~The Absurd world without emotional core~. Review on Peepli Live

Satire is hard to pull off. And this, coming from a fan of the genre. So, for the attempt and choice of subject itself, Peepli Live should be seen. Peepli Live is a testament to what Hindi films could have been, but never turned out that way. Suicide itself is an absurd predicament. For if Gods do exist, it is a protest, but if they do not, then killing yourself is futile and is a form of surrender; surrender to the greatest cruelty man has ever known – life! For if life itself demands just to exist, without any hope, death offers a lucrative prospect. Especially, if that lucrative prospect comes in the form of money. Living with an absurd hope, waiting for Godot, who never comes is no living at all. If suicide can be justified, such a situation could come close to it. However, fundamentally, the logic of life itself is absurd. As soon as Natha solves his religious dilemma that death would give him money, what surrounds him are people – some who wish him to die, while some don’t. Some just wish he did anything, but at least something!Welcome to life…

Plot:

The premise of Peepli is strong but the film has few strong sequences to boast about. Actually, if you’ve seen the dialogue promos and the theatrical trailer of the film, you’ve seen it all. That’s pretty much the whole film. You might think that it’s the tip of the iceberg (trust me, the promos gave me that illusion as well), but that’s the iceberg itself! Natha lives in Peepli, a small village that obviously could not accommodate all of the actions that were about to happen. He is persuaded by his brother Budhia, to give up his life for money, for the government pays handsomely to only DEAD debt ridden farmers. Thus, at the beginning, you see the absurd logic permeating through. You give up your life to repay your debts! Natha agrees, mostly for the sake of his children and the fact that he can’t stand his wife or his loud Amma. Hitherto, begins the drama. Local daily Jan Morcha thinks Natha's decision to commit suicide is a big story. Slowly, the national press realises how a live suicide could help TRPs shoot through the roof.Natha now has 24-hour police protection, a Lal Bahadur (hand pump), and a flat-screen TV gifted by the local leader banking on caste-based votes. Some want him to commit suicide already, minus all the fuss, whilst others don’t. What matters is that what Natha thinks at this point DOES NOT matter!

What a great premise. If a subject for satire had to be picked, it couldn’t be more novel. In fact, the script and editing are watertight. There are no ‘extra’ scenes in the film. The best scene undoubtedly is with Naseerudin Shah as agricultural minister, where giving an interview he exclaims – “don’t put words in my mouth”. I chuckled with glee there. I just wish there were more subtle scenes like that one. Sadly, Peepli mostly goes for over the top antics which get the message across, albeit in a pantaloon and buffoon like manner. It goes from subtlety to one gimmick after the other. It does seem like these gimmicks were just thrown in. There is a fine line between absurdity and ridiculousness and Peepli crosses that line more often than not. You laugh wholeheartedly at what’s being dished out to you, but you don’t care.

Caste politics, hypocrisy, and sensationalism are the key issues here. Everyone wants to save their neck because everyone knows that their neck doesn’t deserve to be saved. And in between all this is Natha. He represents the plight of the people. The person who faces troubles getting along with the family, the man who has to worry where the next penny is going to come from. Natha is indeed in a delicate situation. But you never see that in Peepli. Natha becomes side lined while the gimmicks take centre stage. Media sensationalism is bashed extensively in the film and I applaud that. However, it takes away from the emotional core of the film. The film loses focus. It just keeps on showing the extent of sensationalism one after the other. We get it! But that is literally drilled into the viewer. I suspect that the plot wasn’t expanded more than the premise. For rather than focusing on media sensationalism, caste politics and the hypocritical attitude of the government, which was only lightly touched upon could have been explored in much more depth. However, Peepli cannot let go of its fascination with media.

Cast:

Raghubir Yadav shines as Budhia. The last I saw of him was in Mungerilal ke haseen sapne. He is the backbone of the film. Omkar Manikpuri as Natha plays the desolate lead well, but sincerely, we cannot really call him the lead because he wasn’t the focus anyway. Shalini Vatsa as Natha’s wife appears more and more convincing as the film wears on. Ammaji (Farukh Jaffer) is mostly good for comic relief. More depth to her character was needed. Acting wise, all the characters were very well sketched. Nasser bhai in his cameo was impressive (why am I not surprised?). Acting, characters are NOT the problem here. Fantastic job, all them! All the songs of the film, I think there are only four, are beautiful. I believe Mehngai Dayan already has developed a huge fan following. No wonder. This is what was required more of. CONTINUED IN COMMENT...