Billu Barber renamed to Billu is a scene-to-scene replica of the original Malayalam film, Katha Parayumpol with almost no freshness.
Irfan is the sales copy and ShahRukh is the Testimonial to that. Deepika, Priyanka and Kareena are just for Item numbers and to add $0.3 cents of glamour.
The story (ah.. where is it?) is pretty straight forward with no twists.
Billu runs a barber shop that isn’t doing well. His shop was considered as Nirupa Roy while his competitor’s were Rakhi Sawant in a villager’s joke.
Billu’s village has several cool characters. Om Puri is self-imposed moneylender, Rajpal Yadav’s is hopeless funny poet and a competitor barber is with golden hair flecks.
ShahRukh who is playing role of Film Star Sahir Khan comes to Billu’s village for a film shoot (Aasma ka farishta Aur khoon ka rishta)
Billu’s family is content with wife Bindiya (Lara Dutta) and two kids. After knowing that Sahir Khan is Billu’s childhood friend, his family goes into delirium. All the villagers learn about it sooner than later. His kids’ school fees are waived and he is gifted new office-furniture by the moneylender, all for just one purpose. Get them to meet Sahir Khan in person, invite Khan to lunch or dinner etc.
Billu is very reluctant in asking Sahir for such things till the Movie End discovers something which he never ever thought of.
Some of the comedy sequences, Dialogue and the Matured End are good but the problem is you have to wait to reach it.
Priyadarshan’s direction seems to be like Indian Share market Index. Sometimes over 21k (Virasat, Hera Pheri) and sometimes below 7k! (Mere Baap Pehle Aap, Bhagam Bhag) and sometimes 10k (this one)
Story: 1.5/5
Dialogues: 3.5/5
Music: 2/5
Acting: 3.5/5 (Irfan and ShahRukh are awesome as always)
Direction: 2.5/5
Overall: 2/5 (Can-watch)
In one sentence: “More of a DVD or Drive-In movie (where the cost per person is less than Rs.50/-) than a multiplex one!”
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