“PEEPLI LIVE” was no doubt a wonderful watch. Everything about it was lovable, let it be the acting, dialogues or the story telling. But throughout the movie something kept on hitting me. I felt as if I had a prior acquaintance with the story!
The thought did not ruin the flavor of the movie but definitely kept me guessing and finally at the last I found the answer to my question.
“PEEPLI LIVE” has a great synonymic resemblance with the 1989 AMITABH BACHCHAN starrer “MAIN AZAAD HOON”.
“MAIN AZAAD HOON” had a poor man (AMITABH BACHCHAN) framed by media gimmick in which he had to enact a hypothetical character made by the journalist (SHABANA AZMI) of a failing newspaper. The character was named AZAAD and he had to commit suicide to protest against the rising corruption in the city. AZAAD’s rising popularity due to his stand against the government and the rules which were hurting common man in various ways, became a concern for the ruling as well as opposition political parties. AZAAD’s growing image as public representative became a major issue which could prove as turning point in the elections.
In “PEEPLI” too we have NATHA who is framed into the whole suicidal mission by his brother and press. We could find the political parties trying to establish a better image among the people by being sympathetic towards NATHA and the farmers alike.
We could find the different faces of press and politics in both the movie in quite the same manner. In “MAIN AZAAD HOON” it was the newspapers and their selling reports and in “PEEPLI” it was the news channels and their TRPs.
A major point which separates the story lines to an extent is the AZAAD character in “MAIN AZAAD HOON” who unknowingly gets completely involved into the problems faced by people and finally ends up committing suicide to prove his words which were never his.
NATHA on the other hand is a meek character who doesn’t even seem to know how he ended up in such a situation throughout the movie.
“PEEPLI LIVE” was not only a question asked for the farmers, but many questions asked metaphorically against the media and politics.
“MAIN AZZAD HOON” asked many more questions apart from the ones asked by “PEEPLI”.
So, if you haven’t watched “MAIN AZZAD HOON” yet, I would like you to go for it because if “PEEPLI LIVE” is a statement, “MAIN AZAAD HOON” is a complete paragraph.
