Talkie Talks #02: Why you should not miss PK!

I heard about PK when the controversial poster came out and no, I did not give a damn about the film even then. I just kept ignoring the raving coverage that PK got until I accidentally came across the movie plot one day. Seriously, Aamir as an alien??? Well, that may be the reason I decided to give the movie a watch but I ended up loving it for different reasons altogether.

Storyline: PK (the name that he adopts after landing on Earth), an alien, comes to our planet to research about humans and their livelihood. Upon reaching, he is immediately robbed of his remote that is vital for his return back to his home-planet. Thus begins PK's relentless search for his remote, which in turn gives way to a baffling search for God, whom, he is led to believe that, will help him get his remote back. In the process, he meets Jaggu - a TV reporter looking for a juicy story to air. Intrigued with PK's eccentric behavior, Jaggu firmly believes he has a great story and shadows him. Somehow, she gains PK's trust and comes to know he's in fact an alien stranded on Earth. Rest of the story is about how PK and Jaggu get the remote back from Tapasvi Maharaj, a bogus Godman cheating on the public in the name of divinity.

Now, here are the two chief reasons why you should not miss PK:

• First things first: The Basics

The story of PK has been created and penned down by Rajkumar Hirani, who treated us to movies like Munnabhai MBBS and 3 idiots in the past and also holds a bunch of Filmfare awards to his credit. Moreover, with the best shoot crew in town, the film also stars the likes of Aamir Khan (The Perfectionist), Boman Irani, Anushka Sharma, Sanjay Dutt and Saurabh Shukla. When such masterminds and artists of Bollywood get together for a picture, one can only imagine the finesse that the movie will portray, not to mention the winning combination of Hirani-Vinod Chopra. Songs and BGMs are not extraordinary but they keep you entertained enough, along with the visuals. Cutting a long story short, a brilliant screenplay, IMO.

• Laugh out loud, shed a few tears, and return home thinking

With a running time of 150 minutes, the first half is filled with typical Hirani moments and will keep you in stitches right through. Post-interval, get ready to blink away a few tears here and there. To be honest, the second half does drag a little bit due to a few unwanted scenes, but still scores better than every pathetic screenplay that is being made today.

More than anything else, PK is all about taking a merciless dig at the blind practices followed by our society in the name of religion. For every scene that makes you laugh, a hard truth about our society comes attached. It urges the educated mind to open up and question the unquestionable practices that are narrow-mindedly harbored even today. Maybe you will not return home thinking all the way, but I bet that you'll find yourself nodding vigorously and clapping involuntarily at times when PK voices an exact question that has been haunting you for years.

Are there negatives? Yes! It is only natural that a couple of mistakes are uncovered when any movie is reviewed critically. Same way, PK also falls short of a few yardsticks, especially since expectations are usually lofty for 'Hirani+Aamir' movies. Even after choosing to ignore the pace slow-down in the second half, a few points have to be mentioned.  Boman Irani has been given an insignificant role, the love triangle as well as the bombing scene stand out without any connect to the script, and I never understood why PK keeps chewing betel leaves in the first half of the movie. There's also a striking similarity between the scripts of PK's second half and the movie 'Oh My God!', as both of them condemn organized religion.

Final Thoughts: PK may not be THE best of HIrani but is sure is one among the best Bollywood movies ever made and also a great milestone in Aamir's starhood. Overall, it has been quite a while since I enjoyed a movie like this and wished there were more movies made suchlike. So, PK aka PEEKAY - a winner all the way and definitely a must-watch. Cheers!!