Red Chillies Entertainment promoted by SRK has been able to produce entertainers right from its inception. Beginning with Main Hoon Na (04) to Om Shanti Om (07) they have been consistently offering entertainers together with King Khans Presence. This time Red Chillies has roped in the King of entertainers Priyadarshan to direct Billu and certainly the expectations for a film with such a fantastic combination should be sky high and the final outcome successfully meets all expectations.
However the viewers should strictly understand a few facts about billu.
Its not totally a conventional Priyadarshans comedy fare. The humour element here is subtle and not at all Loud.
It is not at a movie focused on SRK, the movie fully belongs to Irfan Khan.
Taking these facts into consideration one is bound to find Billu very convincing. Billu starts off showing Irfan Khan (Bilas Rao Pardesi aka Billu) a simple man living in a village with his wife Bindiya (Lara Dutta) and two children, he is a barber by profession and is poor and down trodden and unable to meet the ends.
His life goes for a drastic change when Sahir Khan (SRK), a superstar visits their village for a film shoot. Things then go from bad to good to even worse for Billu untill the climax reveals a change in his fortune.
BILLU is a simple story about simple people, told in the most simplistic manner. 10 minutes into the film, one is bound to get absorbed into the small world of Billu.
Surely this is one of Priyadarshans finest work and the screenplay is so tight that every moment it manages to grab the audiences attention into the movie. The finest moment of the movie is perhaps the finale, where the superstars remembers his childhood friend and his contributions towards his success.
The assorted characters -- right from an aspiring poet/lyricist [Rajpal Yadav], to a stingy money lender [Om Puri], to the principal of the school [Rasika Joshi] -- everyone wants favours from Billu. These characters only make BILLU more interesting.
What Billu as a movie can offer is clean entertainment all the way supported by a rivetting story line and powerful performances by the entire cast.
Priyadarshan has aptly placed the songs featuring Kareena, Priyanka and Dipika into the narrative and not for a single moment the viewers would feel that they are watching two stories in parallel, the story of the superstar and the story of Billu the Barber.
Mushtaq Shekhs and Priyadarshans screenplay is flawless and Manisha Kordes dialogues are simple and gels well with the theme and the mood of the movie.
The weakest department in the enterprise is perhaps Pritams music. Barring the two songsMar Jani and Love Mera hit hit none of the songs are upto the standards of a Red Chilly Enterprise.
Irfan has already proved to be a force to reckon with and he performs his role with ease and seamlessness. Not for a single moment the viewers would think that he is acting his part as because he is so natural. Lara Dutta impresses in a totally deglamourised role.
SRK delivers his best at the end when he delivers his speech in the event at the school. He has chosen a film which is not at all one of those run-of-the-mill types. Among the rest of the cast Om Puri is excellent, Rajpal Yadav is OK, Rasika Joshi is passable. Asrani and Manoj Joshi acts their parts well.
On a whole Billu is simple sweet and a film that would rest in your memory for quite some time. At the box office it has immense potetial to do atleast more than average business. Watch it along with your family