Peepli Live

Is Aamir Khan the man with the Midas touch in Bollywood? His first movie through production house AKP went all the way to the Oscars. The second one was a raging hit within the country and a launch pad for his nephew. The third, it would seem is as big a hit but from a completely different genre and with absolutely no “stars” in the true sense of the word – barring of course one gentleman who goes by the name of Naseeruddin Shah. I really would not call Peepli Live a comedy, unless of course it is preceded by Dark. The correct term would probably be Satire.


Natha (Omkar Das) and Budhiya (Raghuvir Yadav) are brothers who are deep in debt. Their farmland has been mortgaged with the bank who now wants to auction the land off since our brothers have not been able to pay the money back. The brothers stay with their Mother (Farrukh Jaffer), Natha’s wife Dhania (Shalini Vatsa) and Natha’s 3 kids. On their return from the bank, their only hope rests with Bhai Thakur (Sitaram Panchal) the local politician / representative for the ruling party of the state of Mukhya Pradesh. Thakur tells them in jest to commit suicide and that the government pays upto Rs.1 lac for families of farmers who have committed suicide. The two poor illiterate souls actually take this seriously, find out details and debate on who should commit suicide between them.

Parallely, on ITV, Nandita Malik (Malaika Shenoy) is interviewing Union Minister for Agriculture, Mr. Salim Kidwai (Naseerudding Shah) who more or less trivializes the issue of farmer suicides by claiming that a lot of them are natural deaths. He also turns it into a point of putting down the Government of Mukhya Pradesh which is led by the opposing party. ITV’s editor in charge is not happy with his falling TRPs and the fact that Bharat TV the Hindi National Channel is raking in the big numbers thanks to some ridiculous programming. Nandita is instructed to do whatever it takes to up the ratings. As luck would have it, a local newspaper journo, Rakesh from Jan Morcha over hears Natha and Budhiya planning their suicide. The ensuing article begins to create waves but Rakesh, smitten by Nandita, informs her first. Not for too long though coz the entire country now wants to see the man who is going to commit suicide on live Television.

Peepli Live is a superb satire on 4 issues that the country faces today. The fact that the progress from being an agri economy to a service based one has left a whole host of farmers completely high and dry. The favourite victim as most people who has seen the movie perceive it, is the media; and rightfully so. Watching the news these days, is as good as watching a daily soap. The only way most news channels understand is sensationalizing how Salman Khan takes a leak and not really addressing the core and more important issues at hand. Lastly it takes a royal dig at the existing political system in the country where politicians and bureaucrats would rather point fingers at each other or join hands with rival parties for their own personal gain or provide irrelevant support to people like giving a farmer who is struggling for his survival a Television and attempting to generate mileage out of it. I say 4 issues coz somewhere I believe Peepli Live is trying to push us into a specific direction of saying no the kind of crap that we are put through these days, either by the political system or the media. It seems to be an earnest plea to all of us to not just wait for a change but to be the change. Remains to be seen how many of us actually take the message forward into action.

As regards the quality of execution, it is indeed very good. The performances of all the actors are excellent. Casting is superb. The costumes even more. Direction is only aided by the fact that the cast is really good. But one cannot take away credit from Anusha Rizvi and Mohammed Farooqui even more so since this was their first movie. Music is also very well managed between Ram Sampat, Indian Ocean and Nageen Tanvir. No questions about the story line which deals with the 4 issues in an extremely humorous manner that leaves you feeling good and not upset or depressed. The peak point in the entire movie would be when Natha’s son comes to him and asks, “Baba, aap kab maroge”? Overall a 7 on 10 surely from my side.