Revisiting 'Bareilly Ki Barfi' on director Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari's birthday
Writer-director-producer Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari is celebrating her 44th birthday on Sunday. Tiwari started her film career through the short What's For Breakfast? (2012) and made her feature film debut with Nil Battey Sannata (2016). Out of all the projects she has been associated with, her 2017 directorial Bareilly Ki Barfi glistens effortlessly for its relatability quotient, humor, and multiple solid performances. Let's revisit it.
Ayushmann Khurrana and Rajkummar Rao's towering, charismatic performances
Bareilly Ki Barfi, more than anything else, stands tall on the towering performances turned in by Ayushmann Khurrana and Rajkummar Rao, both of whom are scene stealers in their own rights. They have contrasting personalities—Chirag (Khurrana) is dominant and assertive, while Pritam (Rao) cowers under his fear and struggles to stitch a sentence together. But when these forces are joined onscreen, they concoct magic.
One can revisit it every few months
BKB is also one of those rare films that age beautifully with time. An endearing rewatch quality lingers upon it because of the humor it mines from everyday situations in middle-class families, the discussions Bitti has with her mother about her reluctance to get married, and the way an altogether new personality sprouts from Pritam when he becomes his alter ego, "Badass Babuaa."
Pankaj Tripathi as Narottam Mishra: Role for ages
BKB cast Pankaj Tripathi in one of his most memorable roles, as a soft, understanding, empathy-filled man who doesn't succumb to patriarchy despite living in a small town. In fact, he is one of the rare men who doesn't view their daughter's wedding as a task that needs to be struck off the list. Tiwari makes us long for a feminist father like him.
Portrayal of Bitti and how it was tied to Narottam
Bitti (Kriti Sanon) was shaped by her father's free-spirited thoughts, and never felt second to a man, rightfully so. In making her a 21st-century girl, notably, Iyer doesn't unnecessarily make Bitti too loud, riddled with cliches, or an in-the-face character. She is someone we can easily connect with. In BKB, nobody was a flowerpot and it was a melting pot of multiple fine actors.
