.
Trust the man who came from Fauji to give us a film reminiscent of the good old Doordarshan days.
Shah Rukh Khan's latest production is a simplistic, well-meaning take on a familiar story, and Billu -- perhaps inadvertently -- ends up being a naive little children's film, the kind of entertainment DD used to hurl at us kids during its Afternoon Transmission.
It takes a while to get used to it. The setting is that of the imaginary village of Budbuda, which like most cinematic villages behaves like no other place on earth. Its residents speak as if constantly on stage in a school play, and director Priyadarshan's attempt at restrained realism -- his Swades , so to speak -- takes place in a stagey, theatrical, unreal zone. His village is populated mostly by cutouts, yet, by the time the film's end rolls around, they end up rather likeable.
Such is also the case with the film's leading man, Billu. Irrfan Khan plays the barber with the sort of plodding sincerity that initially grates on our nerves, nerves nowadays used to slangy edginess in character, but such is the charm of the everyman performer that it becomes increasingly difficult to not like him.
details here: http://www.rediff.com/movies/2009/feb/13review-billu.htm
Trust the man who came from Fauji to give us a film reminiscent of the good old Doordarshan days.
Shah Rukh Khan's latest production is a simplistic, well-meaning take on a familiar story, and Billu -- perhaps inadvertently -- ends up being a naive little children's film, the kind of entertainment DD used to hurl at us kids during its Afternoon Transmission.
It takes a while to get used to it. The setting is that of the imaginary village of Budbuda, which like most cinematic villages behaves like no other place on earth. Its residents speak as if constantly on stage in a school play, and director Priyadarshan's attempt at restrained realism -- his Swades , so to speak -- takes place in a stagey, theatrical, unreal zone. His village is populated mostly by cutouts, yet, by the time the film's end rolls around, they end up rather likeable.
Such is also the case with the film's leading man, Billu. Irrfan Khan plays the barber with the sort of plodding sincerity that initially grates on our nerves, nerves nowadays used to slangy edginess in character, but such is the charm of the everyman performer that it becomes increasingly difficult to not like him.
details here: http://www.rediff.com/movies/2009/feb/13review-billu.htm
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