Barfi! is poetry on celluloid. Off late Bollywood is witnessing a great change in terms of the quality of the movies that its producing. Barfi! has raised that level a couple of notch higher.
Barfi! is the love story of a deaf and mute boy named Barfi (played by Ranbir Kapoor), a Bengali girl named Shruti (Ileana D'cruz) and an autistic girl called Jhilmil (Priyanka Chopra). Shot in the picturesque landscape of Darjeeling, we Barfi's life in flashback, being narrated by various characters that he had spend his life with. Through their narration we see Barfi fall in love with Shruti who in turn falls in love with him but gives into societal and parental pressure to marry a 'normal' man and lead a 'normal' life.
She moves on in life, only to meet Barfi once again in Calcutta. Barfi is now in love with an autistic girl Jhilmil, what makes Shruti realize that love can neither be defined nor contained by society's norms of normal and abnormal, neither can it be confined with the chains of financial stability. When Jhilmil goes missing in the streets of Calcutta, Shruti tries to fill in her gap in Barfi's life, only to realize that she is too late for that. She had her chance and she missed it in Darjeeling. Shruti's realization that Jhilmil is autistic makes her recognize that true love is really blind. Caught in a cat and mouse game, in the search for the girl Barfi loves, Shruti realizes that she is still in love with him. She must now choose between her happiness and his.
Ranbir Kapoor has proved once again that acting runs through his veins. From Wake Up Sid to Raajneeti to Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year, he has never failed to entertain with his brilliant piece of acting. The scene where Barfi goes to Shruti's house to meet her parents to ask for their daughter's hand in marriage and ends up heartbroken after he meets her fiancee, Ranbir's unspoken words are sure to make your heart churn. It reminded me of the last scene from Sadma. But Anurag Basu (Writer, Director) will not make you cry, atleast not yet. It would take Barfi to fall in love with Jhilmil to do that. I am sure a drop of tear would find a place in your eyes to see Barfi trying to take care of Jhilmil and slowly falling in love with her, a love that knows no boundaries of materialistic needs. It would take Jhilmil to go missing for your to cry seeing the pain Barfi went through every day and night yet could not say it out loud.
And Priyanka Chopra as Jhilmil is simply brilliant. At one point of time, while watching the movie, I felt like taking her out of the screen and giving her a big hug saying "I love you". Sweetly innocent, she slowly opens her heart to Barfi, even though she can't even spell his name properly lest aside understand the meaning of the word "love".
And its not only the acting skills of the protagonist but the rest of the crew, the music, background score, cinematography, everything and everyone played their role brilliantly to make Barfi! the movie of the year (even if its not right now it would be eventually). Barfi! would make you laugh, Barfi! would make you cry, Barfi! would make you smile and it would make you believe once again that true love does exist.
