‘Barfi!’- It simply melts in your mouth!

Anurag Basu’s hero has a lot in his symbolic name, and his story has in it just the right measure of sweetness aka kaju barfi, neither too less nor too much, but without the downside of adding some extra calories to your system; in fact, it helps burn a few, as you often tend to roll on the seat with laughter. Mostly on the run, chased by an overweight Inspector Dutta (Sourabh Shukla), Barfi (Ranbir Kapoor) brings sunshine to the misty hills of Darjeeling. Shruti (Ilena D’Cruz), the Calcutta girl, betrothed to a certain Ranjit ( a very stern Jishu Sengupta) basks in the sunshine for a while but retires to the rains, not realizing that a radiant future cannot be had by blocking the sun. Jhilmil (Priyanka Chopra), glittering in her innate innocence, seizes the sunshine and preserves it in her heart, painting a rainbow of conflicting emotions, in a mesh of warm sunshine and heart-rending downpours.

Barfi’s inability to hear or speak, his intrinsic simplicity, his comic discomfitures, and his cat-and-mouse games with the police in which the latter is almost always outwitted give him a Chaplinesque joie de vivre which is hard to get over. The specially-abled Jhilmil is that complementary cherry that completes the barfi-sweet cake: her melancholia, nonchalance and silences dissolve into unalloyed joy on discovering a true friend in Barfi. Shruti speaks with her eyes, and personifies repentance, as she regrets her decision of putting material concerns over true love. When the love-triangle gathers an almost fairy-tale dimension, the film returns where it began, introducing an element of suspense. Although the film often moves back and forth in time, and between delightful dales of Darjeeling and drab gullies of Calcutta, it weaves the dislocated narrative in such a way that it isn’t difficult to follow.  

To the cynic, the film might appear too-good-to-be-true at times; but, a fictional world of happiness, which is, however, not without its share of misgivings and despair, compensates for the lack of lot of good things in the life that surrounds us. Barfi’s appeal lies somewhere else: it almost makes us retreat into a kind of pre-lapserian innocence which is lost forever, but the desire for a permanent return to the same is paramount. It innocently establishes, with complete faith in man’s essential goodness, a humane connect in a post-human world. If that appears too simplistic to many, the pristine world, am sure, is lost to them irrevocably. Whoever enters the theatre to watch Barfi!, already knows that its two lead characters are specially-abled. The cast and crew have endlessly talked about that. But this special ability is actually something else; that is what you are left to discover as you flow with the story: it’s Barfi and Jhilmil’s capacity to love.

Ranbir Kapoor is, indisputably, that greatest actors of our times; he is a fresh breath of air in the stale ambience of mannerisms Hindi cinema has been suffering from since ages. Near-perfect comic timing, economy of emotions, with a loveable naughtiness to top it all, Ranbir Kapoor’s Barfi is irresistibly palatable. Priyanka Chopra is generally brilliant; but I would ask you to note two scenes in particular: 

1.       Jhilmil intently observes Shruti walking gracefully to the cab, the drape of her sari partially revealing a curvy waistline. So far, Jhilmil was unaware of her femininity; left alone, she drapes a gamcha like a pallu, and raises her top to observe the curve of her waist in the mirror. Barfi barges in suddenly and she quickly abandons the little performance, terribly embarrassed. 

2.       In the penultimate scene, when they are united, Jhilmil comes forth and acts sentinel to her Barfi, looking askance at an amused and slightly envious Shruti who stares on. It’s one of the best moments of the film that expresses intense possessiveness without a single utterance, and most importantly, without malice.

Ilena D’Cruz could not have a better Bollywood debut. And Sourabh Shukla while throwing his weight around leaves behind a deep mark of affection.

And Pritam’s music does the tuneful rest.

Keep your eyes fixed on the left-side of the screen as the end credit rolls for some extra helpings of Barfi-Jhilmil moments! It would leave a beautiful aftertaste which you would relish in the months to come. 

Image Courtesy: koimoi.com