Movie Review: Billu

Movie Name: Billu Barber
Director: Priyadarshan
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Lara Datta, Asrani, Om Puri, Rajpal Yadav
Music: Pritam
Rating: * * *

I heard somewhere that a movie automatically gets 1 extra star for having Irrfan Khan in star cast. This one gets 2 stars for casting him in lead role another two for a good story and Shahrukh’s touching monologue. But my overall rating would be three because editing of the movie is botched at best. Songs are inserted forcefully and except once are totally unrelated to the story.

Irrfan Khan was probably the best choice for Billu, only other actor of current times who could have pulled it off is Manoj Vajpayee.  Lara Dutta has played a villagor wife and children definitely add character to the movie.

Cinematographer gets our thumbs up for all village scenes including riverside scenes. Songs are catchy and have added enough glamour with Priyanka, Kareena and Deepika Padukone. It’s readily understable why these songs feel totally out of place in a village story.

A lot of time is spent in character development of Asrani, Om Puri and other minor characters. The basic plot is rather simple and small so it forces director to spend more time in showing awe for a superstar. It doesn’t go overboard like Slumdog did, but does show the superstart mania that clouds Indian minds.