Cast: Aamir Khan, Anushka
Sharma, Sanjay Dutt, Saurabh Shukla, Sushant Singh Rajput, Parikshit Sahni
Director: Rajkumar
Hirani Music: Shantanu Moitra,
Ajay-Atul, Ankit Tiwari, Ram Sampath
Writer: Rajkumar Hirani,
Abhijit Joshi, Sreerag Nambiar
Running Time: 150 minutes
Producer – director team of
Vidhu Vinod Chopra - Rajkumar Hirani is known to belt out brilliant movies that
impart social message with humor and old world romance. And ‘PK’ is this duo’s
latest offering. Herein, the social message is very much on the lines of ‘OMG –
Oh My God’, but the treatment of the subject is very unique and different.
Jagat Janani aka Jaggu
(Anushka Sharma), a budding New Delhi TV journalist, in her perennial quest for
scoop or ‘breaking news’ stumbles across P.K. (Aamir Khan), who is highly
weird, amusing and different in his attire, walk and talk. In the recent past,
Jaggu’s heart has been broken by Sarfaraz (Sushant Singh Rajput), who
apparently left her at the altar! Jaggu first spots P.K. while he is
distributing pamphlets for missing persons, only the names and photos of the
missing persons are those of different Hindu deities (Lakshmi, Ganesh, Shiv
etc.)! Out of curiosity and professional interest, she trails and observes P.K.
And she realizes that P.K.’s expectation and understanding of the environment
around him is very different from that of a normal human being. It’s stupid,
humors law and at times also causes embarrassment. But it’s definitely not
illogical.
P.K. is also on a one track
quest of his usurped belonging. With his never say die attitude, he is
continuously learning, adapting and devising new ways to accelerate his quest.
But his unconventional methods, often land him into trouble. During her
following up, Jaggu witnesses one such crisis and lends a genuine helping hand,
thereby winning P.K.’s trust. Upon askance, he readily agrees to tell her more
about himself and obliges, which leaves Jaggu confused and bewildered.
Initially, she brushes off his tale as absurd and fake. But further probe into
the matter, establishes the fact that P.K. is actually an alien from a far off
planet who is stuck on Earth because his remote control was forcefully taken
from him in Bhiwandi region! Bhairon
Singh (Sanjay Dutt) of Bhiwandi told him that his usurped remote control will
be sold in a big city like Delhi, which prompted him to come to the city. Apparently
this alien species looks exactly like humans, except for their protruding ears
and walking style. Also, in their own planet, they neither wear clothes, nor
are required to speak, as they are advanced enough to know the mind, just by
holding each other’s hands!
For some reason, this
precious and big locket like remote control is found in the possession of
Tapasvi ji (Saurabh Shukla), an acclaimed guru, who propagates it to be a
broken end of Lord Shiva’s musical instrument i.e. ‘damru’! Tapasvi ji is known
for his direct connection with God. Devotees flock his meetings to tell him their
problems, to which he provides solutions after discussion with God! Coincidentally
Jaggu and her boss Cherry (Boman Irani) also have their individual personal
scores to settle with Tapasvi ji. Thus, Jaggu convinces Cherry and using the
power of media and logical oration of P.K., devices a plan that will bring to
light the fakeness of Tapasvi ji and also enable P.K.’s return to his planet.
‘PK’ is a brilliant movie
with an amazing script. The whole ruckus of myriad relegions and self appointed
religious managers aka God men has been questioned from the view point of an
alien, who is like a blank canvas with no prior understanding or reflex of the
human race. And when this canvas is exposed to a series of brush strokes
carrying different colors, pressures and stroke styles, he needs to attach a
unique purpose to each type of brush stroke. Whenever there is a breach in this
uniqueness, he gets confused, and whenever the result is illogical, he
questions the stroke itself! His confusion and questions seem bizarre, but are
in fact very logical. In fact, due to years of wrong practice, we humans have
unnecessarily got tuned to absurd practices. God is one, but we have divided
Him into a number of relegions. God is to be loved, but we have associated Him with
fear. God is same for everyone, but we seek God men to feel closer to God!
The movie also highlights
the fact that the original purpose of clothing and speech has been lost upon
the humans. They were simply meant to protect against the weather and provide a
medium of expression. Instead, they are being used to create myriad sects and
spread aggression and lies. A civilization sans these provisions may actually
be superior and better, like that of P.K.’s planet!
The beauty of the movie lies
in its simplicity. It doesn’t cater to any burning social issue or condemns any
social practice. It simply questions and expresses amusement over conflicting practices
and ready subservience of the human race. The overall feel is of humor and
amazement. Bhojpuri language was never
better used in a Bollywood movie. Usage of words like ‘gola’ (planet) and ‘lool’
(meaningless) are bound to bring smile on the viewer’s lips. Songs are situation based. The track ‘Tharki chokro’ has a nice
rustic flavor and is also well picturized. Casting is also appropriate.
However, wherein the past
productions (Munna Bhai MBBS, Lage Raho Munna Bhai,3 Idiots) of the makers of
this movie have successfully focused upon a single issue, herein you get
confused, whether the focus of the movie is diverse relegions or God men.
Aamir Khan as usual is
brilliant. He is like Tom Hanks of Bollywood. Every new performance of his is a
refreshing surprise. No one else can enact P.K. like him. In his own head, he
understands the pulse of the character and develops the required persona and body
language, complete with small nuances. Can anyone believe that such a young,
innocent and gleeful looking character is actually an actor nearing fifty! Except
for her daffy duck lips (no thanks to cosmetics), Anushka Sharma with her good
height and flawless complexion, looks like a million bucks. She has also acted
well and managed to hold her own opposite Aamir Khan. Sushant Singh Rajput is
also a revelation in his small role. He has well matched the effervescence of
Anushka. In fact, his dialogue delivery is better than many experienced actors.
Saurabh Shukla, Parikshit Sahni and others have also acted well.
Last but not the least, in
this movie, the heroine is considerably taller than the hero, and the movie is
devoid of any attempt to camouflage the same. This is very much evident in the ‘stress
removal dance’ performed by the lead pair. The dance is beautiful, but more
beautiful is the journey of Indian cinema, where now the hero no more needs to
be the taller one.
