What is it all about?

Kudos to Aamir for his believe in such thinking sensible cinema and journo turned filmmaker Anusha Rizvi for a just perfect film that amazingly balances and respects the genre and its audience the thinking walas and real cinema rasiks.

‘Peepli [Live]’ is undeniably the satire of the season, a compelling piece of work which spurns a sarcastically funny and dramatic yarn that pushes the film way ahead from its contemporaries in Bollywood.

A gem of a film and it comes at the right time.

The Story…Of course

Natha (Omkar Das Manikpuri), a poor farmer from Peepli village in the heart of rural India, is about to lose his plot of land due to an unpaid government loan. A quick fix to the problem is the government’s program that aids the families of indebted farmers who have committed suicide. As a means of survival, Natha chooses to die. His brother (Raghubur Yadav) is happy to push him towards this unique honour.

Local elections are around the corner and what might’ve been another unnoticed event turns into a cause célèbre, with everyone wanting a piece of the action. Political bigwigs, high-ranking bureaucrats, local henchmen and the ever-zealous media descend upon sleepy Peepli to stake their claim. Natha’s mother (Farrukh Jaffer) screams at his wife (Shalini Vatsa), while his young son urges papa to go through with the suicide so he can use the money to become a policeman.

One TV journalist, in a desperate search for a new angle, tries to examine Natha’s faeces to determine his emotional state. Nobody seems to care how Natha really feels.

What to look out for?

The biggest plus of ‘Peepli [Live]’ is that it does exactly what is required and doesn’t ‘corrupt’ its characters and stays loyal to its theme which mirrors the true India we live in it’s a befitting comment on the so called ‘Incredible India’ thingie that many urbans boost of, ‘Peepli [Live]’ talks of people in a humorous manner who earn on average 20 -25 rupees a month, double the money we spend for a coffee in our plexes and its so funny that it starts ‘hurting’ us.

The movie boost with the sort of intelligent wit and bracing nastiness of the government, politicians, media and ends up as a smart, sophisticated, original film.

Set in M.P, the movie comes with strong details, the yellow coloured painted tempo, with M.P. state number plate, the country liquor joint, the ‘ganja’ weeds, posters of the ruling party around the street as elections are around corner, the costumes, the house, the lingo which has the Bundelkhandi touch to it as its spoken in the plateau region of M.P and U.P., no make up, nothing plastic all real.

Each and every prop is done with perfection. The art direction is awesome, the detailing is authentic and the casting director has done a marvellous job in ‘Peepli [Live]’, its amazing to get connected with the actor in the very first frame and boy, the actors where not acting they where performing the role and the audience feels that its happening in real in front of them, brilliantly done.

The picture’s disarming strength is its matter-of-fact progression along the two fronts of the society the haves and the have nots, shown through the eyes of the media who ironically doesn’t has the eye and ear for the truth.

‘Peepli [Live]’ is unquestionably blessed by its first-rate actors. All are amazingly natural. Many of us know the potential of Raghuveer Yadav as an actor but here he displays his singing and scores bonus points, ironically the timing of ‘mehengayi dayan’ is perfect and Indian Ocean has given another foot tapper ‘Desh Mera’, he fusion of folk and rock is appealing.

Coming to the actors, Omkar Das Manikpuri as Natha is just perfect. Malaika Shenoy as Nandita Mallik the TV journo, Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Rakesh, every actor gets into the skin of the character with such ease its wonderful to see, anyways the scene stealer is Amma played by Farrukh Jaffer and the nagging wife played by Shalini Vatsa gives her ample support.

Cinematography by Shanker Raman and Editing by Hemanti Sarkar is sharp.

What not?

Nothing in the recent brief history of Bollywood cinema, a movie comes which only real fault is that it’s a little too close to the truth to be as funny as it could be.

Conclusion: ‘Peepli [Live]’ is an achievement, if you know and understand ‘India’ you live in then ‘Peepli [Live]’ sways you.