Director: Anurag Basu
Rating: 7/10
It isn't unusual for Bollywood to come up with romantic comedies, however, it is unusual for the Indian Film Industry to come up with good love stories. Barfi! is that rare Bollywood wonder. Not a lot of dialogues, really good music, very few songs but beautifully sung and really soft on ears but more importantly, a good plot!
The story of a young deaf and mute boy, who seems to attract trouble wherever he goes, loses his first love to his handicap but manages to find love in an autistic girl, who is just as innocent and just as much of an oddball as he is-Barfi! makes you smile, cry and evokes more emotions than most Bollywood movies are capable of.
The film lost a lot of points with me because of the theme it portrays: that people with disabilities alone understand people with disabilities-something I refuse to believe and agree with. Of course, the movie doesn't talk out loud about this theme, but since it is indirectly implied by the way story goes, it does pinch me. The 'invalids end up with invalids' theme has been constantly portrayed in Indian cinema since forever. The fact that I come from a family where I have members who suffer from similar handicaps but have ended up having perfectly normal lives is something I am DYING for the Indian storytellers to depict! In a country like India where most disabilities are still surrounded by taboos like an evil curse, an illness and a ticket to being an outcast, and where movies and media affects lives and the perception of the society, there is a desperate need for unconventional themes not only for live stories but general social messages that are delivered by movies indirectly and unintentionally.
For that and that alone, the movie gets a seven on ten from me. For music, cinematography and execution as well as acting skills, I am more than impressed with the movie. Definitely worth a watch, or, for that matter, worth watching again and again.
It isn't unusual for Bollywood to come up with romantic comedies, however, it is unusual for the Indian Film Industry to come up with good love stories. Barfi! is that rare Bollywood wonder. Not a lot of dialogues, really good music, very few songs but beautifully sung and really soft on ears but more importantly, a good plot!
The story of a young deaf and mute boy, who seems to attract trouble wherever he goes, loses his first love to his handicap but manages to find love in an autistic girl, who is just as innocent and just as much of an oddball as he is-Barfi! makes you smile, cry and evokes more emotions than most Bollywood movies are capable of.
The film lost a lot of points with me because of the theme it portrays: that people with disabilities alone understand people with disabilities-something I refuse to believe and agree with. Of course, the movie doesn't talk out loud about this theme, but since it is indirectly implied by the way story goes, it does pinch me. The 'invalids end up with invalids' theme has been constantly portrayed in Indian cinema since forever. The fact that I come from a family where I have members who suffer from similar handicaps but have ended up having perfectly normal lives is something I am DYING for the Indian storytellers to depict! In a country like India where most disabilities are still surrounded by taboos like an evil curse, an illness and a ticket to being an outcast, and where movies and media affects lives and the perception of the society, there is a desperate need for unconventional themes not only for live stories but general social messages that are delivered by movies indirectly and unintentionally.
For that and that alone, the movie gets a seven on ten from me. For music, cinematography and execution as well as acting skills, I am more than impressed with the movie. Definitely worth a watch, or, for that matter, worth watching again and again.
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