Movie Review: PK

A little over two years back, ‘Oh My God’ based on a successful play told us a thought-provoking story about the hypocrisy surrounding religion in our country while also being a fantasy tale; it brought forward a message that people here are not God-loving but God-fearing and we are fooled by some supposedly holy Godmen who are making business out of it all. Director Rajkumar Hirani (‘Munnabhai MBBS’, ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’, ‘3 Idiots’) returns after five years with ‘PK’ along the same lines. Backed by Producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra again, the maverick film-maker teams up with his last film’s hero and superstar Aamir Khan. Needless to say, it is huge!

Aamir Khan is an alien who lands in his birthday suit on Planet Earth to do some research; he is from a world where they look like humans hence, please don’t expect him to mumble ‘dhoop’ like Jadoo. He is robbed off his contact remote in the desert by the next two minutes and manages to grab the thief’s audio cassette player. Atithi Devo Bhava! So even if he has lost all contact with his guys up there somewhere in some galaxy, he can still hang the device and cover it to get a nod from the censors. He has a lot of trouble initially, finds a friend in a bandmaster (Sanjay Dutt); soon picks up a language and Bhojpuri at that from a sex-worker. When he is informed his remote might have been sold in Delhi, he heads to the city to find it. Jagat Janani (Anushka Sharma) is a TV Journalist looking for news and bumps into him one day while he is distributing pamphlets in Delhi Metro. ‘Missing! If found, pls contact PK’– it reads. It’s God who is missing. Six months of search for his remote has got our alien a name- PK. For, it’s been months he has been trying to find God as people told him only the Almighty can help him. In the process, PK ends up realizing the wrong religious beliefs humans follow.

Hirani knows the pulse of his audience well. All his movies have had a message so far and ‘PK’ is no different. ‘3 Idiots’ was about the futility of our Education System (based on ‘Five Point Someone’ and for some strange unreasonable reason, both Hirani and Aamir Khan didn’t give Chetan Bhagat his due… foolish and fake, naah?)… this one is about the blind faith humans have in religions without understanding what God is all about. It is a fun film laced with some nice humour and I found myself in splits at least thrice more so, in the first half. Like, for example PK spots a stage actor dressed as Lord Shiva and chases him believing he is the one who has been listening to some of his prayers. The second half is quite a drag and alien PK even falls for Jagat Janani, records her voice in all his cassettes so that he can listen to them when he goes back home. Quite a human alien with emotions… you guys up there! Story-telling is perfect though you do feel you have seen a lot of it in ‘Oh My God’ and that had even more points to ponder over. Yes; it was a braver film. I liked the fact that both these films attempted at bringing forward a relevant and needful message while keeping it mainstream. Dialogues are funny and PK speaking Bhojpuri works in its favour. Music is poor barring an okay ‘Chaar Kadam’.

Aamir Khan knows how to get into the skin of his characters and he is good here; was better in ‘3 Idiots’. For some reason, I found a lot of similarity in the mannerisms of both the characters and hence, I compare. PK is like Rancho on drugs and asked to act an alien! The superstar gets the Bhojpuri dialect so right and that makes the otherwise unrelatable character convincing. Anushka Sharma holds her own and comes up with another nice performance. Sanjay Dutt in a small role is wasted like most of his recent appearances. Sushant Singh Rajput in special appearance too is okay and natural. So is Boman Irani. Saurabh Shukla as the baba is restrained yet great. Ranbir Kapoor is in a cameo.

Watch it or not: Absolutely! Even if you aren’t an Aamir Khan fan (I’m not!), you should like the idea and the humour.

At the Box-Office: Blockbuster… like any big film, this one will break a few records too. Massive screen count, Hirani teaming up with superstar Aamir Khan post ‘3 Idiots’, good reviews and positive word-of-mouth and a three-week long run with no prominent releases now… these will all work well for ‘PK’.

• About the Author

About Abhirup Dhar

I don't watch movies... I live them! Let me introduce myself. Abhirup Dhar was born in Kolkata and is still being brought up in India. A banker by profession, he is filmy to the core and is passionate about reviewing movies and writing. He likes to live on his own… he likes to be blunt, sarcastic, famous, infamous, confident, over-confident, moody at times… he likes to be himself. He is imperfect because perfection is boring. His love for movies dates back to his childhood days when he studied in a boarding school. A three-month Winter Vacation every year… and he made sure he watched as many movies then. Parents thought it was a phase... he knew it was Passion and he knew it back then itself. The craziness to watch movies on the Big Screen began during the last two years of school when he literally bunked to town so that he could catch up with the new Hindi Movie releases. Some thought he was plain crazy. He confirmed it was Passion... yet again. The hard fact is that not always can you walk a path you are passionate about. You have expectations to fulfill and Life to be made. But Life gives you chances and you have to grab them. So... here is he... your friendly critic who will be giving you his Verdict every week so that you can decide which release is worth your moolah and which is not! See you at the Movies! Stay connected at Facebook and Twitter!