Movie Review: Barfi

I have a simple yardstick to measure soulful movies by - do I get tears in my eyes as I watch the movie unfold? And yes, I am not afraid to admit that I get tears a lot.

Set in the 1970s in beautiful Darjeeling, Barfi is about a deaf-and-dumb Chaplinesque guy (Ranbir) who falls in love at first sight with the rich, pretty (and engaged to be married) Shruti (Ileana D'Cruz). While she reciprocates the feelings, she cannot shake off her fiance, and finally leaves Barfi heartbroken, marrying and settling down in the big city (Kolkata).

For Barfi, the struggle is just beginning. When his dad has a kidney failure and needs money for an operation, Barfi plans a failed bank heist, and then kidnaps the autistic Jhilmil (Priyanka) - who he ends up falling in love with. They escape Darjeeling, and settle down in Kolkata. Is it fate that brings the three of them together, or just Barfi?

When Jhilmil goes missing, Barfi moves in with his first love, Shruti, who has decided she's had enough of her marriage.

More twists and turns, until Shruti finally finds Jhilmil, who is presumed to be murdered in a botched kidnapping (yet again). Shruti is torn between keeping Barfi, and reuniting him with Jhilmil.

Now, coming back to my yardstick. In all the close to three hours of what was pretty good acting, I didn't get tears. I didn't feel empathy, I didn't relate to what the characters were going through. Yes, Ranbir acts like Chaplin and Mr Bean in one, and that's slapstick funny at times, and he makes wierd faces and twists his nose and puts out his tongue and contorts his body - but he doesn't make you feel for him. Priyanka gives some great scenes, she talks amazingly differently than her normal, and the director really manages to strip her off any glamour and style as the grown up autistic Jhilmil. Ileana looks very pretty before marriage, and plays the perfect Bengali bahu, teeka and all, and has a decent Bollywood debut.

The songs are good, but I am not sure I will play them when I drive. The sound track is brilliant - and creates amazing atmosphere all through the movie, which has absolutely minimalist dialogues, the conversations between Barfi, Jhilmil and Shruti all done through expressions and eyes. The scene when Barfi comes home to propose to Shruti, and the break up after that - Beautiful. Pay attention to the amazing sound track through the scene. Darjeeling's natural beauty is also mesmerizing, and is captured pretty well for most of the movie.

But no tears. No empathy. And for me, that's not such a great movie.