Movie Review: pk

Pk has distinct Rajkumar Hirani signature – use of sweet satire. It is an art he excels in as evidenced by all his movies such as Munnabhai and 3 idiots. His characters always have unfortunately funny names (Remember Phunsukh Wangdu or Circuit). Now, we have Pk and Jaggu (Anushka) – you’ll need to watch the movie to find out her real name tho. And these characters are most loving iconoclasts you’ll ever come across.

The movie is about an alien, Pk, who literally arrives naked on mother earth on his spaceship. However, the remote of his spaceship is promptly stolen by being of earth and hereby he is left stranded on this planet (gola, as he calls it) without a way to return home. Thus, begins his exploration of seemingly weird customs of earth to get back his remote. He learns to steal clothes and money from a ‘dancing car’ (you’ll have to find that out for yourself :giggles:) , check-in Dilli thanas for shelter and then he hears that all answer to his problems lie with someone called Bhagwan  – only one who could help him. So starts his quest for God. He is baffled by customs of different religions and sure enough is soundly thrashed by all of them. Eventually, he realises, there are many Gods, and each has established a ‘company’ of its own. They are all managed by different managers who have created conflicting, confusing rules.

Enter, Anushka err Jaggu whose superstitious family devoutly prostrates before a rich, Hindu guru, Tapasvi, played by roly-poly Saurabh Shukla. Between Jaggu, Pk and Tapasvi, when they meet, it is only your guess what capers will take place.

Hirani has once again questioned social norms, this time religion and also how we value Gandhi. (I love that scene.) Atheists are complaining that why was he not brave enough to question the existence of God, but I think he was questioning only religion and not the existence of God. His mettle lies in being able to mock all religions with love. 🙂

Of course, there are some corny gaffes such as a man can’t a man hold another man’s hand without being sexual; but we do that all the time in India. Also, there is a quick whirlwind romance and a filmy India-Pak corny love scene in finale (Irony how we no longer want filmy scenes in our films). But it is happily tolerated by the audience that is in throes of laughter so far.

Anushka is wonderful and effortless as an urban, Delhi girl. I loved the casual way she was dressed throughout the movie. Kudos to her stylists! Sanjay Dutt was entertaining as Bhairon Singh from Rajasthan who takes in Pk under his care. I wish Boman and Sushant Singh Rajput who had small cameos had more to do. (I am beginning to think, after his role as Dr Asthana in Munnabhai, Boman continues to make his living by that laugh of his.)

Aamir is great as alien with eager eyes, awkward dress-sense and weird ears. But, unlike Dhoom 3, it is not an out-an-out Aamir Khan movie rather it is about Hirani’s innocent Pk. Pk, the movie, does not have smart alec, subtle, funny jokes. Yet it was a perfect stress buster; I laughed my stress off. Kudos to you Abhijat Joshi and Rajkumar Hirani for writing it, may you make another kickass movie for us!