Rajkumar Hirani truly has carved a niche for himself, as the
finest film makers of our time, his penchant for Hrishikesh Mukherji’s films
are quite evident in his always structured narrative and his eagerness to
strike a chord with the middle class audience (quite evident from his Munnabhai
series itself). This time though he, along with Abhijat Joshi etches out a
story within a ‘believable, yet at times hard to digest’ fairy tale premise
moving forth and turning into a philosophical one on God and Godsman & the
diversity of all religions put together without being too preachy, blending
effectively the right aggregates of humour, romance, affection, heart-
wrenching moments & a logic that is required in the present scenario (Sangh
Parivar ‘RSS’ adarsh???)
Aamir Khan is exceptional! PK is an irresistibly goofy
character . He laughs with his protruding goblin-ears and walks around with his
arched eyebrows, emerald bulging eyes on high-beam that hardly blinks
throughout the film, speaks Bhojpuri, learned (or rather, transmitted to him )
from a prostitute after spending 6 hrs with her, with blood-red lips from
permanently chewing paan. but his transformation isn’t restricted to the
physical — like the skittish way he runs, his arms straight by his side with
palms stuck out (reminiscent of Steve Carrell in Little Miss Sunshine) . With
his one-shot gags and child like exuberance PK wins us over with sheer heart! .
But just when you are enjoying the first half with its facetious moments, the
second half with its uneven editing turns out to be quite a sore point,
especially when you are served a platter full of PK’s delightful witty charm in
the first half.
Rajkumar Hirani certainly knows how to connect emotions and
give away a social message. He is a master craftsman, he knows how to cleverly
merge scenes with irony, like the one in which PK arrives at a church alter
service with a pooja ki thali, or one in which he attempts to enter a mosque
bearing bottles of red wine. Anushka Sharma as the narrator with her golden
brown pixie cut is bubbly as Jagat Janini (Jaggu) & vulnerable, although
her pout looks like a goldfish. She is fascinated by PK’s idiosyncracies on her
very first meeting with him at the metro train. Sanjay Dutt turns out in a very
brief but effective cameo, though Hirani’s all time favourite Boman Irani
doesn’t get much scope except his dig at the marks on his bum.
Few hitches like the sudden, ‘out of the blue’ affection
weaving between Aamir and Anushka seemed entirely out of the place, also
because at the very beginning we are served with the effervescent chemistry
between Jaggu and Sarfaraz (brief role by Sushant Singh Rajput, yet a prime
catalyst to the main narrative). The battery recharge dance portion was cute,
though un effective to the main proceedings . Also the live telecast between
the ‘one on one’ between PK with the religious guru (played brilliantly by
Saurabh Shukla) was not so interesting, probably because Hirani didn’t want to
strike an uncanny resemblance with last year’s Oh My God’s courtroom portions.
But the climax was perfect with PK returning to earth one year later with a new
research team, including Ranbir Kapoor as his alien student. Go for it!!
