An old haggard man stumbles out of his bed, detaches his IV and turns on his camera, attaching
it to the stand.
He sits in front of the camera and takes a picture of himself, after which he suddenly
collapses.
The next scene shows a rainy day in India with a teacher narrating the story, she stated
that she never had a proper picture of ‘Barfi’ whom we assume is the man who collapsed.
Every time she asked for one, he would say that he would take one before his death.
The teacher gets a call to her office and finds out that her husband is on his deathbed.
She travels on train to see him one last time, narrating that Barfi always taught her to
gain happiness from little moments.
She elaborates saying she always brought misfortune in his life…
But he never seemed to mind it, that's how free spirited he was.
The next scene shows Kolkata in 1978.
A young woman clad in a saree with braided hair gets out of a rickshaw and bangs on a
door.
She gets help from a local police officer residing there who gets ready to kick the
door pen; but he doesn't have to- a young man in a collared shirt and hat struts out
the door, gurgling water in his mouth and tapping his throat.
All of a sudden, he spits the water out and makes a run for it, jumping from roof to roof.
The police chases him all over town, jumping into vegetable carts and tearing down parked
bicycles!
The music is humorous as Barfi escapes through imaginative ways.
However, his rendezvous comes to an end when he finally gets caught and is taken away.
The woman who initially knocked on his door chases them down and seems confused as the
police take the man away.
After going home, the woman known as Shruti gets a call from Ranjeet, her husband, who
questions her and scolds her about police at their house, further asking what her relation
to Barfi is, but she does not have a reply.
That day after the call, Shruti leaves her home behind to help Barfi.
She says she did so because she might still be in love with Barfi the same way she was
6 years ago.
The movie goes back to 1972 in Darjeeling where Shruti’s father’s job was.
Shruti is in a car driving to a destination.
There, they stop to ask a passerby, Barfi for an address, 101-4, Government Bungalows,
Hillcart Road.
Barfi, the then stranger points weirdly in the direction they should take and rides his
bike away.
He is seen to be a weird boy who takes part in surreal and funny activities all over town.
He seems to be a hooligan who people call ‘rascal Barfi’, but he always spread happiness,
as per the words of everyone who knew him.
One day, he is randomly travelling alongside the train and snatches a child’s chocolate
bar and eats it.
He sees the reflection of pretty Shruti in the window and goes to her window and stares
at her with a goofy smile on his face, and doesn't take notice of the pole in front of
him, causing him to bump into it and fall heavily onto the dirt tracks.
He gets up and runs to the train station and follows the girl and her friend to a bridge,
where he introduces himself with hand gestures.
It seems like he is deaf.
He gestures towards his heart which he then puts at the ground in front of Shruti’s
feet, indicating that she is giving his heart to her.
She kicks the imaginary heart back to him, turns around and smiles.
Barfi catches her smiling but she leaves before he can talk more.
He continues following them into a cafe, where he sits in front of her and introduces himself
in the only voice he can muster out; a squeaky high-pitched sound.
She can tell he likes her, and shows him her ring, letting him know shes engaged.
He leaves.
Outside the cafe, Barfi gets an idea when looking towards the clock tower and sends
a note up to Shruti.
While Shruti is looking towards Barfi who has climbed up the towers and is changing
the time, her friend reads the letter, which tells Shruti to pretend he never confessed
to her, to think of him as a new friend who will dance at her wedding.
Later, Shruti tells her friend that she really Is engaged to her college’s heartthrob,
Ranjeet, who proposed to her without her expecting it.
The scenes show as Shruti and Barfi get close, she narrates the way he taught her to live,
to have adventures, as they ride their bicycles together.
The scene goes back to 1978 when Barfi got caught by the police.
Shruti rushes to the police station and asks for Inspector Dutta, who tells her of all
the offenses Barfi has committed throughout the years, including robbing a bank, kidnapping
the daughter of a well respected man in Darjeeling, Ms. Jhilmil Chatterjee.
The story moves to Jhilmil, who was 6 when her family left her at Muskaan.
She was pure and soft, but due to her autism, her parents were embarrassed of her.
Rumor even has it that her own mother tried to kill her.
That was when her grandfather brought her to Muskaan and it became her home.
Jhilmil is taken from her home in Muskaan and taken back to Darjeeling because her grandfather
wants to see her before he dies.
Daju, the old man in charge of Muskaan and awfully close to Jhilmil bids her goodbye
and cries hard as she leaves.
On her way to her abusive family home in Darjeeling, Jhilmil’s car almost crashes into Shruti
and Barfi who are riding their bicycle.
Jhilmil surprisingly turns back and sees Barfi waving his shoe at her.
She turns back and mutters his name in a peculiar manner.
It seems like she already knows who he is.
The car arrives to a fancy looking house, where Jhilmil gets off and meets her grandfather.
He hands her a crystal ball which she stares at.
At night, during a ball, Barfi sneaks in and is almost caught by the security guard but
Shruti saves him and asks her to alongside him.
He dances funnily in front of her and then they twirl together happily.
The next days, they spend a lot of time together, walking through town together, having a good
time in each-others company.
Barfi even has Shruti go through a test he makes his friends do to prove they're loyal,
which obviously no one passes because of its dangerous nature.
Jhilmil stays cooped up at home, watching others through her window.
One day, her family is having a party in which she sings along loudly and out of tune, causing
kids to laugh at her.
She gets frustrated and gets in the girls faces, pushing them and telling them not to
laugh at her.
All while Barfi is stealing a horse from their house and running away with it.
A lively song plays in the background as Shruti and Barfi go on a night adventure, jumping
into a cargo train and distributing food to a passing by village filled with poor children.
They jump off the train and fall in the middle of the road, laughing heavily.In another scene,
they sit together and Barfi throws her engagement ring somewhere far away and instead ties a
piece of grass on her finger instead, she laughs shyly.
He surprises her by showing that he never threw it away and they teasingly hit each
other's legs.
Their faces get close to each other and without noticing, Shruti kisses him.
She then goes back home to see her mother waiting with a disappointing look in her eyes.
Shruti’s mom asks for the name of the boy she was with, and then drives Shruti with
her to a forest area where a few men are cutting logs.
She points to a man in a blue sweater and tells her own love story.
She tells Shruti she was in love with this man, enough to want to run away with him,
but she did not.
When asked why, she said her life would be worse off if she married a poor man.
Shruti is about to tell her mother she doesn't love Ranjeet, but her mother cuts her off
saying Ranjeet is perfect for her.
She elaborates, saying if she were to marry Barfi, he wouldn't be able to speak the words
she would wish to hear, and he wouldn't be able to hear the things she would say either.
Shruti asks her mother is she loves her father, to which her mother smiles and tells her that
does not only happen once.
The next day, Barfi visits Jhilmil’s house and gets her attention by throwing up a shoe.
The scene shows them being friends for a long, long time.
Later on, Barfi has his friend write him a letter to Shruti’s parents, in it he is
asking for her hand in marriage.
After reading the letter, Shruti’s mom lies to her husband about Barfi’s reason for
visit, she says it is because he wants a donation.
Barfi turns back to see Shruti with her fiance, Ranjeet.
With a broken heart, he takes the money from Shruti’s father sheepishly and turns to
leave.
Barfi rushes down the stairs and fails to get his umbrella open, Shruti comes from behind
him and offers him her umbrella.
They walk down with Barfi walking a little faster.
It seems like he is trying to avoid her.
Once downstairs, he tries to get on his bicycle but the chain breaks off.
Nothing seems to be going well for Barfi, he pretends to be okay at first but slowly
while speaking in hand signs, his movements and expressions get more and more aggressive,
and he signs, asking why she kissed him if she knew this would happen.
He hands her the money her father gave her, motions for her to be happy with her fiance,
tells her to smile with his own eyes filled with tears, takes his bicycle and leaves her
crying.
A few days later, Barfi gets notified that Shruti is leaving and runs to catch up with
the train.
Once at Shruti’s window, she averts her eyes from his gaze but he makes a funny face
at her, something he did often and she smiles with sadness.
Once again, his bicycle hits a signboard and he falls to the ground, watching her train
leave.
6 years later, Shruti runs to get Barfi’s old friend’s help in getting him out of
jail, because that friend is the only one who understands sign language.
The first question Barfi asks the police is “where is Jhilmil?”
The police officer grabs his ear tightly and shows him a note asking for 7000 rupees, and
another note asking for 100,000 rupees.
He asks Barfi who wrote it and Barfi shakes his head no.
The officer asks if Barfi thinks he is foolish, Barfi misreads his lips and accidentally nods
yes, after which he is slapped.
Barfi explains to the officer exactly what happened while his friend translates.
After Shruti left, Barfi became a different person, his father lost his job as well, all
this happened after Jhilmil’s dear grandfather passed away, leaving his money in Jhilmil’s
trust funds.
This caused Jhilmil's father to live off his monthly pay, like the rest of the servants.
Arguments between the family members ensued everyday and her father had to lay off all
his servants, including Jhilmil’s most trusted nanny and Barfi’s father.
One night, Barfi’s father who is in pain and collapsing tries to get Barfi’s attention
who is sleeping on the roof.
But due to Barfi’s hearing and speech impairment, he is unable to listen.
The next day after waking up, he sees his father has collapsed and rushes him to the
hospital.
Turns out, his father had a kidney failure and needs 7000 rupees for operation.
He does not have that sort of money and rushes everywhere asking for cash.
He sees Jhilmil at her window and gets an idea.
One night while Jhilmil is sleeping, he sneaks in to kidnap her, but finds her already gone.
He runs off before he gets caught.
Barfi still needs money though, so the next day he goes into a bank with a gun, stealing
money and running after the police catches him.
He manages to get away, but coincidentally hides on top of the same van that has a kidnapped
Jhilmil inside.
He witnesses the trade off happening.
Jhilmil’s father is there along with Inspector Gupta, but right as they are about to get
Jhilmil back, Barfi drives the van away.
At night, Jhilmil wakes up in the van with Barfi looming over her.
She stares in awe as she sees sparks coming from out of his clothes.
Her autistic mind depicts him blowing bubbles around those sparks.
Jhilmil follows Barfi to his house and doubtfully walks inside, imagining the world around her
to be colorful.
She sees a hamster running on its wheel and stares at it.
Barfi gets her some warm milk, but she has to go to the bathroom.
He takes her there and helps her with her shorts as well.
After that, she drinks the milk offered by Barfi.
The display of care shown by Barfi is enough to warm the heart of even stern people.
When they are sleeping, the sound of air and leaves startles Jhilmil who scoots closer
to Barfi and touches her hand with his for comfort.
The next morning, before the sun is even out, Barfi calls his friend and they sit beside
a sleeping Jhilmil, contemplating what step to take.
They decide to make a note asking for a 7000 rupee ransom in exchange for Jhilmil, and
Barfi leaves it at the Chatterjee’s residence.
The next day, Jhilmil wakes up under the gaze of Barfi’s friend.
Barfi rushes home to see the neighborhood standing outside his door with loud screaming
noises inside.
He rushes in to find Jhilmil trying to get out, he grabs her and tries to control her
tantrum, after which he gets bitten by her.
She finally calms down a bit and scurries to hide from stares inside the house.
After some time passes, she and Barfi play with light illuminating through a broken mirror’s
reflection.
The next scenes are Barfi cheering Jhilmil up using various tactics.
He does several magic tricks in order to get her to laugh and they eat watermelon together
and he teaches her how to pit out the seeds.
Barfi finally gets the money for his father’s operation, but as he rushes to pay it, his
father has already died.
The next scene is sorrowful, with sad violin music playing as Barfi holds a funeral for
his father with only his friend and Jhilmil attending.
After the funeral, Barfi drops Jhilmil back home and leaves.
Jhilmil watches him leave intently.
The inspector investigates the hospital and finds out that Barfi’s father’s bill was
recently paid.
He visits their house but Barfi runs away, getting chased down.
The scene skips back to 1978 where Barfi has already been caught, the police continues
its investigation regarding the two notes for ransom.
The note demanding 100,000 rupees asked to meet at Lona Kukur bridge at 11 pm sharp.
Senior inspector went with Mr. Chatterjee at that exact time and gave the kidnapper
the money.
But before Jhilmil could join her father, the car she was in was pushed with force into
the lake!
The whole night was spent by officers looking for Jhilmil inside the lake.
The weird thing about this case is that no one seemed to be villainous and no one had
the intent to kill Jhilmil.
The police continues its investigation.
The scene goes back to when Barfi was being chased down by the inspector.
After outrunning him, he witnessed Jhilmil walking on the railway tracks right in front
of him.
She stops the cart he is travelling by and sits with him, they run from the police together,
stopping in front of a cargo train on time.
They end up somewhere remote, and no passing by car helps them.
Barfi and Jhilmil put nails in the middle of the road in hopes that some car will stop
and help, but as a car passes by the nails, its tire gets punctured and the family sitting
inside crashes.
The two friends make a run for it.
Their little adventure continues as they travel to where Jhilmil’s nanny resides.
Barfi leaves her there and gets on the bus to go back.
But Jhilmil doesn't seem to want to be away from him.
She chases the bus.
He sees her and gets down the bus, initially getting mad at her but then taking her along
with him once again.
Their adventure in the countryside continues as they travel further.
They stop at an Indian festival where Jhilmil watches traditional religious dance and imagines
her and Barfi dancing in fancy clothes.
The next morning, Barfi reads the news of Jhilmil and her supposed kidnapper being on
the run.
He takes Jhilmil on a cart and runs.
While Barfi is telling the police what happened, Mr. Sengupta, Shruti’s husband comes to
look for her at the police station.
When Shruti saw his face she fell silent and went back home with him.
The next scene shows that Jhilmil and Barfi, the two peculiar friends have arrived in Kolkata,
the city where Shruti is living after her marriage.
They once again go place to place together, sleeping on each others arms and eating together.
Barfi gets a small job in Kolkata and one day, Shruti appears at his place of work.
He fixes his hair and comes outside to meet her.
She finally notices him and her eyes will up with familiarity and longing.
She wants to talk to him about he is and where he has been, but her husband honks the horn
in the car, telling her to come quick.
Later that night, Barfi has Jhilmil take the friendship test, and Jhilmil surprisingly
passes.
They bump their foreheads together with happiness.
Shruti, who now knows that Barfi is in Kolkata gets ready to go see him.
And when she does, he takes her to introduce Jhilmil.
From the blinds, Shruti sees Barfi helping Jhilmil dress up and assumes them to be married.
Barfi signs a clarification but there is only so much a woman who does not know sign language
can understand.
She sits in the car to leave and sees Barfi waving at her happily.
She then explains that even though Ranjeet and her talk, they do not understand each
other in the way lovers should.
Shruti spent more and more time with Barfi and Jhilmil and came to realize that even
though Barfi couldn’t talk, he was complete.
Barfi, who was enjoying spending time with Shruti started neglecting Jhilmil on several
occasions, making her get hit with a bus and accidentally drop her food.
Barfi scolds her and Jhilmil cant seem to take it anymore.
Somehow she can tell that Barfi’s attention is directed towards the beautiful Shruti,
who in Jhilmil’s eyes is perfect and sophisticated.
Jhilmil walks away from the crowd of people.
When Barfi notices shes not there, he and Shruti search everywhere for her.
Jhilmil hides behind statues and when she sees Shruti with Barfi, looking for her, she
continues to hide.
Shruti informs the police of her absence.
This scene is from where the movie initially started, when Shruti and the policeman go
to Barfi’s house and he makes a run for it.
This time after Jhilmil’s absence, the police gets the real ransom note for 100,000 rupees.
The inspector in charge decides to charge Barfi for the murder of Jhilmil.
The inspector who caught Barfi is against it, but he is reminded that Chatterjee’s
are an influential family who have the power to ruin their lives.
Shruti runs home and looks for her lawyer’s number to save Barfi.
Her mother walks up to her and asks her to eat something.
Shruti, who is extremely sad with how her life is tells her mom she lied to her.
What Shruti is trying to say is that if she married Barfi then, she would be happier than
she is now.
The police, who have framed Barfi for Jhilmil’s death call Mr. Chatterjee who, in his anguish
beats up the poor, innocent boy.
Back at Shruti’s residence, she gets a call from the police station asking her to come
immediately.
Ranjeet stands on the staircase, seemingly confused and a little hurt, asking if she
has to go.
She stares sadly at him and turns her back to leave.
He tries to stop her by telling her not to come back if she left, but she leaves anyway.
The inspector who has come to sympathize with Barfi is the one that has called Shruti to
the scene.
He asks her to hide him somewhere as she is the only one who cares about him.
Barfi sits by the lake where Jhilmil fell, with tears in his eyes and a faraway look
on his face.
Shruti takes a very depressed Barfi to the train station.
She buys him a ticket and he leaves.
It was an assumption that Shruti would leave with him, she bought a ticket for herself
too, but she watches him go.
All of a sudden, she gets a burst of confidence and runs into the train, sitting in front
of Barfi.
The next scene shows a time skip to present time Darjeeling, where an old Shruti comes
to visit a haggard and sick Barfi on his deathbed.
He reaches his wrinkly hand out to her as she grabs it with her own old hands.
The scene rewinds back to when Barfi and Shruti took the train together.
Shruti narrates how sad Barfi was after Jhilmil’s disappearance.
She states however, that she was happy with the disappearance because it meant that Barfi
was now hers, however, it did not matter, because he was with Jhilmil every step of
the way.
Barfi, who got angry at Shruti when she touched Jhilmil’s trinkets stared at the red diary
and a torn up page there.
Suddenly remembering something, he read all of the doodles Jhilmil did on his wall and
it turns out, there was an address to a place called Muskaan there.
Shruti and Barfi travel to the place and meet Daju.
They question him about it but the old man refuses to give a clear cut answer, telling
them Jhilmil is not there and they should leave.
But Barfi notices his body language which seems nervous and runs all over, looking for
her.
As a last attempt, he starts throwing his shoes up in the air.
He always did that when he wanted Jhilmil’s attention.
Daju smiles in surprise and remembers that Jhilmil called him from Kolkata the moment
she ran away from Shruti and Barfi.
As it turns out, Jhilmil’s own family kidnapped her in order to get money from her trust fund.
The old man, Daju was in on it and helped her escape the car before she could drown
in it.
Jhilmil watches a dejected Barfi walk away from the house and at last, calls him.
Because he is deaf, he cannot hear her, but Shruti does.
The decision she has to make is quick: take Barfi with her and leave or give him a chance
at love.
Because Shruti is a kindhearted and lovely woman, she chooses the latter and points Barfi
in the direction of the window.
Barfi rushes in and finally meets Jhilmil, and they lean their foreheads on each other,
while everyone watches.
Present time, on his deathbed, Barfi gets visited by an old Jhilmil as well, who wipes
Shruti’s tears with the back of her hand.
The very emotional scene of the movie show Jhilmil scooting Barfi over and laying beside
him in his sick bed.
Shruti narrates the film, saying that their love was the one she wanted, but she didn’t
get it, only because they had not planned to fall in love with each other, they just
went with the flow and when it was time to love, did it with all their hearts.