Billu (Irrfan Khan) is a poor village barber, with a wife (Lara Dutta) and two kids. He struggles to make ends meet, but has courage and dry humour to withstand it all. Somewhere else, popular film star Sahir Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) select's Billu's village as a location for his latest film. How the destinies of these two men unfold makes up the story.
Priyadarshan can't get out of his 'making every scene comic' mode and his dialogue writers make sure we don't laugh at most of the supposed jokes. The climax of the movie is convincing, but by then, it is only a gleam in the otherwise forced-comic-drama-melodrama proceedings.
Irrfan Khan is splendid as Billu, his expressions convey what is going through the hapless barber's mind, without dialogue too. Shah Rukh Khan, also the film's producer, allows too much hero-worship indulgence , allowing the story to meander further. If only the director had exerted his skill with more creative zeal. Watch it for Irrfan's exercising his great art at work...
What's in a name?
The posters outside the theatre have a white bandage over the word - Barber. Hastly stuck by glue, the paper peels off one of the posters and the former movie title stares at us. So much for democracy and hurt feelings...
Instead...
Watch the original Malayalam film that is more deftly, simply made - Katha Parayumpol (2007).
The posters outside the theatre have a white bandage over the word - Barber. Hastly stuck by glue, the paper peels off one of the posters and the former movie title stares at us. So much for democracy and hurt feelings...
Instead...
Watch the original Malayalam film that is more deftly, simply made - Katha Parayumpol (2007).
