Film Review: PK

Hilarious, heartfelt, daring and important. The 3 Idiots team (almost) strike gold once again!

PK tells the story of an alien (Aamir Khan), who has landed on Earth to observe humans and report back his findings. However, on his first day of landing – nangu in the heartlands of the Rajasthani desert – his ‘remote’ that he uses to communicate with his race is robbed. Hence follows a hectic mission with the assistance of new friend bubbly news reporter Jaggu (Anushka Sharma) for the curious alien ‘PK’ to find his way home. However, his search takes him on a journey to discover the celestial being(s) different humans know as ‘God’, whose existence he questions puts him at loggerheads with corrupt godman Tapasvi Ji (Saurabh Shukla).

Aamir Khan is delightful as anticipated in the title role of PK, and looks like he enjoyed himself immensely in essaying his inner Buster Keaton. He prances about from human to human, getting into trouble from innocent miscommunications and lovably running away with his arms at his side. Seeing a skewed viewpoint of humanity from the angle of an outsider is enlightening, offering a great insight into what we believe, and more importantly why we believe it. This is as much due to Aamir’s performance as it is to screenwriter Abhijat Joshi’s subtle and intuitive dialogue.

In addition to Aamir and Anushka’s adorable turns, the rest of the cast also give stellar work in their supporting roles, whether it be Sanjay Dutt as PK’s Rajasthani friend Bhairav who helps him get laid (watch the film – it’ll all make sense) or the understated Sushant Singh Rajput as Jaggu’s long-lost love interest. Saurabh Shukla does well to avoid playing the godman as a stereotypical antagonist; at least giving hints that he believes he is doing what is right for the people.

The background score by Shantanu Moitra, who also worked on 3 Idiots, works perfectly with the film, and the cinematography by CK Muraleedharan gives an amazing pastel of colours, particularly in the portrayal of Rajasthan.

After the deserved success of director Rajkumar Hirani’s Munnabhai series and 3 Idiots, despite the mystery surrounding the content of the film, there was instantly a high level of expectation curtailing PK. That’s not to mention that it’s simultaneously the annual offering of perfectionist superstar Aamir Khan, whose last film Dhoom 3 still holds the title of the highest grossing Bollywood film of all-time. The question is, does the film meet expectations? Very much so. Does it exceed them? Unfortunately not.

Read the rest of the review at The-NRI.com.

About shaizine

Creator of THREE SHADES OF BROWN News Editor at THE-NRI.COM Writer of TIL JIHAD DO US PART (amongst other things) Resident DJ of BOMBAY FUNKADELIC (as DJ Shai Guy)

View all posts by shaizine →