The Trailer For Anurag Basu's BARFI! Is Live & I'm In Love!

Anurag Basu's upcoming Barfi! is now, officially, my most anticipated film of the second half of 2012. Basu is perhaps best known to the film world as the director of the failed Bolly/Hollywood crossover Kites from 2010. Kites was written and conceived as the kind of property that would bring major Indian film stars, like Hrithik Roshan into the American mainstream consciousness. Instead, the film, which was reedited for US audiences by Brett Ratner, flopped even though it's not nearly as terrible as you might read. 

This time around Basu has his own story to tell, and it draws on some of the finest characters in Hindi film history for its inspiration. Ranbir Kapoor plays Barfi, a deaf-mute charmer who has a way with the ladies in a beautifully elegant way. During the film he comes into contact with a character played by Ileana D'Cruz (making her Hindi film debut in spite of being born in Mumbai), and Priyanka Chopra, who plays a mentally disabled women which doesn't look as bad as these things usually do. Things go a bit haywire, and the film appears to take on a life of it's own.

The trailer is a thing of beauty. Basu's visuals and Kapoor's flair for physical performance and comedy are amazing. The trailer displays hints of everything from Charlie Chaplin's Tramp, to the similar, if even more popular character played by Hindi film legend Raj Kapoor (incidentally Ranbir's real life grandfather) in the '40s and '50s with a hint of the dashing debonair for which the recently passed "evergreen" film star Dev Anand was famous. I've already seen comparisons in the media to Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amelie, and they look pretty apt. If the film manages to be half as good as this remarkable trailer, it's bound to be a huge hit.

I found every second of this promo to be absolutely absorbing, and I cannot wait for this release now. Please, take a couple of minutes and enjoy the trailer for Barfi!