Oscar entry Barfi! copied from past cinema hits?

Barfi!, India's official entry at the Oscars 2013, is not so unique after all. Videos uploaded on several websites, notably YouTube, have gone viral over the past couple of days revealing plenty of scenes in the film that appear to have been copied frame for frame from past international hits.

To begin with, the very script idea seems inspired by the 1993 Johnny Depp-starrer, Benny & Joon, a film about a mentally ill girl finding love with an eccentric man.



In Barfi!, Priyanka Chopra plays an autistic girl who falls in love with Barfi, a deaf and mute boy played by Ranbir Kapoor. There are other resemblances too.

The hilarious ladder sequence at the start of the film is one such example.

The scene has Ranbir dangling from a ladder perched precariously on a wall, even as cops try to pull him down. The shot could be a lift from Buster Keaton's 1922 comedy classic, Cops