Movie Review: pk
Director: Rajkumar Hirani
Cast: Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma, Boman Irani, Sanjay Dutt, Saurabh Shukla, Sushant Singh Rajput
Every film, good or bad, gets made in two phases. One’s the concept where the filmmaker decides what he wants to make. The second is where he uses the craft and techniques of filmmaking to execute his ideas. A film like PK starts at the very top in its first phase. The creative scope of such a subject is beyond brilliant. But as you start constructing it in celluloid it starts losing bits of its fancy. There’s no rocket science to where this analogy ends. But a film like PK offers the right kind of resistance. Rajkumar Hirani’s guile as a storyteller adds to the experience. A great concept goes through an average execution to reach a climax that is good if not great. Had this not been a film by Aamir Khan, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Raju Hirani such criticism would’ve been unfair. Fact is this film had the promise to be much more. Even with its flaws, PK is still one of the best of the year.
If you’d heard fleeting rumours that PK was about Aamir Khan playing an alien, nothing’s spoilt for you. Yes he plays an extra terrestrial character but that’s just the first few seconds. Why he’s on Earth and what he does with his time on the planet is the larger picture. Anushka Sharma plays a young girl out of love and feeling out of place in a big bad world driven by religion. You have Sanjay Dutt and Saurabh Shukla playing key characters in PK’s little adventure on planet Earth.
The story deals with a scrawny little alien teaming up with a spirited young girl and learning how human lives function in a complex system of communication, religion and faith. Along the way they get down to debunking superstitions and religious myths. And that’s the ace up PK’s sleeve. It offers a logical argument to those blindly following religious rituals and figures. While that could easily stir up a controversy in our country, Hirani uses the motif of an extraterrestrial asking all the logical questions. And even the answers aren’t black and white. They offer both sides of the coin. There’s the absolute need for religion to invoke faith and hope in humans. As well as portraying the evil of men that breeds from the same system. It’s not challenging your faith in the almighty it’s simply asking questions for what people do in the name of God. Akshay Kumar and Umesh Shukla’s Oh My God! explored similar territory before. But PK intertwines the subject with a love story and a bit of science fiction. The result is a feel good comedy that looks as if its India’s answer to Steven Spielberg’s ET.
The narrative jostles with a very ordinary dramatic curve in its final act. But the lack of logic in the unrequited love story between Anushka Sharma’s and Sushant Singh Rajput’s characters is quickly overshadowed by PK’s finale. The quirky comedy retains its punch over the sappy drama. And just at the end, the film hits the right high notes. A large part of the credit goes to Aamir Khan’s performance. His eccentric demeanour looks authentically funny. And those ever-present bulging eye balls look like a painful acting hazard. As is expected of the perfectionist Khan, his performance is the base on which Hirani builds his film. This is Aamir Khan at his best. Anushka’s efforts are equally important and it helps that her alabaster skin enhances her beauty. But that never takes away from a solid acting performance where she matches Aamir in every scene. Also watch out for supporting acts by Boman Irani, Sanjay Dutt, Saurabh Shukla and a certain superstar’s surprise appearance right at the end.
Rajukumar Hirani follows a certain discipline with his filmmaking. Between him and co-writer Abhijat Joshi, they make sure their screenplay has certain finesse. They use dreamscapes to push in colourful songs. They do it maintain an integrity for their characters and story. Such attention to writing detail is a rare practice in India. But it’s a healthy habit of making films. And it ensures top notch quality, one that PK has in abundance. Reiterating, this is a Hirani, Aamir Khan and Vidhu Vinod Chopra film we’re talking of. They’ve set high standards for themselves. But with dodgy and inconsistent dialogue and repetitive visuals which look too similar to 3 Idiots and Lage Raho Munnabhai, PK doesn’t quite match up to the mark. It’s certainly not Hirani’s best. But it is good enough to engage and entertain the majority of its audience.
By Shivani Raut
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