Peepli Live Movie Review
' Peepli Live is a film about land ownership and suicide that makes you laugh
. Anusha Rizvi entertains with a bawdy take on the rural class struggle as she examines a serious injustice in India today. Scripted with raunchy wit and superbly acted, Peepli Live is likely to play on the international festival circuit before reaching art houses. While its widest exposure outside India is likely to remain the Indian diaspora, critics can be expected to spread the word about this new director.
Rizvis first film has a huge cast, but its story focuses on everyman Natha (Omkar Das Manikpuri), a poor pot-smoking farmer in the village of Peepli who cant pay back his government loan. Thousands of farmers in financial trouble commit suicide every year in India, and when Natha learns that the government will compensate suicide victims families with 100,000 rupees, he considers giving it a try. When word gets out, the press and politicians turn his case into a frenzied spectacle, milking Nathas dilemma for headlines and profit.
Peepli Live focuses on the poorest of the poor in India and it not only highlights the plight of a farmer in a tiny corner of a giant country, but also throws light on the varied people who exploit the situation to their advantage, right from the politicians to the bureaucrats to the television reporters to the local people. In fact, Peepli Live makes a scathing attack on the functioning of media in India and how media persons, depicted as vultures, generally stoop to the lowest levels to increase the ratings of their television channel/show.
The best part is that at no point does the film gets preachy or starts offering solutions to the grave issue. It's a mere tool that the makers have used to discuss bureaucracy, the rural and urban divide and lack of concern of the administration.
Peepli village residents, Natha (Omkar Das) and his elder brother Budhia (Yadav) lose their family land to the bank since they cannot repay their loan. Helpless, they seek help of the local village politician Bhai Thakur (Sitaram Panchal). While Bhai Thakur insults them, one of his cronies mockingly tells the duo about a Government Policy that gives monetary benefit to farmers committing suicides. The brothers take that idea seriously. In a superbly written scene, Budhia manages to get Natha volunteer to commit suicide for the sake of his family. A local reporter, Rakesh (Nawazuddin) gets the whiff of this and does a story on for his newspaper. He also intimates a big English news channel reporter Nandita Malik (Malaika Shenoy) about the same. But no sooner does she breaks this news on her channel, almost every single channel rushes in to cover Nathas suicide story live. The local by-elections are just around the corner what with it being the state chief ministers seat at stake. What all chaos it all leads to forms the rest part of the story.
The film is set in a fictitious state, Mukhya Pradesh, where, as the film's theme number, Des mera rangrez yeh babu (from the Indian Ocean album, 'Jhini') asserts, surprises, shocks and quirks lurk at every corner. Its vast gallery of characters is brought alive by actors who, in keeping with the backdrop and the situations, look and sound real.
A Dalit leader called Pappu Lal gifts Natha a huge television set, while an eager-beaver babu hands out a 'Lal Bahadur' (a hand pump in bureaucratic parlance) to the farmer. He has no use for either. A local henchman whose mobile ringtone goes Pappu can't dance saala throws his own rough and ready brand of politics into the mix.
And the cocky chief minister of Mukhya Pradesh declares grandly: "Natha nahin marega." For the first and the last time, a faint smile flickers on the farmer's lips. It is certainly not the all-knowing smile of a man who is in control of his destiny.
So many things are being said at once - using the lyrics, the music, the backdrop, the props - that in the first five minutes you decide to stop being overwhelmed as you promise yourself another watch to grasp more. This first time I decided to absorb the surface. The performances are so close to reality that it almost feels like a documentary. The focus is on developing and presenting the situation rather than building characters and their arcs. The photography adds to the 'real' milieu by having a home-video feel - with the intentional shakes and jerks.
There are some exaggerations, no doubt. And they make the film a little too slapsticky for my taste and also for the tone of the film. Then again, they are only an extension of what we've seen in real life or read in the papers. The newsy nature and the manner in which the situation rolls out also makes the film predictable.
On the whole, Peepli Live is sure to ride initially on the strength and credibility of its iconic actor/producer Aamir Khan and once that is achieved, the powerful content is sure to speak for itself. Peepli Live is a film that would not only appeal to Indians, but is sure to reach out to audiences beyond India. Simply brilliant!
by: srk
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