The smiles of special kids from Bal Vihar and Jeevika after the screening of Barfi! at Eylex say it all. Telegraph picture

Murphy Johnson is a prankster, Jhilmil Chatterjee is intense. Both Murphy and Jhilmil are engaging, identifiable characters. It is just another matter that one is deaf-mute and the other autistic.

One hundred and fifty-five special children from Bal Vihar School and Jeevika watched Barfi!, a film on the loves and lives of a boy and girl just like them.

The Wednesday 10am screening at Eylex Fun N Films of the Anurag Basu monster hit — Barfi! is already a member of the Rs 100-crore Bollywood biggie club — was special due to many reasons.

For one, the viewers didn’t see glam superstars Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra but characters they completely identified with. And Eylex, with this screening, found the perfect way to celebrate its first birth anniversary on September 30 in the steel city, celebrate Gandhi Jayanti albeit a day late and take part in the ongoing Joy of Giving Week.

Bal Vihar’s 143 deaf-mute children gave whoops of joy seeing the on-screen antics of Murphy who couldn’t pronounce his name and so became Barfi. Many of the 12 students of Jeevika, a vocational cradle for students who are autistic, have cerebral palsy or multiple disabilities, identified with Jhilmil’s angst and joy.

When special students came out of the plex, they said the film was good. “Achcha hai. Maza aaya,” said S. Umesh of Jeevika.

“Children said the characters were just like them,” said Sister Geeta, principal of Bal Vihar School.

“I watched the film and then took the call of bringing 12 selected students,” said Jeevika principal Sukhdeep Kaur.

“Kids laughed loudly during the ladder scene (where Ranbir’s character avoids the police). The movie hardly needed hearing ability to understand. But, we told our students to learn good things from the story like friendship and forget the bad like the kidnap,” added Sister Geeta.

“We’ll host more such events,” smiled Amrita Singh, assistant manager, Eylex.