Review: PK

This film had my head in a whirl - the adverts didn't reveal much about the movie apart from the main actor being Aamir Khan walking around butt naked having his dignity covered but a retro boombox cassette player. Posters of this were removed in India but made quite a stir in regards to the movie.

Straight-away you know something is unusual about the main character 'PK' which means Tipsey/drunk in English. His eyes are constantly open with a permanent shocked looking face and over accentuated ears pinned forward.

PK came out December 2014 and I would class as a comical drama because of the themes addressed.
The film begins with Anushka Sharma, Jaggu, trying to get into a poetry showing but the tickets are sold out to her favourite authors rare event. Another guy has the same dilemma. Through this chance meeting they become friends and then lovers - one problem Jaggu is Hindu and Sirfraz is Muslim. This is highlighted across the lines in regards to marriage and Jaggu's parent are against the relationship and seek advice from the local religious baba/priest. He plants the seed of doubt in her mind.

Jaggu tests the strength of her and Sirfraz's love and insists they get married the next day. Upon finding a stood up bride holding a basket with a kitten. A letter is delivered to her with no name and simply says 'I cannot marry you.' she then melodramatically moves back to Mumbai (her parents have disowned her regardless) so she takes a job as a TV channel reporter to support herself.

 Boss Boman Irani gives her novelty stories to cover like 'Why is this dog depressed?' (Can a dog be depressed firstly?). She is disheartened with the ridiculous stories and goes in search for something to make a journalistic impact on the world.

Queue 'PK' teleporting down to earth from his spaceship. I kid you not, this film is about aliens. I was so suprised from the advert you get the impression Pk is strange maybe even autistic but he is on a whole other level. He walks around a desert with only his remote to get to the ship. Unfortunately the first person he meets steals it leaving behind a retro cassette playing - now the only thing to cover Pk's dignity.

Things aren't easy for Pk as he cant understand nor speak the native language (Hindi) in order to he has to absorb the knowledge from a person by holding there hand for 6 hours. That is easier said than done and he treated like a pervert. Till then he figures out that rocking cars with steamed up windows normally means there are clothes nearby and paper with Ghandi's face can buy food.

In between figuring our human customs he gets hit by Sanjay Dutt in a car, who thinks he has given PK amnesia and decides to look after him tell his memory returns. Through this he keeps trying to hold girls hand (even a few men) and Dutt takes him to a brothel to get this 'perverse behaviour' out of him. He then learns language and information through the un-educated prostitute and travels to Mubai to find 'God' who could return his remote.

This get's interesting as he asks people who this person 'God' is and people point in directions of church, Mosques/temples and he goes, follows all the customs and still no remote. Nobody stops to explain @god' isn't a person he is an entity people worship and believe in and here's where the confusion lies. This is where he comes across Jaggu and she wants to televise HIS story. He doesn't understand why there are so many religions why not worship the same 'God' he pretty much called the same name - just the way of worship is different. This ties into the baba from earlier on who told Jaggu to dump her Muslim boyfriend as 'you can't trust Muslims'. Pk attends one of his talk and questions him on his ridiculous answers like: "My Mother in law is sick, what can I do?"
 in which he responds "Buy this holy charm from my shop and go to this mountain and pray." Pk laughs, why is he praying on a  mountain when he can be looking after his mother-in-law?

The film explains miscommunication and how certain sects/cults take advantage of people for money and use there beliefs for the wrong use. The Baba has Pk's remote and claims it is a holy charm. I don't think I can praise this film enough for being out of the box in ideas and discussing something quite taboo. Aamir Khan got blasted for bringing the Hindu-Muslim hate topic into the lime light.

This film deserves all the acclaim it has received it has managed to balance a combination of hard hitting drama with sci fi and comedy. The cast was spot on and they broached the subject pf religion with tact and had a few songs too. I'd rate this 8/10 it is a must to watch and in the screening I attended there was one Asian family and the rest were mixed between Englisn, Malasian, Indonesian and Chinese. This film is universal - any one can enjoy it and the subtitles were written well.

The film is currently the highest-grossing Indian film of all time, and ranks as the 66th highest grossing film of 2014 worldwide. PK is in the list of IMDB’s Top 250 films of the world. The film was directed by Rajkumar Hirani, produced by Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra, and written by Hirani and Abhijat Joshi.