Release date (India):
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December 19, 2014
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Director:
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Rajkumar Hirani
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Cast:
Language:
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Aamir Khan,
Anushka Sharma, Sanjay Dutt, Sushant Singh Rajput, Boman Irani, Parikshet
Sahani
Hindi
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Rajkumar Hirani’s PK is what Umesh Shukla’s OMG Oh My God! might have been if the chap
questioning organised religion had been an innocent extra-terrestrial instead
of a cynical human.
PK
is what Hirani’s own Lagey Raho Munnabhai
might have been if all that worldly wisdom had flowed from an artless alien
rather than a golden-hearted goon inspired by visions of Gandhiji.
What then is PK? It’s a film about an ET called PK (Aamir
Khan) who comes to Earth to research human life, and gets stuck because the
device to call back his space ship is stolen as soon as he lands. As he figures
out a way to recover it, he discovers the complexities of life on this planet, the
difficulties of communicating with creatures who don’t speak their minds and,
above all, the God fraud. He is aided in his quest to return home by journalist
Jagat Janini Sahni a.k.a. Jaggu (Anushka Sharma) who has a painful history of
her own.
PK
is delivered in light-hearted packaging, but make no mistake about this: it is serious fare. Hindu-Muslim tensions,
the so-called ‘love jihad’ campaign,
fraudulent babas, scare-mongering
religious leaders, Indo-Pak suspicions, blind faith, media sensationalism and
above all else, the unexpected ways in which the best of us are unwittingly
influenced by the prejudices of others – Hirani and his co-writer Abhijat Joshi
have something to say about it all.
Shantanu Moitra’s music
is attractive, the songs are smoothly woven into the narrative and nicely shot,
the dialogues and lyrics are amusing and incisive, the settings are
eye-catching, the costumes are colourful, the pace is unflagging and without
being overwhelmingly so, there is no let-up in PK’s glossy feel throughout. None
of this subtracts from its courageous core.
Mainstream Hindi films are
notorious for community stereotyping. It is a measure of Hirani and Joshi’s
skills that for the most part, PK skips
cliches. Two populist stereotypes merit a mention though, since they depart
from the film’s otherwise across-the-board slamming of religions and seek to
subtly establish distinguishing marks. First, a terrorist group aims to protect
its “qaum” in the film – we are told
this without their religion being named. The use of the word “qaum” is clearly an effort to reference Islam
without openly saying so, which makes this an instance of double triteness
since it perpetuates the prevalent “all terrorists are Muslims” assumption plus
links a language to a religion. Second, Christianity has many weaknesses, yet PK chooses to highlight the penchant for
conversion, thus playing to the gallery with the prevalent falsehood that
Christians and Muslims are the only ones who seek to convert those of other
faiths.
I suppose Team PK needed
something to excuse itself in case of an attack by saffron groups complaining
about the slamming of Hindu religious practices in the film. Besides, Muslims and
Christians are not guiltless in these matters, so let us let this pass after a
mention.
A couple of costume and
language stereotypes elsewhere indicate disappointing laziness. For instance, in
a multi-religious assembly, the Christian is the only one who speaks English. Yet,
the writers are certainly not uninformed, as is evident from the fact that PK is one of those rare Bollywood films that
uses the Hindi word for a church (girja)
and extends itself beyond the Hindu-Muslim-Sikh-Isaai line-up to include a Jain.
Little touches that merit big applause!
The film’s major flaw
though is its all-or-nothing stance on religionists. Is it possible that there
is not a single preacher out there who is a good soul? PK’s absence of nuance in this matter is in line with Hirani’s 3 Idiots according to which India’s
education system is absolutely, unutterably bad without any redeeming factors
whatsoever. Caricatures (like that tacky scene featuring a Hindu baba in saffron robes fleeing a stage) are so much
easier to sell than subtlety, are they not? Moderation is so much harder to popularise
than extreme positions.
As our alien hero might
say, hum frustrate-iya gaye hai ee sab se, because this film has so much
else to recommend it. In the present atmosphere in India, it’s nothing short of
bravery to openly discuss the failings of religion, and PK manages to do this in a highly entertaining fashion. This would
not have been possible without the excellent cast headlined by Aamir who does
not for a second allow PK’s distinctive body language and hilarious Bhojpuri accent
to dwarf his character’s sincerity and guileless charm. That wide-eyed,
big-eared look that seemed so odd in the promos is a perfect fit within this
screenplay. And it’s heartening to see a superstar gutsy enough to allow the
camera to let him come off looking physically less attractive than a co-star,
yet Aamir does that throughout, but especially in that scene in which the
awkwardly proportioned PK dances with Jaggu of the model-like figure and
endless legs. Bravo!
With PK, Anushka proves yet again that she is
one of the most dependable mainstream heroines of her generation in Bollywood.
Someone please tell her too that she’s naturally pretty and should not have
made those distractingly obvious alterations to her face. The actress shares a
warm chemistry with Sushant Singh Rajput who makes his mark despite the
briefness of his role. The rest of the cast too are spot on. As for the ending –
ah, how it made me smile.
PK
is not as brilliant as Hirani’s Munnabhai
1&2, but it’s still an excellent film that throws up surprises every step
of the way. It had me laughing out loud then crying like a baby. It broke my
heart then raised my spirits. If I were a Bollywood writer, I might have ended
this review with: Lagey raho,
Rajubhai. I’ll just leave it at: Thank you for the Christmas gift, Team PK.
Rating (out of five): ***1/2
CBFC Rating (India):
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U/A
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Running time:
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153 minutes
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