Barfi is the story about... Well... Barfi (Ranbir Kapoor), a speech and hearing impaired individual. The story jumps around in time, but I'm just going to summarize it chronologically. Barfi meets Shruti (Ileana) one day in Darjeeling. He is instantly smitten with her and goes above and beyond to get her attention. Unfortunately Shruti is engaged. But this doesn't stop them. Barfi settles for friendship, but in doing so opens her eyes to a whole different kind of love. Shruti's mom sees that her daughter is falling in love with a deaf and mute, so she talks her out of it. When Barfi comes to ask for Shruti's hand in marriage he is shocked to find Shruti's fiance at their house.
Barfi wishes them the best and tries to go on with his life, but he is in a bit of a funk. That is until his dad ends up in the hospital. Turns out he has kidney failure and needs surgery within the next 2 days. But bad news bears, he surgery costs 7000 rupees. Barfi desperately tries to find the money. He goes to his father's old boss, a wealthy man who has an autistic daughter, Jhilmil (Priyanka Chopra), to ask him for a loan. What he doesn't realize is that the man is broke and instead it is Jhilmil who has all the money. So when that option doesn't pan out, Barfi tries to rob a bank. But it's hard to be a crook when you can't hear alarms or people sneaking up behind you. Left with no other options, he decides to kidnap Jhilmil and hold ransom in order to get the money. But when he sneaks into her house she is already gone. It seems someone has beat him to the chase.
That's when he stumbles upon a van. He notices Jhilmil in the back knocked out. He waits until the kidnapper is off getting the ransom money and then steals the van. He captures the attention of Jhilmil and she follows him back to his place. He creates a ransom note, and after spending all day with Jhilmil, he gets the money. He rushes to the hospital but it's too late. His father has already passed. Jhilmil is with him all through the small funeral and then he brings her back home. But Jhilmil doesn't feel at home with her parents. So she sets off to find Barfi.
When Barfi returns home after the funeral, a cop is there to arrest him for kidnapping Jhilmil. While running from the police, yet again, he stumbles upon Jhilmil. The two flee together and escape the police. Jhilmil has an address in her hand of her old nanny. Barfi takes her to the nanny and then tries to leave her there. But she continues to follow him around and like a lost puppy she grows on him. They travel to Calcutta where they find a small apartment and live together. They become quite enamored with each other and are getting along great. That is until Shruti comes back into the picture.
I think I will end the summary there. I know it seems like a lot happened but that's not even to the third act yet. But I will say this. I friggin' loved this money. Don't get me wrong, I do have a soft spot for Bollywood movies (its something about the colors, and rhythms, and classic love stories), but I think this may be my new favorite. It's got action, comedy, drama, plot twists, and of course a very cute and innocent love story (minus all the kidnapping). Starring one of my favorite Indian actors, Kapoor delivered once again. I was a little worried because most Bollywood acting is over the top. And since he couldn't speak I thought it was going to be like bad pantomiming. But it was nothing of the sort. Almost reminded me of an Indian The Artist. They had some great comedic bits in there that were reminiscent (maybe even a homage) to some classic movies. An obvious example would be comparing Kapoor to Donald O'Connor in Singin' in the Rain. And I can't forget to mention an opening chase scene that was like a real life Aladdin. C'mon. You know you want to see this movie.
The only problems I had with it were pretty minor. There is a ongoing quirk between Barfi and Jhilmil where he acts like he is about to hit her. Ummm what? This is not cute and charming. A pull my finger joke. Really? But otherwise I pretty much loved it.
Rating: ***** (My first 5 star rating!!)
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