Barfi

Too much of anything is good for nothing. As of this film, too much of sweetness causes Diabetes.

'Critical acclaim' is a phrase that seems to have been thrown around quite loosely these days and critics seem to be too affixed with films I prefer to call- "pretentiously good movies". Such films, as the terminology indicates, are deliberately made targeting audiences to feel like they are watching something great whereas what they are witnessing is cheap, colorful dramatization of thick, dark lives.

Barfi brings you Murphy(read Barfi), played by Ranbir Kapoor who is differently-abled but still believes in "living his life to the fullest". For reasons unknown, when an actor plays such roles, we superficially feel that he/she is acting really well and begin to shower him/her with accolades. And similar is the case of Priyanka Chopra, who plays Jhilmil, a special girl who is in the truest spirit of the title- 'Murphy's love interest'. And that is pretty much it; except for a suspense turn of events which is pretty good to watch.

And then there is Shruti, played by Ileana who is Murphy's first love, and who will go to all limits in order to ruin her life completely and be of no use to the outcome of the movie. But how elegantly her character has been carried by Ileana and directed by Anurag Basu that even with the two overly hyped protagonists in the scene, your eyes long for her being in the shot and the camera seems to glide on by itself to shoot her.

The fact that most of the comic scenes were adaptations of Keaton's work or the silent Hollywood comedies does not matter much to me because I don't really laugh at any of these. Why I did not find it as good as others is because it is very easy to portray lives of such people in a 'happy-go-lucky' manner and settle out things with shades of 'all is well'. In contrast, it takes courage to capture the inner psych of those people. Murphy is so happy, wow, Murphy is so sad, Oh...Murphy is doing comedy....Hahahahaaa....since when did good movie making start fooling people and charging them with quick ostensible emotions?

Films like this are shallow to say the least and if you try to find philosophies of life in them, it is high time that you grab a good book and read it.

Bandwidth Verdict: If you can watch and not get manipulated by cheap emotions, then very well watch it. Otherwise, browse on; there are many a good fish in the pond.