To laugh or to cry - that is the real question.
A tinge of sadness permeates through your body as the laughter dies down and you're surprised that your eyes are moist. Tears of happiness, most certainly not.
Charlie Chaplin couldn't have summed it up better when he said - "Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot". Anusha Rizvi's brilliantly written and directed Peepli [Live] is a superb testimony to that fact and to Chaplin's movie making style of black-humored slapstick that ends up moving you. Irrespective of how funny the proceedings are.
Intelligently multi-layered, where at one end it is as in your face as it gets and on the other, its subtely and underplaying of the most key moments leaves you alone with your thoughts and prompts you to think. To feel. To look within.
I am not making any claims that this movie will change anything, but for us, the torch-bearers of a very shallow generation of over-achievers, it prompts us to pause for a second and look at India behind the shining.
Weaving a simple storyline into a compelling screenplay is fine art and on that front PL score big-time. On paper, this one's a wafer-thin story. I wonder how Anusha would've narrated it to anyone and how she would've presented this to Aamir (via email, apparently) that it made the actor agree to produce it. Would love to see that draft, really.
Peepli [Live] reinforces how tolerant and numb we've become towards corruption, that is now an almost indispensable part of our social fabric. As Ahuja (Om Puri's character in Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, Peepli [Live]'s spiritual predecessor) puts it - "cement mein ret to sabhi milaate hain, ye to ret mein cement milaata hai!" Really, it isn't about whether one is corrupt or not but about how much is the extent of corruption. Commonwealth Games, anyone?
Also it is a reflection of our cut throat unapologetic use-and-throw attitudes that have become so commonplace and 'natural', that sometimes we don't even end up realizing it.
I guess everyone pretty much knows what the story is - the beauty is in how the material is handled. And in the casting of the actors that take the written word to an absolutely different level. Raghuvir Yadav as the good for nothing elder brother is almost born for the part. Omkar Das Manekpuri playing Natha, the central protagonist, uses his form, facial expressions and body language to convey his confused state of mind so brilliantly, that for once, the dialogues almost seem an after-thought.
However, the razor sharp lines shine through that amazing old lady who plays the bed-ridden but fantastically fire-branded Amma, that it never once seems that she is performing for the camera. An absolute natural. Even the lady playing Dhania, Natha's wife acts wonderfully well.
The similarity between the TV journalist characters and real characters we see on TV day in and day out is no coincidence and increases their believability, if anything else.
A touch of directorial class is the Hori Mahato track that is beautifully woven into the narrative and is so subtlety symbolic, that it might not register an impact with cine-goers used to hearing their news at unbelievably loud decibel levels.
Talking of decibel levels, watching the journalists scream hoarse into their microphones, I couldn't help but think about the peaceful times when there was only DD News at 9. Now, there are 90 national news channels blaring prime-time jarring sound-bytes on everything about gaon-ki-gori to Shilpa Shetty's blouse-ki-dori!
des mera has been one of my most favorite Indian Ocean numbers and it finally gets the kind of mass popularity it so richly deserves. It is the central theme song of the enterprise and the lyrics suit the proceedings to the tee.
And finally, kudos to Aamir Khan for believing in the subject and giving it the kind of platform only he could have. Looking at the unanimous accolades, this might just be his ticket to going one step beyond Lagaan at the Academy Awards. Only time will tell.
For now, switch off the TV and head to your nearest theatre. Really, aaj tak maut ki itni raunak nahin dekhi hogi!
Sam's rating - 3/5
