Bareilly Ki Barfi Movie Review: As Sweet As Its Namesake

After making an impressive directorial debut with Nil Battey Sannata, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari comes up with a small-town rom-com in the form of Bareilly Ki Barfi starring Ayushmann Khurrana, Kriti Sanon and Rajkummar Rao. But is this ‘Barfi’ palatable? Let’s find out...

Bitti Mishra (Sanon), who smokes, watches English movies and can break dance, is not your typical ‘girl next door’, because of which, she has been rejected by many suitors. When she comes across a novel and discovers that the female protagonist in the book is exactly like her, she decides to trace the author and meet him.

Now, the actual author of the book is Chirag Dubey (Khurrana), who had used his mild-mannered friend Pritam’s (Rajkummar Rao) name as the author of the book to avoid any backlash. Therefore, when Bitti asks Chirag for his help, the besotted Chirag decides to train Pritam to behave obnoxiously and break her heart so that he can then move in and woo her. What happens next is a comedy of errors as both men deal in a game of one-upmanship to get married to Bitti.

Ayushmann is strictly average as Chirag, though he manages to shine in a couple of scenes while Kriti is easy on the eyes, though it is tough to imagine her as a Bareilly belle. However, it is Rajummar Rao, who takes the entire film on his shoulders. The man, who made his bones with off-beat films, proves beyond all doubts that he can rock a mainstream commercial too and it is a sheer delight to watch him play the mild-mannered Pritam Vidrohi, who can transform into a macho redneck in the blink of an eye. Pankaj Tripathi and Seema Pahwa, who play Bitti’s parents are quit decent enough and special mention must be made of the actor, who played Chirag’s loyal sidekick Munna.

As far as the film goes, the first half is not so engaging, to be very honest and you may find your attention wandering towards the popcorn. However, once Rajkummar enters the narrative, the film gets elevated to another level altogether and starts becoming entertaining and engaging. The dialogues are quite humorous and it is obvious that much attention has been paid to writing them. The constant competition between Chirag and Pritam to woo Bitti is one of the highlights of the film and you will definitely find yourself rooting for the underdog Pritam.

The climax is somewhat predictable, but by the time you arrive there, you have started liking the movie to an extent, where you don’t find it difficult to forgive the makers for it.

All said and done, Bareilly Ki Barfi will leave you with a sweet aftertaste...