BARFI!: A plagiarized yet piquant take on love & relationships!

Barfi!, starring Priyanka Chopra, Ranbir Kapoor and Ileana D’ Cruz, completes six years today. People still remember that charming, madly inventive and enlightening number by Mohit Chauhan that plays as the opening credits roll on. We are instructed to keep our mobile phones switched off or away, not to talk to people around and even take care of them! This Anurag Basu directorial unfolded pretty much in the same fashion. It was a film where the leading man, Murphy (Ranbir Kapoor as deaf and mute), who everyone thinks is named Barfi because of the way he tries to utter his name, was all heart. He had a boyish charm and an immensely likable innocence that no one would want to hurt him.

There was Shruti, a lovely and alluring Ileana, who, at first, dismisses Barfi’s romantic advances but is later drawn to his childlike demeanor. The first conflict in the love story is her pending marriage to her college friend. But you have already figured out the twain shall never meet.

In a rather peculiar way, Barfi tests people’s loyalty and friendship. He cuts the bottom of the wooden lamp-post and makes you stand right at the point where it could collapse. Shruti has to go through this test too. She’s obviously scared for life and leaves his hand. That very moment you realize they are not made for each other.

Enter Jhilmil, an inimitable Priyanka Chopra, an autistic woman who goes through this task too but is too naive to realize what’s going on and stands by Barfi even when the lamp falls. We all know by now how will this story end! Despite being accused of plagiarism, with references to Mr. Bean, Charlie Chaplin, Singing In The Rain and even The Notebook, Basu’s Barfi! was still an affable drama that was powered by three strong central characters and their powerful performances, Pritam’s haunting musical score and Ravi Varman’s luscious cinematography.

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