Live enjoyment in Peepli

The LIVE word can be construed as live as in live matches or live as we live our lifes.

Peepli Live, most of my friends comprehended, it will be a bore. So what if Aamir Khan is promoting it, it need not be a good movie? And why not Aamir Khan should promote it? He is the producer. When you watch the movie, you realize, you required Aamir Khan to promote this movie? There are interactions, press conferences, you need a face to represent the movie. The posters do reveal a lot about the movie, a poor rural family, few mikes hanging from the top, media swarming from the top, LIVE word in frame and a handpump. So what if the whole caste and the issue is pasted on it? You have little or no idea, how its going to play? One of the rare posters, which captures and narrates the real characters of the movie and summons it at appropriate places.

Take a dig at the other poster pictured below. It a tempu, the mass transporter of rural India. In my native place, it is known as bhoond (Punjabi word for honey bee). It is distastingly painted black with some part of it yellow, may be the front hood or the top part. But the sight of tempu is the same in any part of our truly majestic India, people are hanging from all sides and their daily wares.

Peepli Live is one of the rare movies of Bollywood, which was running without (count it), a named and famed director, no famed actor, no famed actress, no dream sequences, no dances, no item number, no burning issue, no action, no romance, no melodrama, no crying, barely music (definitely can be defined as antonym of musical). What the movie contains? Just the way India was and currently it is progressing. A very nice written and delivered script revolving around a very small incident but a very big issue for India. We should learn to laugh at ourselves that is what director has tried to aim. If you feel ashamed, do something about it? Until then keep laughing at your plight.

Peepli Live is a satire on farmer’s suicide. But I believe, honestly, it is a satire on media and our political system or perhaps the way our country is being run. The moot point the director raises, a farmer may not till his/her land, may not require money/food. All they want is the respect for their lands. We are not able to provide them with a single way of existence, aim, mission, vision and dream of our life.

Media star characters are brilliantly brought to the front. Perhaps a spoof or original cut-outs of Barkha Dutt of NDTV and Chaurasia of AajTak (don’t know if this fellow has switched employers, well must have, we all do). Media is the most creative industry in India. They can make and create a movie and an issue with nobody. This is what they have depicted in the movie. They are trying to address an issue of farmer suicide. Yet it is the last thing, on their mind.

Every character plays to his part with such elegance and poise. The media personnel as they are hogging like dogs and spewing like donkeys. Natha, the real face of the movie, has barely one or two dialogues. But his expressions make his character. I have no idea what is happening in my life, why is it happening and what I am supposed to do about it? Just listens and barely responds. Raghubir Yadav, one of the finest actors in India. The wife, as women are (oh sorry as rural woman are), always screaming and abusing their husbands and in laws.

Politicians and IAS officers, as they are in real life, we are only here to show and project that we are trying to do things. The only beneficiary in the name of WE the people is me, me and me. The handpump in the picture below is granted under the Lal Bahadur Shastri scheme by the District Collector. Natha does ask for the fitting expenses but that is not part of the scheme. Nobody talks about his loan or his land in possession of the bank.

Finally the amma, whose only working limb is her tongue and she uses it to perfection to abuse at every opportunity and appropriate time anybody who comes in front of her. Especially her bahu (daughter in law) with kulta, naaspiti, karamjali, abhouri, naagin, daayein and yes there are few prefixing family relations too.

The ending does not possess a happy ending like a typical Bollywood masala, boy hugging the girl’s parents. Such movies never have a happy ending, instead it creates another level of disruption with no conclusion.

Conclusion or no conclusion, do watch it in theatre and definitely finds a place in the selected DVDs section.

Tweet or Text

One of my friends commented on facebook, “this is most shared video amongst my friends”. I congratulated her on this feat and suggested to put it on resume. Before I begin, personally I don’t have anything against the social networking world/arena/sphere/geography. Really don’t know how anybody wants to define it. It is a great way to connect. I have found schoolmates, friends, love, lost love, found love, have done and used it for all the practical and not so practical things (actually more for it).

Aamir Khan is not normally found in news too much. Except around the release of his movie, he virtually pastes his name, his movie’s name on every wall, street, road, lips of India. But for the past some time, he has been in news for joining twitter. The news reads, Aamir Khan decides to join twitter.

The media frenzy has little or no job, hence they try to make a BREAKING NEWS of any monkey climbing the wall or even falling from it. Aamir Khan’s twitter joining/commencement/launch date was even more anticipated than any of his movies. People lose jobs/stature due to twitter. Big B was the most busy actor till recent and now he is persuading his community (Bollywood) people to join Twitter. As long as Big B is concerned, he never uses a product is he is not endorsing it. He is endorsing all the things that are required in daily life.

Media stays on job for following Twitter of celebrities. The name, profile pic, mahurat of first tweet, every silly aspect, which Aamir otherwise may not have thought for movies even. “Twitter ka baadshah kaun”, we will hear this news and analysis, few months down the line.

Aamir Khan got 37,500 followers on his first day of tweeting.

This morning he joined Twitter officially and said in his first message: "Bhala gardish falak ki chain deti hai kise Insha, ganimat hai ke hum surat yahan do-chaar baithey hain. Esp for you sir. Love. Thanks for the warm welcome guys. Love. Aamir."

Amitabh welcomed him saying, "Thank you Aamir... You give more due than I deserve ... Happy Tweeting ...."

In this narrow world, where SMSes have replaced letters. Tweets are replacing the real touch of a human being.

3 IDIOTS

With ‘3 Idiots’ I know I’m in the right. I’m just telling people to see the film and read my book. I know Aamir is a very powerful person. But finally the truth has to prevail, no? I’m no great artist, but there has to be fair play. I’m being accused of trying to get mileage. Ten lakh copies of the book have been sold. The book has been read by one crore readers. Wouldn’t they know the truth?

Finally after days of mud slinging over each other, Chetan Bhagat offered truce. Actually if we look into it, it was one way affair. Chetan Bhagat asserting his credit in the movie. There were hardly any comments from Aamir Khan or the maker of 3 Idiots. Then the media took over, who are experts in cooking biryani from plain rice. The media started discussing the credit points, same points, differences, percentages, 5%, 10%, 70% and 80%. When the media report came, Mr. Chetan Bhagat is paid Rs. 10 Lac for allowing filming rights to his novel, that is the end of the story. A creative person loses his world and charm and passion of his work. It is applicable to 3 Idiots film-makers and marketers too.

Or was it another marketing gimmick from one and all the interested parties. Aamir Khan possesses innovative market strategies. Had he thought, the name of the author/book could help him in leveraging his movie’s box office collections, Chetan Bhagat would have been laughing all his way to the bank. Chetan Bhagat saying in the end, I’m just telling people to see the film and read my book. Chetan Bhagat knows that a book only adds to numbers when it is released or when a movie is made on it. Like in the case of Slumdog Millionaire, the book was sold in lakhs after the movie release against its early distribution of 50,000. Chetan Bhagat knows anyhow after selling a million copies, this is the only chance to sell few more lakhs of copies of the book, esp. after the publisher had printed a million copies prior to the release of the movie (probably it may be the case). I don’t know how much credit should be given to the author of the book. In American/British movies, majority of the moviemakers don’t even mention the book and the author. The titles present only Based on Novel by ......, A Book Adaptation, etc. A filmmaker is inspired from a novel. A filmmaker can never ever justify the novel.

I would like to suggest to Mr. Chetan Bhagat, India is not a readers country. He should be really happy for his feat. His book made many Indians sit and read the one and only book of their life. In India, a book cannot compete with a movie. Indians like to watch movies. There’ll be very few people who will still read the novel. Majority of the people, who read novels before or after watching the movie, must have already read his novel.

Chetan Bhagat, himself said, ten lakh copies sold and one crore readers, need one say more. Most of the friends said after watching the movie, the novel was better. It’s difficult to share limelight/spotlight with Aamir Khan. In the end, these days only media wins, rest everybody is painted in an ugly frame.