Be Barfi…!!!

How do you define a feeling when you have a tear that refuses to leave the eyes but still carry a wry smile on your lips? When you have a load on your chest that you wish would go away but it doesn’t and yet the head is light? When there is no palling sadness but yet you don’t feel like cracking a joke? I guess it’s the feeling you get when you see the futility of life around you, when a figment of fiction bares your soul naked and you find yourself inadequate to match even a basic emotion as compared to the characters that are woven before you. It’s the feeling you get when you watch a deaf and mute guy falling in love with an autistic girl!!!

Barfi is perhaps the saddest love story I ever watched. However, this is not a movie review. What compelled me to write this piece was the fact that though I couldn’t really identify with any of the characters, just looking at the story from the perspectives of the three lead actors made me feel for the movie. One can not possibly step into the shoes of Murphy ‘Barfi’ Johnson or Shruti Ghosh or Jhilmil Chatterjee for that matter yet the depiction of unconditional love inadvertently wells up your eyes and lumps up your throat during the course of narration at the same time letting you emit a chuckle or two at the antics of the main lead.

Though much has already been written about how this movie is a ‘coming of age’ point in Ranbeer’s career, I guess what needs to be emphasized is how this is also a gem of a performance by Priyanka Chopra. If  ‘What’s your Raashi?’ showcased her strength of versatility and ‘Saat Khoon Maaf’ strengthened her acting prowess, ‘Barfi’ puts her in the league of legends like Smita Patil if none other. Piggy Chops is simply mesmerizing and I personally think in the contemporary league there is none other who could have done justice to this role.

At the time of posting this, Barfi has already been chosen as India's entry to the Academy Awards in the best foreign language film category….and I believe rightfully so.

The ending of the movie, however reminds me of a little story I wrote years ago (January 28, 2008) to be precise. This was called ‘Till Death Do Us Part’. Read it HERE, if you care and go watch the movie, if you haven’t done so already. Period.