Billu

Controversies are always a part of the cine world irrespective of the language. Sometimes the creators of the films will create such unnecessary things to make the film a talk of the town. In some cases, the theme of the film can be the reason or the name of the film itself can be the basis of the news. This time the last reason has happened in the case of new hindi film ‘Billu’ directed by Priyadarshan. The name of the film which was planned as ‘Billu Barber’ is now changed due to the opposition of the Indian Barbers.

When English people indirectly called the people in slums as slum dogs by giving the title for their film as ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, nobody in our country complained. But on the other side, when an Indian film has got the title ‘Billu Barber’, which does not contain vulgarity, the situation changed…, this was the malayalee director’s immediate comment on the title change.

‘Billu’ has got Sharukh Khan coming in an important character. He comes in the role of an actor himself. But the title role Billu is done by Irfan Khan, who has got a prominent place in the bollywood since last five years. The film tells the hidden relationship between a film star and a lower middle class man. Thus ‘Billu’ is yet another remake for Priyadarshan in the hindi film field. This time he took the story of ‘Kadha Parayumbol’ in malayalam. ‘Kuselan’, the tamil remake of the same story was released almost 6months before. But it didn’t do well. The extra publicity and boost up given for the superstar Rajnikanth along with the over expectation by the audience were the major reasons for its failure. Also they made the things vulgar by adding unnecessary glamour and comedy scenes.

The mistake done by tamil director P.Vasu has not happened in the case of Priyadarshan. He had omitted all unnecessary things here. Only addition by him is a scene as it is from the malayalam movie ‘Azhakia Ravanan’, in which Innocent who did the role of panchayat president failed to say the dialogue “n” number of times while doing the acting scene. Here also the hero’s role is lengthy, it is an adaption from tamil. Shahrukh has got 3-4 songs featuring Deepika Padukone, Kareena Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra. Sharukh Khan has given his best in the climax. Irfan Khan, as usual has done the role with ease (without showing much facial expressions). Glamour girl, Lara Dutta who has done the house wife’s role is good. Ompuri in his serious appearance and Rajpal Yadav has created some comic situations. Malayalam actor Jagadish who has done the modern saloon owner role is a wrong choice here.

Priyadarshan, with the help of excellent visuals by Manikantan (cameraman) and Sabu Cyril (art director), has changed south indian place Pollachi into a village in Uthar Pradesh. The mini town ship in which the barber shop and related incidents happening has been created using set designs. Music director Pritam has given some fast numbers.

If you can enjoy ‘Billu’ assuming it as a fresh subject, then it is ok…otherwise it is wastage of time.

Rating : 3.5 / 5