Director Anurag Basu’s last hit film before BARFI was an all inspired venture titled METRO which took its major content from more than one sources of the west. Perhaps that was the reason why while watching two great performances in BARFI, I still wasn’t convinced enough from the film itself because its direction again looked like all inspired from the different films of Charlie Chaplin and Mr. Bean as I could recall. But since the viewers were immensely enjoying the movie due to their own reasons, the inspiration factor took a backseat at my end which was again brought forward by a great post by friends at TANQEED.com revealing its few important sources along with their video links. The post started a fire over the net which lead to several other updates at various sites including IBNLive and then the readers also started adding many other inspirational sources of the film which simply ruined the BARFI impact for many who initially liked it.
Given below is the complete list of all those inspirations along with their links which might be disturbing for few readers here too who really loved watching the movie and its enjoyable content. So just check these out and enjoy the Original videos followed by the director in the widely appreciated BARFI.
1. The single door sliding scene in the film has been taken from Charlie Chaplin’s THE ADVENTURER (1917).
2. The sequence where Rupa Ganguly brings her daughter Illeana in the forest kind of location and reveals the secret of her silent love is straight away from THE NOTEBOOK(2004).
3. The final scene when Priyanka comes and shares Ranbir’s bed is also similar to the one in THE NOTEBOOK (2004).
4. The comedy scenes wherein where Ranbir walks into a door and his nose gets hurt, which he brings back in place with his other hand, making some more funny faces along with his comic movements with the dummy on a sofa are both inspired from the song sequence of “Make Them Laugh” in SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (1952).
5. The sequence where a statue is being inaugurated and Ranbir is found sleeping in the lap of the statue as the covers are taken off is straight away taken from Charlie Chaplin’s CITY LIGHTS (1931).
6. The comedy scene on the ladder with Ranbir at one end and the policemen on the other is inspired from Buster Keaton’s COPS (1922).
7. The scene where a piece of paper sticks with Ranbir and the manner in which he sticks papers strips to his eyelids and tongue was also there in TV series Mr. Bean (1990) and in Mr. Bean’s Holiday (2007).
8. Planting the nails on the road sequence which results in a car crash is clearly lifted from a Japanese film KIKUJIRO (1999).
9. The bicycle chase moving within the narrow lanes and tapping the windows sequence reminds you of Jackie Chan’s PROJECT A (1983).
10. The mouse running inside a running wheel can also be seen in a scene of BLACK CAT, WHITE CAT (1998).
11. The scene where Ranbir reads the newspaper of a naked Sadhu sitting beside him is the same as in a Swedish newspaper’s Advertisement.
12. The scene where it seems a car is coming towards both Ranbir and Illeana on the road which actually turns out to be two bikes coming parallel to each other is inspired from a similar sequence in MR. NOBODY (2009).
13. The “Rotating the Clock back” scene can also be seen in the Korean drama “Lover’s Concerto” (2002).
14. Also the sequence where Ranbir is answering a nature’s call in the field is also there in the same Korean Drama “Lover’s Concerto” (2002).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA4hW7Wjih8&feature=player_detailpage#t=2535s
15. The interrogation scene where Ranbir responds to a question that asks him to reveal everything by starting with his birth was there in “The Goonies” (1985) too.
16. The sequence wherein Ranbir and Ileana’s start distributing food to the needy was quite similar to “Fried Green Tomatoes” (1991).
17. Another interesting observation is the final scene of Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s award winning Malayalam film “Mathilukal” (1989) which reminds you of the shoe throwing sequence in BARFI.
18. A real life scene which can rightly be taken as inspiration in the exact meaning of the word showing a local train passing right through a small market as also used in one of the film’s scene.
19. The tragic sequence of Ranbir’s father getting a severe attack but Ranbir unable to hear his voice has its resemblances with a similar kind of sequence in Gulzar’s KOSHISH (1972).
20. The parts of its background score seem to be very close to the soundtrack of French film AMELIE (2001) and more in the links below :
21. The sub-plot of the film staging a fake kidnap and death is partially inspired from the similar one in GONE BABY GONE (2007).
22. The main plot of the film of a love affair between a funny differently-abled man and an autistic girl is though not entirely same but quite close to BENNY & JOON (1993) and a Korean film OASIS (2002).
Now looking at the above mentioned sources of inspiration, it can easily be said that the director Anurag Basu, does have a fabulous research team with him worth praising. Because its really not easy to first collect and then also incorporate such a wide range of inspirations into a single film.
Cheers!
In fact there is a big energetic circle of many like-minded friends in almost every city of India (and may be abroad too) who are crazy enough for all those old comics which used to be there in the decades of 70s, 80s and 90s. Here although few of those famous series are still being released in the market in a new format & style. But most of them have admittedly gone into the zone of being called Rare and Exclusive which are now being sold at very high prices by their few dealers in various cities.
Interestingly, following the passionate impact of Comics in that era, the film straight away starts with the sequence of Rajesh Khanna as Phantom catching the criminals running after looting a bank. The credits show his dog informing him in his skull like den and then Phantom running on the roads of Bombay riding his white horse following the culprits. 
