Thursday, January 15, 2015

PK - Movie Review

Finally got this one down. PK is an alien. He looks like a well built Aamir Khan. He has large ears and a funny manner of running. He has no language. He has certain powers from which he can access any mind by holding that person's hand. He has no need to wear clothes. He has no God. But for all his advancements, PK has a small technical glitch. The company that makes the medallion - his only contact with his spaceship and his people - is hung loosely around his neck. Its probably a symbol of trust. Thus enters Mr. Nameless from his planet, in all his glorious nudity, to observe the earth and see if there are similar signs of life here.

He meets a rather adventurous chap first up, who trades his rather large (thankfully) two-in-one cassette player for the shiny medallion on PKs body. The trade is not fair of course since he steals it and runs off. Now without a means to get back to his spaceship PK is stuck (sad, but does not work). He has to find this man and his medallion. What PK finds instead is a human race full of its own quirks. He finds dancing cars filled with couples making out (I am yet to see one) where he picks up their clothes, he finds language from a Bhojpuri prostitute who transmits all her knowledge of Bhojpuri as he holds her hand all night, he also finds a name PK, because his manner and his ways make people wonder if he is drunk.

PK is currently searching for God to help him find his medallion, and thereby return to his planet. He finds Anushka Sharma instead, who is Jaggu, short of Jagatjananni. Jaggu was in Belgium, meets a Pakistani, loves poetry, hates old men and gets ditched by the boy as predicted by their family Tapasvi ji. The rest of the film asks questions from the naive and innocent mind of PK who represents all of us takers from religion, which find few answers from Tapasvi ji, who represents all that is on the other side i.e. the givers of the religion. It all ends when Tapasvi ji puts Jaggu in a spot and challenges her to disprove his prediction that the Pakistani boy would ditch him. PK does that. Simple case of misunderstanding. Lovers unite. Well done Raju Hirani, you put it over us there with the cat etc. PK hides a tear - he is in love with Anushka too. He finds his medallion which is the prize for the debate winner. He heads off but not before Jaggu knows that PK loves her too. I don't think she loves him. Or anyone for that matter. PK returns to earth a year later with more naked men from his planet. There do not seem to be any women there which is why they may be attracted to this planet in the first place.

The one moment of magic happens when the Pakistani embassy lady speaks with great love when she hears that Jaggu has finally called. That apart we feel no love between PK and Jaggu. PK raises a few questions which are pretty simple and stuff that all children would ask, or even rational adults would ask. The controversy, needless completely, and makes you wonder what the real purpose is behind these people who get offended so  easily. It actually works out to everyone's benefit - the movie gets more publicity, the groups claiming offence get in the news and the audience gets more drama. Pretty simple for Raju Hirani's calibre really, but am sure there could have been a better delivery mechanism if he looked really hard. But overall commendable for its gentle poke at how we seem to miss the paradoxes. But isn't that what our world full off?

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