving to the world that the best in the industry are sycophantically at SRK’s beck and call. Too much of SRK is what makes Billu so hideous! His cutting irony in “The film industry is like a family and the actors are like brothers” (recall his falling out with the other two leading Khans and his growing insecurity with Akshaye Kumar mounting the ladder of success too fast) leaves him hilariously hateful.
The film ends with the most awful climax ever seen in the last few decades. It is literally ‘emotional atyachar’. You feel like banging your head against the wall or whatever solid object is in the vicinity for the climax leaves you in the climax of your painful realization that you could not have wasted your money in a worse way. I guess SRK has also realized that his romantic hero image is now history, and it’s time he made way for the Youngistan crowd. The termination of his Pepsi contract bears testimony to the truth which SRK refuses to admit.
The long and short of it all is that avoid Billu, for good. O! By the way, do not forget to notice Lara Dutta’s blouses…which village tailor is so fashionably conscious, I wonder?
1 comment:
Compulsion to repeat?
BarBar = Repetition (in bangla) and that is how this hero and hero worship in Billu can be described. Yes repetition is the key word that dominates the entire global culture of celebrityhood - once you get success in anything you become the jack of everything and then your success is endlessly repeated. But that repetition is surely compelled by the fear of loosing one's position (read throne, for Shahrukh is the Bollywood "badshah"). Already Shahrukh is throwing frustrated gaze at his own vibrant youthful image of DDLJ in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi which 'he' 'himself' tries to enact and play in order to be heroic enough(textual unconscious!!!). Now Billu is a sultan's compulsive dream of pomp and grandeur. However as any Freudian dream analysis would show this compulsive frame of success only points towards its impossibility as you have already discussed that he is out of the Pepsi contract. But this film also attempts to sell a couple of things. First, it tries to sell a concocted image of (an)other Indian village to the western audience, particularly of Indian breed trying to remember their 'chere asha gram'(ref: Lara Dutta's blouse). Second, they are trying to sell the idea of celebrityhood in the Indian villages, which is definitely a fertile market for bollywood, given the fact that its popularity in select urban spaces has already been saturated. Related to this it should be remembered that the idea of a typical bollywood hero has faced severe challenges with recent experiments and success of movies which did well without any star actors. This may be because of the opening up of an international market for Indian films and vested interest of the urban elite (of both India and abroad) in Hindi movies who for last few decades focused their attention on Hollywood only. However as you have pointed out the worst of the fears of Mr. Khan is confirmed when we measure his appearance before Irfan Khan. Perhaps more actors like Irfan would make their appearances in the coming years so that we can do away with every kind of naive celebratyhood encouraging repetition (of both theme and treatment). Alas, inspite of every effort for asserting his celebrityhood (public euphoria regarding Shahir Khan's arrival in the village Budbuda) the moral of the film is that every celebrity is actually a common man and any common man (also 'common' actor) can do something worthy to be celebrated! Apart from repetition sentimentality was predominant in the film as it is the key to scintillate the middle-class audience for whom emotions are as as impermanent and inconsequential as sentiments - something that can find an easy and immediate outlet. Perhaps as long as sentiments are there as in the last scene of the film making handkerchiefs soak with tears, the middleclass would never bother to think where a real barbar stands in the global circus of moneymaking and celebrityhood. They will barbar (repeatedly as in bangla/hindi) go to the sinful to set themselves free from all responsibilities spending tears for an on-screen Billu.
Your discussion is very apt and intellectually stimulating but a small misinformation I would like to point out that both Shahrukh and Irfan were from some other village and not from Budbuda. Irfan or Billu left his village long after Shahrukh left for Mumbai as Irfan got married to a girl of a different caste and was outcasted by his own village. Later on Shahrukh looked for his friend but lost track of him as he was no more living in his village. All there informations was given by Shahrukh in his final speech in the film.
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