Bareilly Ki Barfi


Bareilly Ki Barfi is a 2017 Indian romantic comedy film directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari and starring Kriti Sanon, Ayushmann Khurrana, and Rajkumar Rao, with Pankaj Tripathi and Seema Pahwa portraying supporting roles. The film was theatrically released in India on 18 August 2017, receiving generally positive reviews from critics, and emerged as a commercial success grossing over worldwide against a budget of. The film ran for more than 70 days in both India and abroad, and received six nominations at the 63rd Filmfare Awards, including Best Supporting Actress and Best Film, and won Best Director and Best Supporting Actor.

Plot

Bitti Mishra is a young contemporary girl in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. Bitti's mother, Susheela, just wants to marry off her daughter, while Bitti wants a husband who understands her and accepts her the way she is. Her mother gets irritated with Bitti's constant rejections but her father Narottam understands her.
After her latest rejection and overhearing her parents' concern regarding her marriage, Bitti decides to leave town and randomly buys a ticket. While on the train platform, she buys a book at a bookstall titled Bareilly Ki Barfi. She reads it and identifies with the protagonist. Having found acceptance in the pages of the book, she decides to return home. She longs to meet the writer, Pritam Vidrohi, and is directed to Chirag Dubey, whose printing press had published the book. Bitti doesn't know that Chirag is in fact the true author of the book. He had written it five years ago, after experiencing heartbreak when his girlfriend Babli dumped him and married someone else. Since giving his own name as the writer might destroy Babli's reputation, he had coaxed the meek Pritam Vidrohi, his acquaintance, to give his name instead. Vidrohi agrees but gets so scared of the possible future scenarios, that he leaves the city.
Chirag convinces Bitti to write letters to the author instead of meeting him personally. Chirag, being the true author, writes back and passes it off as Vidrohi's response. In the meantime, Chirag and Bitti become good friends. Bitti starts to lose patience when Vidrohi refuses to meet her. Chirag, having fallen for Bitti, decides to tell her the truth. When he learns that her mother hates the writer for spoiling Bitti's mind, he decides not to tell the truth, instead searching for Vidrohi to make him the scapegoat.
Chirag finds Vidrohi living in Lucknow and convinces him to act boorish so that Bitti will be cured of her infatuation. Vidrohi pretends to be a rude person upon meeting Bitti. However, despite his rude behaviour, he shows a sensitive side that makes Bitti and her family like him. Vidrohi is warned to leave by Chirag but when he doesn't, Chirag is angered. Vidrohi reveals the real reason he stayed back: he has fallen for Bitti's friend, Rama. Bitti's mother however sees the perfect son-in-law in Vidrohi so Chirag lies about Vidrohi being a divorcee, since marrying a divorcee is considered taboo.
Vidrohi reveals his feelings for Rama to her. While Rama likes him, she rejects him, thinking he's a divorcee. After years of bullying, this is the final straw; Vidrohi threatens Chirag that he will take Bitti away from him. Chirag believes that Bitti will never fall for someone like Vidrohi. To his shock, Vidrohi wins over Bitti and invites him to their engagement. Chirag says that if he can't be happy, he won't let Vidrohi be happy either. Vidrohi calls Chirag out for his selfishness. Chirag is unable to tell Bitti the truth after seeing how happy she is. He realizes how his selfishness had blinded him. He decides he is happy as long as Bitti is happy and apologizes to Vidrohi who forgives him.
On the day of the engagement, Vidrohi asks Chirag to recite the lines he wrote for Bitti. Chirag begins to recite but his emotions overcome him. The speech leaves everyone in tears. Bitti reveals the truth: Vidrohi had revealed everything to her, from the fact that Chirag was the real author to Rama rejecting him. They were just testing whether Chirag really loved Bitti or if he just was in love with the fact that Bitti resembled his ex. Chirag and Vidrohi share a hug. The movie ends with Chirag and Bitti together and Vidrohi and Rama together.

Cast

The music of the film is composed by Tanishk Bagchi, Arko Pravo Mukherjee, Samira Koppikar, Sameer Uddin and Vayu while the lyrics of the film were written by Arko Pravo Mukherjee, Tanishk Bagchi, Shabbir Ahmed, Puneet Sharma, Abhishek Verma and Vayu. The first song of the film "Sweety Tera Drama" sung by Dev Negi, Pawni Pandey and Shraddha Pandit was released on 24 July 2017. The second song titled as "Nazm Nazm" which is sung, written and composed by Mukherjee was released on 31 July 2017. The third single to be released was "Twist Kamariya" sung by Harshdeep Kaur, Yasser Desai, Bagchi and Altamash Faridi was released on 8 August 2017. The soundtrack was released by Zee Music Company on 11 August 2017.

Reception

Critical response

Bareilly Ki Barfi received positive reviews from the critics it was praised for its heartwarming, realistic story and performances, in particular that of Rajkummar Rao.
Meena Iyer of The Times of India gave the film 4/5 stars, writing, "The writers Nitesh Tiwari and Shreyas Jain have put together a sweet, identifiable crowd-pleaser that excels in the writing, direction, acting and music departments." Rohit Vats of Hindustan Times praised the film saying that, "Ayushmann Khurrana, Kriti Sanon’s Bareilly Ki Barfi manages to capture the flavour of small-town India, with Rajkummar Rao bringing in the chutzpah" and gave the film a 3.5/5 star rating.
Samrudhi Ghosh of India Today appreciated the performances of the actors saying that, "The strength of Bareilly Ki Barfi is its cast. Kriti Sanon's bohemian small-town-girl act is a far cry from her usual fare, but she pulls it off with aplomb. Ayushmann Khurrana looks effortless as the jilted aashiq trying to win over the woman of his dreams by hook or by crook. But it is Rajkummar Rao who steals the show as the timid salesman turned rangbaaz." Samrudhi concluded her review by saying that, "After Nil Battey Sannata, director Ashwini Iyer Tiwari brings us another engaging watch. There is no dull moment in the film. Light and fluffy, Bareilly Ki Barfi is no heavy seven-course meal, but it is quite the delicious dessert." and gave the film 4/5 stars. Rajeev Masand of News 18 gave the film 3.5/5 stars and said that, "It’s a sweet, inoffensive romantic comedy based on a slim premise, but buoyed by strong performances, the unmistakable charm, and texture of small-town India, and garnished with moments of crackling humor."
Devesh Sharma of Filmfare gave the film a rating of 4/5 stars and concluded the review saying that, "All-in-all, Bareilly Ki Barfi is a good second film from Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari and gives her a chance to prove her versatility. Watch the film for some good, clean fun. It will give you ample laughs throughout and you’ll walk away from the theatre with a satisfied smile on your face."

Awards and nominations