‘Peepli Live’ takes on politics, media in black comedy
August 16, 2010
Starring Omkar Das Manikpuri, Raghubir Yadav, Shalini Vatsa, Malaika Shenoy, Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Many will say that Peepli Live is not your typical Bollywood film—it is and it isn't. It shows a side of India that's grinding instead of glamorous, it's a small film rather than a larger-than-life one, and there are no big-name stars in it. But one very big Bollywood name produced it—Aamir Khan—and it is still fundamentally a Bollywood film.
The selective Aamir Khan Productions has produced less than a handful of films since its formation nearly a decade ago, including one—the company's first, Lagaan (2001)—that was nominated for an Academy Award (only the third Indian film in history to get an Oscar nod), and there's a good chance Peepli Live could be the next Indian film to wind up in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Oscar loves social commentaries, even if he isn't partial to comedies. Peepli Live is both.
It's a darkly humorous satire about a debt-ridden farmer who creates a media circus when he announces that he will commit suicide so that his family can receive government assistance. A comedy about suicide is a tough stretch, but reaching in disparate directions is Hindi cinema's forte. In fact, this isn't even Aamir Khan's first comedy about the topic—he starred in the critically praised blockbuster 3 Idiots (2009), a coming-of-age film about college students cracking under intense social pressure to succeed. The extreme measures of both struggling students and failing farmers are real problems (scores of farmers have killed themselves for government aid in recent years), and while 3 Idiots takes higher education to task, Peepli Live indicts politicians and the media for preying on the poor, while also making a larger statement about the callous self-interest of human beings.
The story takes place in the fictional village of Peepli (many of the actors are, in fact, amateurs from a small village in the region where the film is set). Natha (Omkar Das Manikpuri) is a simpleton who is about to lose his farm in foreclosure. He has a wife, three kids, an older brother—who’s a good-for-nothing bachelor, presumably because of his penchant for pot-smoking—and a bedridden elderly mother—whose ranting and insults are the funniest parts of the movie. This is not a loving family and their village is not an idyllic community. The people here are nasty. When Natha turns to the local crime boss for help, the mobster jokingly suggests that Natha kill himself for the money and his brother Budhia (Raghubir Yadav) convinces him to do it. Natha's perpetually angry, suffering wife thinks it's a stupid idea—because she thinks everything Natha does is stupid. No one cares if he dies, not even his kids. And yet, this man doesn't really want to die, even though he has little reason to live. After a local reporter catches wind of his plans, the story goes national, and journalists and politicians descend on Peepli like vultures. The situation turns into a ridiculous feeding frenzy with the not-yet-dead Natha offered up for public consumption. With the whole country waiting for him to die, Natha is afraid to back out.
If you don't laugh at life—the old saying goes—you'll cry. And true to Bollywood tradition, Peepli Live makes sure we do both.
Peepli Live is rated Must See.
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