Too much of BARFI!

Rating: ★ ★ ★

Yes, after a very long time Bollywood has something to offer (not forgetting GOW). From the picturesque cinematography to mellifluous music, to lovely flow of emotions, Barfi is sweet, feel good and honest cinema packed with strong performances that will remain in the hearts of people for a long time.

Barfi (RK) is a deaf-mute, naughty, carefree, and likable lad living with his single father at exquisite town of Darjeeling. He has nothing to do/give except maybe love to people and pain in the ass to Mr. Dutta the Police Inspector of the town. Now one day, as it generally happens, Shruti (Ilena D’Cruz) a bubbly, and charming girl comes to Darjeeling to live her life before getting trapped in conjugal vows. Quite predictably she gets enamoured by our cute boy and the boy reciprocates and even decides to marry her. Girl’s mother says NO, the girl agrees and marries another rich guy. All set, enters Jhilmil (PC), an autistic, and loveable girl belonging to an affluent family. Her parents don’t love her but she is the apple of the eye of her grandparents, that’s a bit hard for me to digest.

After that I don’t even remember what happens, it becomes more like a game of lawn tennis with Barfi being the ball and Jhilmil, Shruti (after ditching the rich guy) being the players. Most importantly I think it doesn’t even matter to the film makers how the story shapes up because no one gives a shit, when the biggest heart-throb of the nation is imitating Charlie Chaplin on the big screen and time and again few good jokes are thrown in, but for me it takes away a lot.

RK has been immaculate, stunning, and looks deeply engrossed in his character throughout the movie. Maybe there is still some room for improvement but will that be asking of too much from an Indian actor? Don’t know. PC, I really loved her, besides few instances of over acting and pretentious dialogues I think she’s has played her character as realistically as one could. Oh sorry, I forgot to talk about Ilena, well she’s is very beautiful and attractively lean. Do I need to say anything else? Being the narrator of the movie she had a lot of responsibility on her shoulders, and her character depicts many qualities like jealousy, selfishness, avarice but somehow I feel not enough redemption has been given to her character which leads to a certain dislike towards her. I don’t think we can blame her for that, maybe the writers.

Enough said Movie is definitely worth a watch, maybe a couple for its music and few unprecedented scenes that are to die for (one’s that made my eyes wet). I think too much content has been superfluously merged in the film, its wide in scope but not enough in depth, and that has been a fundamental challenge with contemporary India cinema. Characters need time to grow, there got to be rhythm that has to be consistent in a movie, a mood that has to be more or less similar throughout. You can’t put comedy, drama, tragedy, musical, terror, mystery everything in a movie if you are not Shakespeare, so please don’t.  Adding more characters and moving them from one city to another won’t solve this problem, only increase the length of it; you got to think more about the human nature. I think it would be better if directors could spend more time in developing a story rather than spending big bucks to shoot in picturesque locations but I am highly sceptical if that’s what an Indian aam aadmi wants.    

The END.

How I have wished to write this email and now that I am writing it, I feel that some part of me is getting separated from me with each word of it. Eagerly, I have waited for this day to arrive, and it has, but the sun isn’t shinning bright.

Such is the human nature, perpetually unfulfilled and inherently pointless. Someone said that nothing is as good as it is before you get it, and I absolutely concur with that. Time after time like seasons we change, our demands change, so do our plans, and our desires…but does anything really matter? I don’t know yet.

All I think is that in the end the gleeful times you shared with friends, some jokes you laughed on, the pleasure of understanding, the consciousness of self-improvement, stretching yourself to the limits, the bliss of helping others, the joy of being important, few shed and unshed tears is what that counts. And all that was plentiful during my stay here and I THANK you all from the depths of my heart for it.

I leave you here with an enigmatic quote by Sir Oscar Wilde, ‘there are only two tragedies of life: one is not getting what you want and second is getting it.’ Good luck.

P.S: Above text is my departing letter to the people of my previous life. 

A Letter from the Heart.

Dearest Annie,

Warmest wishes on your birthday, hope you have a very happy time with family and friends (though I know it’s a Monday), eat a lot of chocolates; get an abounding number of dainty gifts, and above all lots of love.

It’s true that I haven’t known you for a very long but still I have been fortunately charmed by you in all the positive ways. You are a veritable assortment of aesthetics and semantics of life. You are a solacing prayer that is perfectly pure, consecrated, and divine and has absolutely nothing sinister about it. You are one of the few people on this earth who completely epitomise the meaning of their names by their idiosyncrasies and demeanour. Like the mellifluent sound of the mystical enchantments or maybe silence of it you can uplift anyone’s soul and make him break free from the self-imposed preposterous shackles of time and space into a trance and find a meaning…

This is YOU Annie this is the LIFE…

It all started on a very bright day, around noon in the October of 2010. A coy, innocent (at least it seemed so) overly conscious girl was sitting beside me sipping coffee. Her eyes were the most beautiful I had ever seen and she knew it for very seldom did she make eye contact with me. I could almost feel that there was something special about this girl and I wasn’t wrong. I mean she had that air of dignity, the high class queens and princesses used to have in the Victorian era. Her exquisite dress, white top with small black dots and skin tight jeans certainly emanated the exuberance of modern Indian splendour. I glanced at the bare skin of her arm and it was nothing less charismatic than the purest pearls found a thousand leagues under the sea. That sophistication, the mannerisms made me realise that how privileged I should feel to be in her company. She on the other hand, just smiled and nodded at the very stupid jokes (which I thought were clever) I cracked. She had that unprecedented enigma, that great respect about herself which is very rare to find. You could just be in her proximity and you will start feeling good about yourself, you wouldn’t need anything else, I mean she was perfection personified.

Out of all the places in the vivaciously lively city we went to a temple. Initially I was very annoyed for choosing such an irksome place to share some moments, but then her wish was my command, and I had no regrets for that. She went inside each of the multiple temples and I followed her like a dog follows his master. I didn’t know what was she thinking or wishing but I really wished I knew. Finally after all the wishes were made, we sat on the stairs that went into the holy River. She was sitting so near me that I was trembling from inside and at the same time feeling utterly happy. Then she or maybe I suggested putting our feet in the water of the river, I think it was me because I am always trying to wash my sins away. Sitting there we hardly spoke anything to each other; it was the sight of the empty sky, few scattered various sized black and white stones, the infinite river, the cold soothing breeze and the music of the wind that said everything we wanted to say to each other. Small fishes kept touching our feet and she was very frightened with every touch. Taking a long breathe and told her she shouldn’t be afraid for she’s also like a pretty fish, she smiled on hearing this and I lost a heartbeat there.

During the middle of July’11, once I had the chance to visit some mysterious caves located on the outskirts of the City with her. Again a shiny day it was and the skies were clear azure blues with certain patches of whites in them. The wind was flowing through her hair while she drove the car and I thought to myself that it doesn’t get lovelier than this. I kept glancing at her, felt so lucky to be with her and couldn’t believe that it was happening in real time. She had that perfect temperament and confidence to do anything whilst keeping you entertained. Parking our car in some non-parking zone we untied our shoes to enter the holy dark caves.

I knew she will hold my hand as we would enter the cave for she was quite afraid of the dark and she did. Into the cave of our dreams we entered with our eyes open and hands in hand tightly snugged together like pieces of a puzzle. Cold and small streams of natural water were flowing underneath our feet, and sometimes dripping above our heads. We couldn’t see or feel any one near us or far off. Like we were the last two people left on the planet. There couldn’t have been any perfect moment, so slowly I pulled her towards me with my back supported by the slightly wet rough wall of the cave. I looked into her unfathomable black eyes hugged her tightly, felt complete and drank the elixir from her tender angelic lips. In the background I could hear the faint sound of bells at the temple ringing incessantly.

As soon as we came out of the cave the sky had turned dark black and it had started drizzling. The wind was also blowing heavily and the waves in a river nearby were gushing. We moved towards a bench near the river tearing away the resistance of the wind. We sat down and the drops of water produced by the splashing of the river against its banks kept on falling on our faces. I wiped the water droplets from her face with my quivering hands and I could see in her face the calmness and satisfaction that can make you forget everything else in the world. She took my head and put it on her shoulder and I could smell the scent of her Elysian skin, feel the smoothness of her slender neck and then… I could peacefully close my eyes. The rain started to pour down heavily.

Like every fairy tale this one also had to end but not in a happy way. Last time I met her in Jan’12 and we drank coffee again. Coffee was mostly the same but it was a bit bitterer. The weather was dry, the birds were shrieking and the traffic outside was too bothering. She said she couldn’t meet me any longer and I couldn’t think of any way to convince her though I really wanted to. She didn’t shed a tear and neither did I but yes I could feel that melancholic fluid running through my veins and in it my heart sank like a lost broken ship.

Though I still have many ‘could have beens, ifs, buts’ but I guess I have to accept that not every man is that lucky. I got no one else to blame but myself, blinded and fooled by jealousy, greed and romantic avarice. Always being a collector of beginnings, living life as a way for seduction I finally agree to what Tolstoy says, if a man can love only one woman through the core of the existence he can understand a lot more about female nature than he can by loving hundreds of women.

On this auspicious day dear I want to thank you for all you did for me and more. And I apologise for the pain I have put you through, I know nothing can justify it and nothing can take it away. I just wanted to let you know that you have given me the best moments of my life and I will remain indebted to you till the day I die. Please accept this letter as a small return gift. I wish a very Happy Birthday to You.

Love Always, 

N