Movie Review: PK

Was it the expectations that killed it? Or was it the content?

Any Aamir Khan, Rajkumar Hirani movie builds up expectations for everyone. Their movies have till now all been enjoyable, almost flawless in their flow and script. To the point that I have grown to expect the same from all their movies. And that is where PK lost out for me.

PK is conceptually different and strong - using the viewpoint of an alien stuck on earth to highlight how meaningless some of our religious practices have become.

But what the movie lacked was a well balanced script. It got too long, too winded and pedantic at times. There were too many typical twists and turns which made it a drag at times. For example, the multiple interactions with the guru and Aamir did not come out as natural as they could have been. And Anushka's acting wasn't natural either. I got disconnected many times from the script because of that.

Also at no point did I emotionally connect with what PK, the alien is going through. For most of the movie, I just felt it was a long lecture about the chosen topic rather than PK's story. And even though Aamir acted well - he was completely in character, Anushka seemed to do a bit of over acting.

I also felt that the movie did focus most on ills of Hinduism rather than all religions. Even if it happened unintentionally, I can see that being taken as the message of the movie and am not surprised with the protests going on now. The views on this have very well been captured by greatbong - PK by Greatbong. I am copying the text from his blog as I would not have been able to formulate my thoughts as well...

The basic problem I believe is that Raju Hirani is way out of his depth in PK, biting off way more than he can chew. To be fair, it is extremely difficult to make a movie that is anti-organized-religion without coming down inordinately on one religion, and unless you are willing to go fully “equal opportunities offender” like Maher in Religulous, which again is a very difficult thing to do in a fictional setting, treading carefully is a must.

Unfortunately Hirani is as subtle as a sledgehammer, a deft touch he doth not have.

Not that I believe Hirani has an insidious bias or that PK is part of a global anti-Hindu conspiracy, which you would believe if you followed the boycottPK loony hashtag, but it is true that Hirani exclusively ends up using Hindu religious practices as his pincushion. Sure, there are throwaway blink-and-miss-it references to Christian conversions and Muslims treatment of their own women, but the focus remains firmly on the Hindu faith. It’s the man dressed as a Hindu God who runs like a coward, it’s the Hindu Gods who stand ghoul-like silent as PK prays in front of them, which happens to be the most powerful scene of the movie. The villain is a fake baba, a supposed anthropomorphism of everything-that-is-wrong-with-religion, except that he ends up as a stand-in for only Hinduism. If it was just one character, it would be still fine, but then there is another Hindu priest who is shown as a glorified pick-pocket, taking away Anushka’s wallet in a way that is more like a hood in a dark alley than a man of God. No other religion has their people in authority get consistently poor treatment.

The explanation for that, I believe, and here is the supreme irony, is fear. Like most people with a bit of common sense, Hirani knows that depicting a maulvi as a money-grabbing goonda would lead to consequences more dire than the mild controversy that is brought on about by social-media outrage or the isolated court-case they have more than enough resources to fight, both of which incidentally are good for the movie publicity-wise. Hirani’s consciousness of “those who must not be angered” is perhaps most evident when PK, the alien, puts up signs of different Hindu Gods on a wall and, if I am not totally wrong there was also a picture of Jesus, but even PK knows, from news that might have reached him billions of light years away, that forget pictures there are some depictions of deities you do not put on walls, if you want to keep your head on your shoulders. In that context of fear, the rather provocative line “Jo Dar Gya Woh Mandir Gya” becomes ironic, almost as ironic as an actor convicted of Jihadi terrorism in real life being blown up by a Jihadi bomb on screen.

Would go for only 3 stars for this, even though this movie had immense potential.