Movie Review - PK

(Reproduced here 
from my FB account where I first wrote this on 24th December 2014)

I know this review is coming after almost a week of the release. Aamir Khan's performance is simply superb and he lived in the alien role throughout the 153 minutes film. He deserves an Oscar for the same. Coming to the story, it has shades of four other movie stories - Firstly, Telugu movie Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari (in which Sridevi and Chiranjeevi played the lead roles. There she loses her ring and cannot get back to Indralok unless she gets it back), secondly OMG, thirdly Aliens and fourthly Avatar (transmission through mind reading - that is how PK learns Bhojpuri in 6 hours from a prostitute). The film wonderfully captured the age-old thirst of man to find God and how in the process, the middle men in the form of godmen, take them for a ride.

The film also showcased the Upanishadic concept that man should go beyond just outward symbols and forms to actually realize God. Each of the scenes is thought-provoking and questions the very fundamentals of the way one followed his/her religion. For instance, the scene where PK buys a small idol of Bhagavan from a shopkeeper and the conversation between them is remarkable. The part where PK, after having failed to ‘meet’ God at the temple, goes to the church with coconut, dhoop stick, etc. and then to a mosque with wine mocks at the basic practices and rituals of each religion. What is acceptable at one place of worship is not acceptable at the other though both are places of humans worshipping God, each his own God.  Then, PK searching for the stamp of religion on the bodies of small babies born in a hospital is also a very message oriented. The present system of associating various dress colors with a particular happening or person or an event was also shown in a funny yet serious manner. 

The film magnificently highlighted how religion has been usurped by so called ‘god men’ and vested interests to further their own agendas leaving behind the real concept or God. Rightly, the film says that each god man is opening his own Company and behaving like Business Managers thereby fooling the devotees and extracting money from them. The wrong number show on the channel in which Jaggu (AnushkaSharma) worked showed this amply.  She was looking too good and played her role in a natural manner.

The song “Bhagavan hai kaha tum, hai khuda hai kaha tum……tum kya hai mei samja nahi”, depicts the confusion in every human mind and how that confusion gets compounded when people follow god men like Tapaswi Maharaj (played very well by Saurabh Shukla).  The scene in which PK locks up a Shiva character in a restroom was too hilarious and the audience was in splits throughout.

The supporting cast comprising of Boman Irani , SanjayDutt  and others played their roles well. Background music by Ajay Atul and his team is in complete sync with the screenplay.  Cinematographer C K Muraleedharan’s work added glory to the film.

The Director Rajkumar Hirani could have avoided highlighting mostly one religion, though the emphasis was on all. In his usual style he hooked the audience to their seats for the full length of the movie by making yet another super duper hit with every frame of the movie speaking volumes of his directorial skills.