I wanted to write a review of Peepli Live but my heart is not allowing me to review it as a film because for those with brains and heart, it more than a film. This is not just a Tamasha where some artists show their art. Though the way it has been made, is such that it says everything in a lighter way. Amir has again proved himself…what do I mean by proving? How many people are there who do what they want…? From big to small everyone acts according to the market. Big people invest where return is guaranteed and small people do whatever is running. No one thinks or acts different, they go in the direction where all the others are moving. And there is an overflow of such people in film industry.
I myself have some experience of this world so I know how a story gets converted into a film. The very first question you will encounter is who is the ‘Hero’? If you have a hero who is hot in the market then your story is lucky but if not then no one can help you then how can you make a movie which has Nattha as hero? And suppose you have a hero but people will laugh on you if the story is based in a remote village. Then they will start ruining your story, they will put an item song, some hot scenes and considering yo generation some dhin chak music(?) will be made.
Among all this if Peepli Live has come out then I will say director ‘Anusha Rizvi’ is very lucky and Aamir khan deserves a salute that living in such an environment he chooses such stories which really says something. Peepli Live doesn’t have any hero, or item girl, or a hot scene, or dhin chak music, instead it has a fragrance of soil, folk music.
Everybody knows the story, A farmer announces to commit suicide to save his land from being sold. His own elder brother tricks him to do so. Then starts the dirty game of media and politics. Film has been made in a comic way because no one wants to listen to or speak seriously. But I doubt that even this color of comedy will succeed to convey the message makers want to convey because I have seen people coming out of theater and they didn’t understand it at all. Few rated it as an art film, few rated it as a comedy film. There may be few people who would have understand it and I wish, at least few such people were there. Some people complaints that film stuck in media sequences but a story needs events to move ahead and this story could be told like this only. Read between the lines, Deep thoughts have been conveyed in jokes. The final outcome is picture of a country which is hopelessly corrupt, in sensitive and not at all original.
At one place in the movie a journalist from an English news channel says – “someone becomes doctor, someone becomes engineer, we are journalists, this is our profession and if you cannot do this, you are in a wrong job”. This she says to a local reporter who is very disturbed on all the drama happening on the issue. This is the most real picture of this country where everything is profession….If a musician thinks about music, he is in wrong job….if an artist thinks about the art, he is in wrong profession….If a doctor thinks about the patient, he is in wrong profession….a lawyer thinks about law, he is in wrong profession…If a politician thinks about public, he is in wrong profession….everybody wants to make a product which is sellable, if original thought behind the profession is being killed then let it be…who cares? Everything is controlled by market and everything is a commodity including human too.
People staying in metros doesn’t even know that there are such places, people and lives in their shining and modern India. It is the real India which is shown in this movie. In the climax of film a farmer reaches to a city only to be a laborer and with the message that between 1991 to 2001 8 million farmers became laborers leaving the farming and what a man can do when life become unmanageable for him? No one wants to pursue farming anymore. More and more people wants to go to cities leaving their villages and farms and get a job. This race and ambition creates people who do not have any moral….they can do anything for their own progress. Think about the day when all the farmers would have left farming and their children will be doing some job, from where will they get the food? And how would be that country with such people?
There is a lot to say…what I think is, this country is not developing but it is being finished. Everything is being copied…everything which is our own is being ridiculed and there is a blind race. There would be a time when everything would be borrowed….language, art, culture, food etc etc…nothing would be original.
Ok, now lets come back to movie. It’s a great movie…acting, direction, dialogues…everything is outstanding. Nattha speaks very less in the movie but he says everything with his eyes and face. It disturbs me greatly to see that a farmer has to touch everyone’s feet, use har ‘tatpunjiye’ ke saamne gidgidaana padta hai. How can a poor person keep his self respect? If he thinks about self respect, he is bound to commit suicide. Nattha will die anyways, either of insult, or of hopelessness or of hunger…our society has become like that only. There is another small thread in the backdrop of Nattha’s tell, the story of Hori Mahto who’s land has been sold and who digs the soil daily to sell…he is very week but has to work whole day. One day he is found died in the trench he used to dig….this shatters the local reporter, everything starts seeming meaningless to him and anyone who is sensitive enough will feel hurt by such incident….this is a small story to contrast the nautanki of media and politicians. Every actor has delivered a great performance. It is too good to see "Raguveer Yadav" after a long time. The home and village shown in the movie is authentic, villages are exactly like this…at least in Madhyapradesh this is the scene everywhere…poverty, garbage and discomfort…and film has been shot in a village of Madhyapradesh only.
First ‘Udaan’ and then ‘Peepli Live’… assures that some good people have reached in film industry and we can expect more. If there are at least 4-5 produces like Aamir then this industry would be changed altogether. I will suggest, everyone should watch ‘Peepli Live’ because where everything is being decided by market, if one good thing becomes successful then we can expect more good ahead.