Barfi - Hindi movie review

Writer/Director Anurag Basu gives us a visual treat with his latest offering Barfi. The movie depicts love through the emotional expressions of its lead characters. It has plenty of goofiness, pranks, moments of laughter,

Set in Darjeeling in the ’70s, the film is essentially about Barfi’s (Ranbir Kapur) relationship with the two women in his life – Shruti (Ileana D’Cruz) and an autistic Jhilmil (Priyanka Chopra). Shruti falls to parental pressure to marry a ‘normal’ man, but cannot come to terms with the fact that she is still in love with Barfi.  The film revolves around a series of events in which all three characters discover what love really is. The movie unfolds through the eyes of the various characters whose life has been touched by Barfi, and there is enough mystery in the story to keep you hooked.

Most of the dialogues come in the form of narration, but the scenes are so beautifully crafted that you don’t really miss the dialogues at all. Anurag Basu has put his heart and soul into the film. The Chaplinesque humour is refreshing, and the situational comedy is adorable and entertaining.

Ranbir Kapoor is a pure joy to watch. He has proved yet again that he is a force to reckon with. You can not imagine anyone else but Ranbir who could have pulled such a brilliant act. Priyanka’s de-glamourised role as an autistic girl is very convincing. Hats off to Priyanka for her brilliant performance. Ileana who has more screen space than Priyanka also did an excellent job. Though her character delivers minimal dialogues in the movie, she is very expressive.

There are moments of sheer joy on certain scenes. In a certain scene the release of water bubbles that envelopes fire flies, a drawing on a canvas initially fools you to think Barfi does the drawing on the canvas, Barfi’s goofy act with a stuffed dummy to name a few.

The other highlight of the movie is the music by Pritam. Pritam has composed one of the best soundtrack of his career. The song titled “Aashiyan” leads the pack.

Barfi  is a breath of fresh air in an otherwise repetitive masala plots often seen in Hindi movies. The movie is crafted well and it is a cinematic treat. One must appreciate the courage for chosing a plot that revolves around a speech and hearing impaired lead character paired with an autistic female. There are minimal dialogues in the movie but it has enough ingredients to keep the audience engaged thoroughly.

Highly recommended.

Emerging Kerala - The future is emerging

3 days, 45 specific project proposals, 4676 participants, attracting investments worth over Rs 40,000 crores (USD 7.3 Billion). Kerala which lagged in terms of development among the southern states is finally emerging.  With the NRK  (Non-Resident Keralites) heavy weights like M.A Yusuffali (EMKE Lulu group), Azad Mooppan (Dubai based DM Healthcare), Alungal Muhammed (Saudi based Al Jabeer group), KE Faizal (KEF group) and Ravi Pillai (RP group) chipping in investments worth between Rs 15,000 to 20,000 crores,  the support received for the effort by the UDF led state government speaks volume.

Would Emerging Kerala be any different from the failed Global Investment Meet (GIM) back in 2003 which attracted roughly around Rs 20,000 crore worth of projects and almost none of them really took off?

GIM failed because of the lack of enthusiasm from prospective investors. The state could not succeed in building confidence both from the state and outside.

Kerala always had a notorious tag of being a business unfriendly state. The major hurdle to the development of Kerala is the popular outlook towards development. People are not concerned about real issues. The state lacked leadership, vision and proper planning. The political climate swinging in favor of both LDF and UDF did not help matter much either. The large scale migration of Keralites and their remittances helped the survival of Kerala economy and present boom of consumerism.

Kerala is a typical example of a state where politics ruined its economy, its work culture, its public sector and above all the confidence of the people. In spite of its educated human resources, Kerala missed three great revolutions.  i.e. the agricultural, industrial and electornics & IT revolutions that took place in the neighbouring state of Tamilnadu and Karnataka. It is paradoxical that our neighboring states  advanced under progressive leadership, Kerala perished with a “progressive and revolutionary” ideology.

Having said that emerging Kerala initiative is a positive step towards taking the state to a progressive path provided it did not face the same fate as the Global Investment efforts made back in 2003. Political stability and proper leadership coupled with right policy planning and fast decision making would bring back investors and keep them rooted here.

The potential is immense and success of these and more such efforts are paramount to the long term future of the state and its people. Let us hope that these efforts lay foundation for the rise of Kerala and help facilitate the home coming of the next generation of Kerala diaspora if not the current generation.