There was an age in Hindi Cinema where doyens like Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Basu Chatterji made some of Hindi cinemas finest comedies featuring the middle class man. The story revolved around the man's life and the movies were clean and simple. Golmaal, Itni Si baat, Chupke Chupke were some of the finest movies that came out from this duo.
Bareilly Ki Barfi (BKB) belongs to that forgotten era and I thank Ashwiny Iyer and Nitesh Tiwari to take us back to that era and make a film that connects with today's audience.
Set in Bareilly in UP and inspired from Sajan, the movie is one hell of a romantic comedy from start to finish. The story of 20 something yr old Bitti who works for the Electricity Board who smokes, drinks, eats non veg, watches English movies and does break dance on her terrance and falls for a writer of flop book is an interesting premise. Her Dad is loving caring and supportive but her mom thinks her as a pain.
The 1st half is hilarious with some great one liners and well written scenes. Everything shown on screen is so authentic that I felt I was transported to Bareilly and I could connect with Bitti, her parents and Chirag the man loves Bitti and who also has secretly written the book Bitti loves. There are no heavy scenes and the humour never goes over the top.
The 2nd half is taken to another level thanks to the entry of Rajkummar Rao at the end of 1st half. And here I thank the writers who ensure not to stretch the story to long and wrap the movie with a predictable sweet ending. Believe me this movie is just 2 hours long which is awesome as per Hindi movie standards.
Coming to performances, Kriti Sanon as Bitti finally gets an author backed role and shines but still needs a few movies like these to showcase her acting chops. Khurana is turning out to be the Amol Palekar of our times and does is part well and with ease. Pankaj Tripathy and Seema Pahwa as Bitti's parents are hilarious as the bickering couple and have some of the best one liners in the movie. And Rohit Chaudhary as Khurana's friend is very good.
However, the star of this film is Rao. And he deserves an award of this film and if not an award, at least a nomination. The actor is brilliant from the word go. He brilliantly plays the meek and timid Vidrohi and switches to the rash hooligan Vidrohi which such ease that I was spell bound. He is a great actor and I hope he gets more films to show that he is in a league of his own. Watch out for the bike and pan scene.
The music is simple and not too many songs and I loved the way Bareilly has been captured.
This is a movie that you can watch with your family irrespective of the age groups and its great to see a clean rom com after a long time.
