pk (2014)

Director: Rajkumar Hirani
Story: Abhijat Joshi, Rajkumar Hirani
Cast: Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma, Saurabh Shukla, Boman Irani
Music: Ajay Atul, Shantanu Moitra, Ankit Tiwari
Time: 153 minutes
Bottom-line: Perhaps the best film of 2014

You have probably heard this a hundred times before, so here it goes once again: only Rajkumar Hirani and Aamir Khan could have pulled off pk. The latest Aamir Khan film is truly amazing, thanks to the brilliant acting, superb storyline, and the way it is presented on screen. pk features Anushka Sharma, Saurabh Shukla, Boman Irani in the lead roles, with Sushant Singh Rajput and Sanjay Dutt in the supporting roles. Aamir’s character of PK was inspired by the real-life rationalist Abraham Kovoor.

Aamir as PK

Rajasthan, India: An alien (Aamir) lands in the desert. He wears (only!) a locket, which is the remote control to call his spaceship. Soon after he lands, the remote gets stolen, and he is stranded on Earth. Over the next few days, he mingles with humans, by stealing clothes and money. He learns Hindi and is able to understand that the thief would have probably sold the locket at Delhi.
Bruges, Belgium: TV reporter Jaggu (Anushka Sharma) falls in love with an architecture student, Sarfaraz (Rajput), a Muslim from Pakistan. Her father dislikes this, and goes to a god-man Tapasvi Maharaj (Shukla), who predicts that Sarfaraz will ditch her. Sure enough, things go as predicted, and a disheartened Jaggu comes to New Delhi.
Back in Delhi, months later, Jaggu, now a reporter, meets the alien, who has been named PK by the people (peekay in Hindi means tipsy), because of his crazy behaviour. On interviewing him for a news story, she comes to know PK’s suffering because of religion. Confused by the different customs and religious practices, PK, in the hope that praying to God will help him get his remote back, only ends up humiliated and hurt. Inspired by PK’s ideas, Jaggu decides to bring about a change in the people’s religious beliefs with his help, with the promise of helping him get back his remote. What they do together forms the rest of the film.

Anushka Sharma as Jaggu, also the narrator
of the story

The story deals with a “sensitive” topic (especially in India): religion. A satire on “God and godmen” (as Hirani put it), pk hopes to be an eye-opener to those who blindly follow the various customs and practices in India. Most of us were, I believe, told not to ask questions about such practices, but to follow them because our previous generations were doing the same thing. Some followed them, some ignored them, but no one really questioned them. Only someone who has never seen such things before, only someone who has been affected by an issue questions it. That’s probably the reason why Aamir’s character is an alien: a rational being who questions everything, to whom everything must have a reason.

Saurabh Shukla as Tapasvi Maharaj, the
main antagonist

After getting whacked several times due to the different rules of religions set by the different “managers”, PK decides it would be best to follow all religions, and this also results in failure. PK’s theory is simple: all of us put a call to God, but we all call the “wrong number”. Some fake God fools around with us, making us perform meaningless rituals. According to him, there are two Gods: one, who created us, and the other, whom we created. The scene where PK asks a bunch of people from different religions to go before Tapasvi Maharaj, to prove that all religions are identical, and the scene where he explains how people’s fear makes them blindly follow things are interesting to watch.

Sushant Singh Rajput as Sarfaraz

That is basically the main theme of the film. The other themes include the romance between Sarfaraz and Jaggu, and, as the story progresses, the romance between Jaggu and PK. (Spoiler) The ending is kind of emotional, but the sentence which Jaggu says is what I found interesting: He learnt from us how to lie, and he taught us how to love each other. He loved me enough, to let me go. There are plenty of jokes, though, unlike 3 Idiots, half of them are meant for adults. The songs were not that great, but they were not bad either.

Aamir Khan’s performance is stunning! From the minute he exits his spaceship, till the last scene, his energy and charisma never reduce, and in every scene, he surprises us, either with his actions, expressions or dialogues. This is one of his best performances yet, and to enjoy it best, you have to see it yourself! The supporting cast has also done extremely well. Anushka Sharma certainly surprised me with a fantastic performance as well (but the reason behind the new hair style still puzzles me!) Boman Irani, Sanjay Dutt and Sushant Singh Rajput have comparatively very less screen time that their roles are more of cameo appearances, but nevertheless, sufficient enough to make an impact.

Sanjay Dutt as Bhairon Bhai, a friend of PK
who helps him till he reaches Delhi

pk puts forth a strong message that all of must follow God, and that we must not fall prey to the meaningless rituals that will supposedly get us what we want. True devotion does not need extra perks to turn God’s attention towards you. Though one can find that some ideas have been taken from other films, the final execution, thanks to Hirani’s direction, and the presentation, thanks to Aamir’s (and others’) performances, make pk unique. There are enough jokes to entertain you, and somehow the message the film is supposed to deliver also sinks in. pk, in my view, is perhaps the best film of 2014.

My Rating: 4.5/5