Skip to main content

Yum yum Barfi


When I went to watch Barfi, I was solely looking for another brilliant performance from Ranbir Kapoor. Anurag Basu, I had low expectations from. I was irked by the fact that he got bogged down by stars, the mega production set up, the crossover film idea and Spanish market exploration attempted in Kites. For me, Kites was a failure to see a great Hritik performance. To me, it was one of his worst performances since his debut. How that happened with a performer's director was beyond me. It still is. I like PC's looks. She isn't terrible. I knew from Fashion she could act. But she has consistently produced banal performances relying too much on her looks. She lacked the Vidya Balan abandon, which was so important to producing and enjoying a performance.  

Barfi blew my mind. Like Pritam's music, frankly I don't care if bits and pieces of Barfi was picked, referenced, etc from other films. I am not trying to be politically correct. How can I deny I loved this film: that it woke me back again into my love for films. Barfi isn't about good work in a few departments. It is about brilliant teamwork. I just don't know how all of them gave off their best together without overdoing anything. And, what was the rumour of rift between actors or between director and actors that 'caused' the delay of the film about?

Like Deepika Padukone and Abhay Deol, Ranbir recognises the contemporariness of roles in his scripts. And (in my humble opinion) no other actor gets the craft of acting as well and as consistently as him. He just is the character in all his films. How on earth did Ileana do what she did-converse in silence to audience with her eyes. When the film started I didn't like her. But the love for Ranbir and conveying the love, the helplessness the pain through her eyes was something else. The camera stayed on her eyes, face for long and each second progressively talked without melodrama. Its impact was just the opposite of Shanghai (where my fav director's silences had not worked for me). I am very curious about what this girl, Ileana, does in her future. PC didn't blow my mind but my respect for her grew immensely with this performance. I'd love to see her take this further and become more consistent.

What a nice day!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Editing - Separating the Wheat from the Chaff - Part I

Real editing is about effectively designing and communicating audio visual content. It is an art that I long to be lifelong student of. Other than complain about bad editors and editing, I have little to contribute. In this series of articles, I'll talk about video editing software. Ideally any system Mac or PC should have equally competent editing software. Since the 2000s, the Mac had Final Cut Pro (FCP) and PC had several editing software including Sony Vegas and Adobe Premiere. FCP made deep forays into the professional market then dominated by Avid especially in television and became the market leader of professional editing software. The advantage of having a market leading software is that you have a lot of users and forums and therefore a lot of shared solutions. My History with Editing The non-linear workflow that I had followed pre-2002 in a professional television production set up was: import/capture footage on low resolution, edit, export final edit on full resolu...
Post a Comment
Read more

Invisible Casteism and the Apatanis

In 2015, I attended the Ziro Music Festival at Ziro, Arunachal Pradesh. The venue had two stages. In the day, small acts performed at a picturesque slope to small audiences on a small stage. The small venue at the Ziro Music Festival. Image credit: Photograph by Adam Halliday for the Indian Express In the evening, big acts performed on a large stage with superb lighting and sound systems. On the periphery of this venue, there were stalls, tables and benches for people to eat or simply sit. All these were made of bamboo. The locals in Ziro mainly consists of people from the Apatani tribe. The long knife, many of them carry, makes them appear intimidating. A local told me that though the knife can be used for fighting, it is usually used for cutting grass and bamboo. Dressed up Apatani tribal woman from Ziro, Arunachal Pradesh   Image credit: Photograph by Vinod Panicker At the music venue, I met a young, local man and his friend. They were repairing benches. They were...
Post a Comment
Read more

In the High Grass

Walking through high grass Every step fraught With a prospect of crossing paths With a reptile unseen yet heard in rustles Nature experienced in buckets of fear Laying in the mind Reality, however Presents itself in the magnificence Of the little touch-me-nots Draped by the warmth of light
Post a Comment
Read more