Film Review - Billoo * *

Billoo is a story of how the underdog finally emerges victorious against all odds, just like Slumdog was. Only that Slumdog was far superior in all respects. Billoo on the other hand is a very shoddily made movie.

Priyadarshan uses one his favorite recipes – humor in the rural setting. This is a recipe that he has very effectively used in his previous movies –Malaamaal Weekly and Hulchul. As the movie progresses and the same characters start emerging one after the other, you almost feel a sense of Déjà vu. It’s not long before you realize that this is probably the same village and the same people that you have seen in Maalamal Weekly.Sadly the setting is the best part.

The movie is a depiction of how a village is crazily waiting to meet their superstar and how they can do anything to achieve this. It is but difficult to stretch such a weak script for three hours. Pritam’s peppy item numbers featuring Kareena, Deepika and Priyanka help the pace of the movie. They are a welcome break from the permutations and combinations of antics that the villagers adopt to appease Billoo into getting them to meet Sahil. Priyadarshan is really brave to have stretched this for three whole hours. The movie seems to have been made within a really short span. Even the lip-syncing hasn’t been done well. Unexpectedly for a Priyadarshan movie, the dialogues aren’t funny either. Rajpal Yadav who’s playing a writer and the guy who is playing the hotel manager are irritating. The part where the hotel manager meets Shahrukh for the first time and the part where he wastes an eternity saying the same dialogue, get on your nerves.

In spite of the fact that he is playing himself, Shahrukh’s acting is disappointing to say the least. He uses the movie to get the point across to Akshay that he is the real King of Bollywood. The movie shows his poster amongst that of Gods (the hardliners are rightly protesting), of the village painted with posters of all his hit movies, villagers worshipping his poster and a full song describing how he is a superstar. He flagrantly cracks jokes about Akshay. I hope Akshay watches this, or Sharukh’s effort will go a waste for the audiences will hardly come. I hope noone kills me for saying this, but the kids who’ve played Billoo’s son and daughter have done a better job than Shahrukh. Irrfan Khan is just the same - no good no bad. He does the same acting and the same stammering act in every movie, so one can hardly comment. Lara looks authentic as a village woman.

All in all, Billoo is a no-effort movie, made to earn some quick bucks. For me, not even a one time watch.