Priyanka as an individual on the spectrum is convincing and doesn't make the cardinal sin of an over the top portrayal of a poorly understood medical disorder. The complex autism spectrum disorder affects a person's ability to make sense of the world and relate to others and can be diagnosed by a range of (but is not limited to) patterns such as impaired social and communication skills, avoiding eye contact, disliking physical touch, stereotypy, compulsive behavior such as stacking objects, focusing intently on certain things and not showing much emotional attachment to people. In dowdy ill-fitting clothes, terrible hair, no make up and very little self-awareness of her body, her interpretation of the character of Jhilmil is admirable. Priyanka Chopra has had to let herself go completely in this movie and that just shows how much trust she has shown in the director. In the course of the movie, she goes through a series of emotions such as love, self-doubt, shame, guilt, jealousy and liberation and she embodies them effectively with her expressive eyes. Ileana D'Cruz is beautiful and fits into her role like a glove. He is goofy, irresistibly charming and most importantly, natural in this performance. He has proved his mettle as an actor with a wide range of roles and movie genres. Ranbir Kapoor with this movie, will go from being 'the next big thing' in Bollywood to 'the current big thing'. In a movie, where there is very little talking, they manage to convey a kaleidoscope of emotions just through their facial expressions and body language. The performance of the lead actors is praiseworthy.
The shuttling back and forth narrative often become befuddling and the whole 'mystery' element is not much of a mystery and in my opinion, weakens the premise. There are plenty of heartwarming moments from start to end (one of my favorites being Barfi's reaction to a man ogling at Jhilmil) but there are places when the movie falters especially in the second half. As a refreshing change, it doesn't tackle the sensitive issue of handicap or disability, rather it focuses on human relationships in the face of prejudice and the trappings of our materialistic and superficial society. To be fair, although this movie lacks an extraordinary story, it does have extraordinary characters.
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