Movie Review: Billu Barber

I guess its in vogue now to give SRK a soliloquy in the climax. Veer-jaara, Chak de India and now Billu barber do the same, and its only SRK's charisma which makes it look convincing. Billu barber is movie, where SRK takes a backseat and set a platform for Irfaan khan to execute a simple role.I am still in dither, if that was a good movie or bad and afraid of sounding pontificate. okay, my psyche says Movie was not bad , therefore it falls in the "good" category.

Movie opens with Billu's (irfaan khan)application for a loan to renovate his Hair cutting saloon , revealing that he leads a life beset of financial worries ,but full of vitality. He earns meager to survive his beautiful wife and two children ,who rarely take him seriously. After that director takes us on a safari and establishes the other prominent characters, which give able support to the story line. There is a local poet (Rajpal yadav) , an affluent lender ( Om puri)and an ally (Asrani). Billu wants money to upgrade his old barber shop in order to compete with a Modern haircut saloon, because of which his earnings are dwindling , but unfortunately things doesn't fall in place.

Out there in Mumbai , a superstar(Sahir khan) is working on his bollywood ishtyle movie , a story of twins and for that he needs a new location and suggests "Budbuda" village, the place Billu is surviving.Sahir's envoys appear in the village and declare that for next few days Sahir khan is coming for a shoot.As Sahir khan arrives in the village, we see screaming fans vying  to get closer to the superstar. In this hoopla, Billu gets another blow when his children are send back from school, for he has failed in depositing the school fee on time.Soon a rumour spreads in village that Billu is an old pal of superstar Sahir khan. Rumour works as catalyst and Billu becomes the talk of town and every villager start showing inordinate support to him. He is now venerated by the horde and throng tries to please Billu as they expect a common favour "Meeting with the superstar". True to his character Billu is apprehensive , doubtful and scared when think about his abject poverty in comparison to Superstar's. He knows Sahir is his old pal but never accept it before crowd and tries to be malingering.

One day they all forcefully capitulate him to visit the shooting place along with them and excited fans create a pandemonium,had a clash with policemen and eventually land up in jail , Then they learn that Billu is just another ordinary fellow and has no link with the Superstar.Now village turns evil to Billu ,they even lodge a police complaint against him, for cheating the village. This rankles makes Billu brittle and his family start languishing in the village.On the other hand , administration of a local school somehow manages to get Saahir khan for their annual convention and there Sahir khan mentions about his old friend i.e. Billu , in his monologue;this stuns the crowd and they ruminate about their deeds. what follows is though nothing special but still i don't want to put an spoiler in this post.

As i recall memories of the movie, i find it an average flick , with good doses of humour but nothing especial about it. Ifraan khan has done a good job with the role and Sahil khan looks every inch of SRK. Lara dutta has got a small role, but to be frank, she has done a decent job and its a revelation for me. Songs are okay, but yes Mar jaani and that "Hit , khit-pit" song with Kareena and Priyanka respectively, are worth watching, and you will surely find them in discs at least for some time. The two lovely kids add flavour in the movie . Ove all  Billu barber is at best a watchable movie.

Rating :: **1/2

-Yaatri

© Ajay Kr Saxena