P.K. : An extremely likeable story of a lost Alien!!

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!!