PK- Film Review

It's watchable, and fun in parts, but tries your patience at times. But if it comes to a toss-up between the films of the three Khans today (leaving out Saif), I would go with Amir. There was a time when I would have gone with Shah Rukh, but sadly, that time was around DDLJ's first release- maybe even upto Kal Ho Na Ho. Anyway, back to P.K.

Some of the gags are pretty good, and so are the cinematic twists in the tale of an alien trying to understand this gola (sphere) and its denizens. The focus of the story is largely on the purveyors of religion who, in the name of God, manipulate the masses- sometimes giving them Hope, not a bad thing as one of the characters in the film says, defending himself.

Which is fine, and makes a lot of sense, in these times of the discredited Babas/Godmen of whom there is no dearth in our country. My major problem with the film is that it drags very badly in the first half- more precisely, in the second half of the first half. Had that been tightly edited, the impact of the final product would have been far better. It also does not help that the theme is similar to Oh My God, and that the Amir character looks and feels like Ranbir in Barfi, giving you a feeling of Deja Vu. Boman Irani seems underutilized, particularly as we now know what he is capable of (thanks to Rajkumar Hirani). Anushka is fairly good, though I liked her better in her earlier avatar/look. The Godman is competent. The cameo of a guy playing Shankar bhagwan is excellent! The climax is handled well, going live on a talk-show.

Watch it, if only to make a statement against the crap being (otherwise) regularly dished out on our screens.

Transport Trauma

Now that petrol is quite expensive, I believe we must have a national innovation reality show to replace the current ones which involve dancing, singing, and emotional atyaachar at various levels. This is the likely scenario of the contestants.

The Garib Rath presented by Laloo. Will run on chaara eaten by the horses, and supplied by an un-ending supply appearing out of nowhere on demand.

The Amir rath presented by Mr. Laksmi Mittal or any other billionaire. This will be a Merc which does not use fuel, but will be borne by four or more people like a paalki and will run on voice control. A in, you tell them where to go, and they will.

The middle class rath, which RK Lakshman's Common Man will present, and will combine whatever jugaad these guys can put together after paying all the taxes on their hard-earned money. Maybe it will have an old bull, a goat or a dog pulling a sled. But the problem would be to make it snow, to make this work. Maybe another jugaad can do the needful.

Those who can, will drive a rath. Others will take a walk, and reduce their medical bills. Diabetes, obesity and heart problems will disappear, and doctors will also find time to take a long walk. And Bill Bryson won't be able to make cracks about people not walking any more.