PK IS NOT A GREAT MOVIE; HERE'S WHY!
PK is definitely not a bad film by Indian
standards, it is in fact a reasonably good one. If you’re heading out to watch a Hindi movie this
weekend you should watch PK. If you’re not heading out to watch a movie though;
I wouldn’t urge you to see it. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that, you must
watch PK.
If you look at Aamir Khan- PK is the equivalent of a sort of
spiritual cleansing after his Dhoom debacle. He has done a brilliant job and you
almost feel proud to see a star of his stature subject himself to such buffoonery
to honour the script's demands. I’m all praises for him- Aamir ‘the star’ cuts
the actor within some slack, every once in a while. PK will make you laugh
every 15 minutes or so- the humour there is infallible. Also read: Delhi versus Mumbai: The way I see it!
Then there is Saurabh Shukla who is spectacular and makes
you believe that he is perhaps the only one who could have played the role of the
clichéd ‘Hindu Spiritual Guru’. He does it with style and makes it look
effortless. Boman Irani too does a decent job at playing an interesting character whom the movie didn't have much time for.
Like all of Mr. Hirani’s films, PK is a world of its own albeit,
one with sub-standard special effects, aimlessly floating characters and out of
place songs. The first half gets you excited but the second half doesn’t
deliver on that promise of stellar magic.
Aamir and Saurabh Shukla are aces but, almost everyone else disappoints.
Anushka Sharma’s character constantly plays second fiddle to PK and lacks
depth. She is dressed like a teenager with a Barkha Dutt like haircut because
that’s how all female journalists in Delhi look. She reminds you of Preity
Zinta from Lakshya- only it worked for Preity & the film. Here it works for
neither.
Anushka’s character ‘Jaggu’ seems like nothing more than a weak tool
used to keep the film moving forward. Also read: Movie Review: Gone Girl, Nightcrawler, Interstellar
Sanjay Dutt appears in a cameo. Of course even if you cut
out all of his scenes nothing would change. Dutt has been wasted in PK- utterly
washed out. Then there is Sushant Singh Rajput who shows up for a bit rides a
cycle, sings a song and comes back in the end.
The kitten and letter angle was
a disaster for me. Not only was it a predictable setup to begin with, the forceful climactic
background music and the painfully long explanation montage for the pay off
made me want to curl up and die.
I may not love PK but I don’t hate the movie either, primarily because like our Moral Science
textbooks in school, the movie has a message. The same message that Akshay
Kumar and Paresh Rawal delivered in a better way in the lesser known and lesser
lauded film titled- Oh My God. The message that is sent across in PK however is
different- as different as the contents of a bottle of Bisleri are from a
bottle of Aquafina.
There is a lot of love for PK out there right now and for
good reason. We need such movies to say simple but important things. We need
Raju Hirani to keep giving us these little gems. But he usually serves it up
with a certain cinematic brilliance that pleases everyone.
I say this at the
peril of sounding like a snotty pseudo: PK isn’t a great film, it isn't even a completely original film. Perhaps that's what hurts the most. Do watch it though, so you can talk about it, lest you'll feel like a laggard! Also read: You Can't Have Everything!
Nice write-up! Precisely what I thought after watching the movie, as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks and good to know Kshitij :)
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