Billu

Priyadarshan who is known for movies like Hera Pheri (Excellent) , Garam Masal (Entertaining) , Kyon Ki (touching). Works with SRK for the first time. Promos looked promising etc, but i guess the movie lacked a soul. Billu was just boring from starting to ending, SRK was busy promoting himself as a big star in the movie, although that is what the role demanded.. I was just getting tired of the filmposters and scenes from all his other movies, they should have come up with something innovative here. SRK had a superstar attitude throughout the whole movie except the last 10 minutes. Irfan Khan shines again, the amazing actor manages to perform really well in this bad written flick too, that is what an actors job is after all, very good Irfan! Lara doesn't have much scope, 10 minutes all together? or 20 maybe! SRK proves that he is a very commercial producer, and uses his celebrity friends for item songs so that the promos look cool. Kareena Kapoor sure looked good in Marjaani, Deepika looked OK, and Priyanka did a good job. Though the songs were horribly misplaced in the movie. Irfans kids in the movie do a great job, they were natural. Songs by pritam are of course a very big hit. They are all great, Marjaani, Love Mera Hit Hit, Khudaiya Khair/You get me rocking and reeling. Superb. + Irfans performance + Songs - SRK Self promotion - Too damn commercial - B-oooooooring

This was the worst movie i have ever seen in the history of Hindi cinema!!! It is not a movie, but just publicity stunt by Shahrukh khan! I respect the actor but this is really a black spot on his career according to me! Even the director of the movie has not taken care of many things like at some place in the movie, some villager was purchasing magazine having SRK written on it, whereas the name of Shahrukh khan in movie is Sahir khan, not Shah Rukh Khan, so apparently not SRK! :) Getting it ? :) There were many such things which were needed to be taken care of, but many shots and dialogs r just put without pondering a little bit on it! Even though some funny moments were there but not such that u really miss the fun and u cant live without it.. U can never afford even 20Rs to watch such movie and waste your time.... Some songs r also put haphazardly in it,completely redundant! Please Mr Shahrukhji, don't ever hammer your fans with any more such boring movies! :(

First time i watched the movie it lacked subtitles so i depended on my poor Hindi and emotional body and facial expression. The movie lacked depth to me in its first parts. Till it reached the climax the quality of emotions got some depth. Second time i viewed it my impression got better. The first part was classic Priyadrashan movie which i don't like AT ALL. Most of his films don't leave any mark on me and they slip out of my mind. I was surprised that SRK chose him for such a story that depicts a moral and values we are in desperate need in these days. However, the shooting and photography is brilliant and eye catching. I am a fan of Irrfan and Shahrukh so i got my fill of both. But the last part of the movie meant much more with adequate understanding. I actually cried a lot, especially parts where Sahir recites similar stories of his youth that overlap with shahrukh's himself. I still feel more Irrfan was required, more passionate and sorrowful but i guess its a priyadrashan movie anyway. watch it for the scenery, watch it for Irrfan and SHahrukh.. Lara dutta does a good job too. for once two hours are not enough for the story.

Well... I thought it was another SRK film but surprisingly Shahrukh or 'Sahir' merely has a 15 minute role in this surpriser movie. The story goes simple: out of the blue a film-shooting-unit arrives in a typical village (Budbuda). The lead actor happens to be Sahir Khan, an old-school friend of Billu, one of the two barbers of the village owing a deteriorated barber shop with too few customers to support Billu's family. His children are chucked out of school for non-payment of fees, people are on his head for repayment of borrowed money, and he has none. So when Sahir arrives and word spreads that he is Billu's close friend, everyone chases Billu, gifting him new things (an entire new BARBER shop!!), forgiving his loans, using funds to pay his fees on a simple bet: that Billu help them make acquaintance with the superstar. On the other hand, Billu greatly fears that Sahir may have forgotten him and thus doesn't, at least for some time, make a single attempt to reach out to Sahir. But as his career flourishes and money begins to flow in, Billu realizes that he has no choice but to fulfill the "needs" of the people. Every attempt he makes to reach out to Sahir fails. The film is not about whether or not Billu makes it: find out for yourself. The film focuses greatly on how much of a positive and much-more negative impact the arrival of Sahir has on Billu. The film has other aspects, such as Shahrukh becoming Sahir and using this film as a medium to convey a certain messages about the filming industry and controversies caused to the people. Excellent performances by Irrfan Khan and Lara Dutta. Shahrukh has done simply and satisfying. Nothing great as he is prone to doing in films in which he is the lead actor. My heart was beating badly in the climax - such instances may be felt if you watch the film with your heart and feel for Billu and his wife. The songs are good, soothing. Love Mera Hit Hit is a superb rocker. Khuda Aiyer (forgive my spelling) is a soothing tone and beautiful lyrics. All-in-all, not really a must-watch, but but something not to be missed. 8/10. Go SRK!

The movie starts with a very good theme describing billu, the village the entry of srk and all. But the things gets worse when the general expectation of the viewer for a such a big release go wrong. I was expecting that srk will meet billu pretty soon and then the story will take an astonishing turn and show after abouts of the friendship or something else. But the director took it unnecessarily long and shown excessive and predictable incidents of billu not being able to meet srk. You ask me guys, this in no way looks like a feature film, but a cheap and unnecessarily long drama serial. Srk acting was not good at all. I will give it 4 stars just because of the acting of Irfan Khan and a comedy scene acted by hotel manager. It really disappointed me.

Billu Barber, this year's most expected release from the Red Chillies Banner simply turns out to be an ordinary watch. Directed by Priyadarshan, who's known for his Malayalam remakes in Hindi yet again fails to mark the everlasting impression on the audience. Billu Barber definitely looks like a sincere effort to make everyone like the movie. The movie starts off with low pace and just when you feel the movie is catching pace,the curtains are down. Billu Barber's protagonist Billu(Irfan Khan) is a petty barber from the village called Budbuda who struggles to earn every penny but still somehow manages to make a living supporting his family. He's simple, humble and a character that everyone in Budbuda loves. His destiny changes when, the film-star Sahir Khan(Shahrukh Khan) lands in Budbuda for the shooting of his film. Billu is then pestered by his children to go meet him,to whom he had once said Sahir Khan was his childhood friend. Things go out of hand when the news of Billu being the childhood friend of Sahir reaches every corner of Budbuda. Billu then refuses to accept the fact that he once knew Sahir, assuming that he wouldn't recognize their childhood friendship now. He's then mocked up by villagers for making such a fool of himself. The things leading up to him meeting Sahir Khan is for you to watch for yourself. Billu Barber's heart and soul is Irfan Khan. He's quite stupendous in the very first commercial movie that claims to put him as the main lead. His funny, serious and emotional shades are quite perfectly done. He's bang on with his performance as always. The highlight of the movie is the acting of Lara Dutta who plays Billu's wife. This is when you actually come to know, how important the script and the character are in making an actor give his-or-her best. Lara Dutta is extremely good giving her career best in BB. As always,Screenplay and dialogues of Billu Barber are something that's a little carelessly done as compared to the previous release of Red Chillies OSO that scored almost in every department. Shahrukh Khan does his bit of acting convincingly. The actors like Rajpal Yadav and Om Puri are let down with ordinary dialogues, who still try creating humor that goes totally unnoticed. The movie lacks the energy that a typical Shahrukh Khan movie usually tends to generate. The special appearances by Deepika, Kareena and Priyanka is good but lets you forget as continue watching the movie. Though the money is spent lavishly on the sets, the film fails to deliver the expectations of the audience. The Music of the movie is not appealing either. Billu Barber scores an mediocre rating in every department. I will go with 6 out of 10 for Priyadarshan's Billu Barber. Not a must watch. But go with no expectations and you might not be disappointed.

What could have been an excellent satire is brought down by poor writing and Priyadarshan's lousy direction. 'Billu' required some heavy editing. All the sequences with Shahrukh Khan in the first half (including those horrible item numbers) could have easily been left out as they provide nothing. His appearance in the second half was enough. The so-called comic scenes are typical Priyadarshan, which is irritatingly loud and seriously needs toning down. The mob sequences and Billu's attempts to meet Sahir are overdone and repetitive. The ending is melodramatic, which is typical of Priyadarshan films. All the songs are poorly executed and, with the exception of the last three songs ('Marjane' being the best), they are horrible to listen to. Shahrukh Khan plays himself. Nothing new there. Lara Dutta is decent and she looks the part. But, it is Irrfan who manages to rise above the poorness of this movie. He is quite exceptional as the down to earth almost out of work barber and is the reason to watch 'Billu'. Asrani and Om Puri are good in their roles. Rasika Joshi is cast against type and she too turns in a decent performance. The rest of the cast (including Rajpal Yadav) are terrible (which is usually the case in Priyadarshan's films). To sum it up, the best thing about 'Billu' is Irrfan Khan who makes what would be an otherwise bad film to mediocrity.

Nowadays most films are made to give important message for life so that everyone can connect with it. This film touches one's heart by giving great example of true friendship between two childhood friends. Both friends found themselves in different situation after childhood days of friendship as one became rich while the other remained poor but their bond of friendship was intact in their heart. The poor friend has started believing that his friend might have forgotten him after such a long time and after getting fame and money but in reality that was not the case instead he is still reminding his childhood friend and always wanted to meet him. The character of rich friend shows real down to earth personality of a person and example of true friendship that never fades irrespective of money and fame at the same time the character of poor friend and his wife also shows that being poor never restrict you of being good person. Over all this is very good film and must watch for its heart warming subject of friendship.

There was a time on TV when there were serials like Tenali Rama and Malgudi Days which were innocent, humorous and in the end,they never forgot to give us a sweet little moral teaching. It was a sweet thing which with time disappeared from our televisions. Cut to 2009, we have the son of television ,Shah Rukh Khan producing and acting in a film which attempts to bring the long forgotten innocence of the doordarshan era on celluloid. The film begins well and ends well but I feel there is something which makes Billu , a partial disappointment. May be the box office greed of the producer makes the movie nose dive from being fantastic innocent cinema to just a well tried attempt ,stuffed with unwanted elements. Honestly, the film didn't need those many item numbers and the people who think that ,all the audience wants are skimpily clad bollywood chicks shaking their bodies, are wrong. Terrible. But yeah,Kareena looks wow. Those super hero kinda animations with SRK were not needed either.Surely, SRK is planning to make a sci fi film and those sfx and graphics were an attempt to test the water, but hey please, leave the sci fi projects to the fair skinned film makers.We just don't have that budget . I am not bashing this movie but its just that I am disappointed.I wanted it to be a simple tale with Sahir Khan playing the messiah in the underplayed manner,but here its like, Sahir Khan pretends to hide yet he is flashing a torch.Getting me? The cast is fantastic with Lara looking like a goddess and her acting is great.Irfan who has the title role is magnificent ,but then he is Irfan Khan and he can never go wrong in my opinion.The supporting cast is in sparkling form.Special mention to the guy who plays the guest house manager.His scene where he acts as a policeman during the shooting is one of the most hilarious scenes ever. Scenes involving Om Puri and that school manager are genuinely funny. Loved the Abhay Kumar taunt on Akshay  The locations are great, the songs ,though unwanted are decent and the direction is like any other Priyadarshan film. Nothing special about it. Editing part is pathetic and the scenes jump from one to the other in a haphazard manner.Very unprofessional stuff indeed. The film is watchable because it is different and reminds me of those good ole days of TV.Its a sincere effort and Shah Rukh deserves a pat ,because they just don't make them like it anymore and at least the Khan has tried. Shah Rukh Khan playing himself minus the name is good but give me a re-run of Malgudi Days and I will forget about Billu . 7 out of 10 SRK has finally moved away from his target NRI NRP NRB audiences and I am sure that this film will do great business in India because its an honest attempt at a time when cinema shows a stupid cook fighting Chinese warriors and a guy is forgetting everything after 15 minutes yet not forgetting to steal Hollywood concepts Good job srk..Just wish the producer in you didn't have box office in mind...but....

This could have been a good rural movie with some good actors like Irfan Khan but for the item numbers which are so out of place, out of context that it is beyond the point of being ridiculous-pathetic. Why are the Indian producers spending enormous money on these item numbers? Om Puri who has proved himself to be a versatile actor is more a jester with his accident prone character. The part of the guest house manager acting as an inspector is so overdone it becomes more annoying than funny.The only redeeming scene is the last few scenes. The movie has no soul with erratic editing and dialog. Irfan Khan is the one actor who brings some serenity to an otherwise circus-like atmosphere that seems to prevail for the most part. This is typical SRK production with not much substance but hype. Lara Dutta has acquired new acting skills that come handy for a rural housewife-like making roti's bathing under waterfalls and making ransom demands to see an over-the-hill film actor. The scene where she falls out of the bed-day dreaming is plainly funny-"My god I had problems in the day-now at night too!"