Billu Barber — Movie Review

Originally Published on PassionforCinema

The king of comedy , Priyadarshan , is back and this time he has a different story to tell with a different star . This is an another Hindi Remake of a south film after Ghajini that has hit the cinema halls and in my opinion a better one . If Ghajini was a full on Masala film with no story as such , this one on the contrary has a good and different story to tell . Billu Barber has been in news since long before Ghajini and was suppose to release before it but somehow this one got delayed . One always expects entertainment when Priyadarshan’s name comes to mind and if along with Priyadarshan a name like SRK gets associated the expectations tend to rise even more . Though SRK as we know has just a guest appearance sort of role in the film and is there just to add a little bit of commercial entertainment into it .

This one has Irrfan Khan and Lara Dutta in the lead and there is no doubt about it . SRK and the director have highlighted the central character Billu only and in no ways SRK’s character hijacks or take overs the film . Off late SRK’s character’s have grown up on screen and have started talking more like a mature guy . And whether it was his cameo in Luck By Chance or his role in this film of a superstar . Here also he is a mature superstar who is stands firmly on the ground despite all his stardom .

The film is entirely focussed on Billu the Barber and his life in the small villlage of Bud-buda . He has an old barber shop which is running on heavy losses and he some how manages to feed his family . He has a son and a daughter who are also aware of his situation and try to adjust some how . His beautiful wife Lara is also very sweet and doesn’t keep nagging his husband for his failures . Billu faces a strict competition from a modern Saloon and his old “Kesh Kartanalaya” stands no where as compared to the modern saloon . Om Puri who plays a rich “baniya” tries his best to allure Billu to take loan from him and renovate his shop but Billu doesn’t fall to his shrewd tactics . His life is as usual until a superstar , Saahir Khan , decides to come to his village for shooting a film .

The peaceful small village suddenly starts buzzing and suddenly there is surge of people coming into the village from neighbouring places to see the shooting of the film . Billu who knows Saahir from the days when he was in college suddenly comes in the spotlight and everyone in the village starts chasing him and tries to bribe him so that they can meet Saahir Khan . Poor billu falls into this situation against his will and now everyone starts expecting to meet Saahir through Billu . Billu’s shop suddenly becomes a hot spot in village and his fortune takes a u-turn . Billu becomes a star in the village and he in a way gets to see what a star has to face and how people change overnight because of the stardom . He tries all the ways to meet saahir and talk to him but all his efforts go in vain . Well , his stardom finally ends and he faces the humiliation of the villagers . Even his own kids stop talking to him and his shop returns to its previous state . And towards the end something very unexpected happens and Saahir meets Billu revealing everything about their friendship .

The film’s story by Sreenivasan is a real nice one and Priyadarshan very well understood the feel of story and has tried to keep things as simple and real as possible . His treatment was a little different than usual and in the process he makes a nice and simple family film which will appeal to everyone . There is the usual Priyadarshan comedy with his favourites Rajpal Yadav , Om Puri and Asrani . But the one performance amongst these that stood out was that of Atul Parchure who plays a Guest House owner who wishes to be an actor . The sequence where he delivers some lines of a policeman for Saahir’s film leaves everyone in the splits .

The whole film focuses on Irrfan and he gives a fine performance as an unconfident simple and common man . He very well portrays the helplessness of the central character and the trials and tribulations he has to face for the sake of his family’s well being . Lara Dutta also gives a fine performance and she looks really beautiful as the simple and beautiful village girl . Irrfan and Lara looked good on screen and even their kids were great . The kids also acted really well and the entire family looked really good on-screen and looked very much real . Lara’s portrayal of a simple village woman was also really sweet and it was nice to see her in such a role . SRK also gave in a good performance and despite his small role he does good .

Priyadarshan needs to complimented for making such a simple and good family film . This was a little different than his usual works and different in a good way . This film has no cliche commercial elements apart from the song and dance sequences having SRK . The good thing about the film is that despite it being an emotional entertainer has very less of stereotypical scenes and doesn’t have unnecessary crying and dialogue-baazi . It is also not that long a film which comes as plus point for the film . At no point its feels that the film is getting very slow and long . The locations and songs are also good and make it look good visually .

Overall , its a nice film that is worth watching and needs to be appreciated for its different storyline and treatment . Its a feel good film and would not disappoint at all . Irrfan and Lara give a fine performance and Priyadarshan gives a film different from his usual style .

Film Rating : Three and Half out of Five Stars ; definitely worth a watch .

Dev D — Movie Review

The eternal character of Devdas is back and this time he goes vulgar and crude . The supposedly modern take of Devdas by Anurag Kashyap is in fact not modern at all . If you think putting a MMS scandal and cursing in English is modern then this one would sound modern to you but for me it was just a crude take on Devdas . If people remember the SLB adaptation of Devdas for its grandness and performances then this one would be remembered for its vulgarity more than anything else . I mean including sex is not that bad an idea considering it is based in today’s times but making each of the characters look horny as hell is just out-rightly stupid .

It is evident from the beginning of the film that Anurag had only one thing in mind to make it sound modern and that was to add more and more sex to it apart from the bit of violence . The whole vulgarity sounds funny to an extent but what didn’t go down well was that the situations that didn’t seem natural ones and looked more like forced ones .

The contradictory behavior of the characters is also very extreme in nature . It is hard to believe that Paro who acts like a complete wacko when her father asks her to marry an another guy , remains calm and composed in front of Dev and doesn’t even confront the accusations that Dev makes on her character . It is also very hard to believe that Dev who is a London return scholar believes a drunk loser who accuses Paro to be a slut . In this one Dev is constantly in touch with Paro through phone and Internet etc. from past so many years still he doesn’t believes her even a bit . All these things are very contradictory and seem very hard to believe . The so called Ego of Dev’s character is also not pretty much evident as it was in the SLB’s adaptation .

The pace of the film also suddenly changes after an hour or so and if the first hour is fairly paced , the remaining part moves in a very slow and monotonous manner . The tone also changes from a humorous and casual to a more serious one . The film also has some real life incidences in it like the DPS MMS scandal and the BMW hit and run case . Both have been put into the film just for the sake of making it sound modern and are not an integral part of the story .

The story of this one is very much different from the original one and different in a worse way . The characters have been changed just for the sake of making it different which further harms the story and weakens it . The character of Dev’s father also suddenly becomes a positive one when Dev returns from London and his death also doesn’t change him despite the fact that he understands him and gives him right advice when he needs it . The whole scene of his dad’s funeral was a disaster and even Abhay didn’t act well in that one . If SRK’s performance in the similar scene was a pinnacle one Abhay on the contrary did nothing apart from shedding a few tears .

The strength of SLB’s Devdas was in the way in which even the supporting characters were given full importance and very well written . Here Chunni is not a friend in the first place and is just a pimp who again serves nothing in the film apart from introducing Dev to Chanda . Chanda who is a MMS Scandal victim turned Pro also doesn’t quite serve anything in the plot . The whole MMS scandal plot of her character runs apart from the film’s story and has no connection to Dev . A whole lot of time is wasted to show her journey from a school girl to a pro which is not at all that important part of the plot in the first place . The only good thing in this whole sequence is that at least Anurag handled it in a serious manner and didn’t make a mockery out of it . Paro’s character has also not been focussed that much and she is there only in the first hour of the film .

The film completely focuses on Dev’s character and his continuous trips to brothels and bars . He practically lives in one of them despite driving a BMW . The biggest change in the plot is the fact that Dev suddenly changes towards the end and instead of dying he decides to move on and live a happily ever after kinda life with Chanda . This left me confused whether he loved Paro in the first place or not . And if he had to finally move on then why so much of self destruction took place in the first place . I would have rather preferred to see him turn into some kinda saint and live a simple life abstaining himself from women and sex .

The music of the film is also one thing that didn’t go down quite well . Apart from the two songs , Emotional Atyachar and Nayan Tarse , all other songs didn’t quite impress me . Its good that at least the story keeps moving while the songs are played in the background . Still , the music didn’t quite serve the purpose of emphasizing the emotions of the characters . The cinematography and art direction were good and at times great . Anurag tried to put in all the elements of a noir film in it like the sexuality , violence and craziness of the characters . He also put in graffiti and comic books to give it a more psycho look . He always does this to make his film a little different but what lacks is the fact that all the craziness that he shows doesn’t quite come naturally to the characters of his films .

Overall , its a film that you might like in bits in pieces but overall you would probably won’t be satisfied . Even the guys that love crazy kinda cinema like me won’t quite like it that much . The film is entertaining enough to be watched once but don’t expect wonders out of it . Watch it if you are an Abhay Deol fan because it revolves completely around him . His performance is good but I expect much more from him .

Film Rating : Two and a Half Star out of Five ; good only for onetime watch .