Priyan (Priyadarshan) doesn’t believe in originality and new scripts and he is back after a long gap after the 2007 hit Bhool Bhulaiyaa (according to Priyan standards who is used to delivering 3 to 4 movies a year) in his trademark style wth a remake of a super hit malayam movie. This is the first time Priyan and Shahrukh have come together The script is more or less like the original Malayam (with some scenes an exact replica of the original) but Priyan revamped the script a bit and increased the presence of Shahrukh after the debacle of the Tamil remake of the same movie (Kuselan) starring superstar Rajnikant . At the outset, the movie seems to be an average bollywood Masala movie with Priyan Trademark Style.
Billu is the story of Bilas Rao Pardesi (Irfan Khan) who is a barber in the village of Budbuda, a small village in U.P. and has a wife Bindiya (Lara Dutta) and two children. He is poverty ridden and finds it hard to make ends meet. His life changes when a superstar Sahir Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) comes to this village to shoot his latest film. A word spreads around the village that Billu is a childhood friend of Sahir Khan and billu becomes a man of the village- everyone longing for some chance of a meeting with Khan. Initially Billu refuses any favours and keeps mum about his association with Sahir, but he he starts to enjoy the ride, telling himself that he did not start anything. Billu tries to meet Sahir on repeated insistence from his family but is unable to do so.In the climax, at a school function, Sahir tells people about Billu and how he owes his success to him. Khan visits Billu's house and promises to keep in touch and to live their lives together again. Billu becomes the Hero of the Village.
The last 15 minutes is the high point of the movie which show the reunion of the two child hood friends. Priyan made an honest approach but deviated a bit from the story by focusing too much on Shahrukh and unnecessary item songs. Screenplay of the movie is below average with item numbers and random action scenes thrown here and there. Irfan Khan is the real hero of the movie and is the best choice for the role. Lara also puts up decent performance. The chemistry between Irfan and his children’s is endearing an d believable. The rest of cast include Rajpal Yadav , Om Puri and Asrani have nothing new to offer and are not exploited to the fullest in the movie. Shahrukh plays the usual self in the movie and his superstar portrayal is infact inferior when compared to OSO.
Positives :
• Last fifteen minutes of the movie
• Irfan Khan – Simply Outstanding
• Peppy Music
Negatives :
• Screenplay
• Too much focus on commercialization subdues the emotional undercurrent in the movie
Rating : **1/2
2 comments:
I do not agree fully with RG on this one ....... for one , this is nothing like a Priyadarshan movie .... no multiple story lines, no bucketful confusion and certainly no running at the end ....also the movie was pretty decent with true performances(no over the top acting, which is usually the case in SRK movies),a very believable support cast and some nice songs to glamorize the proceedings once in a while.Agreed, the storyline was not extraordinary but the screenplay more than made up for it and even for 150 rupees it did its job well - Making sure the viewers had a good time.
@ alphaseeker
I do agree with the fact this was a bit different from a usual Priyadarshan movie and enjoyable too,but Priyan lost his path by focusing too much on Shahrukh Khan and the commercialization aspect of the movie
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