Peepli [Live]

Anusha Rizvi has a story to tell and she does it all too un-preachily. No sermons. No grandstands. Her narrative, taking care of every nuance, puts the point right across, and manages to move you. She takes a light- hearted approach to a serious issue. The satire, directed at the media and the government, tends to go tad bit overboard, but is hard-hitting and convincing, for most part. Laudable performances by theatre artists Omkar Das Manikpuri as Natha and Raghubir Yadav as Budhia, (Natha's elder brother). A first timer in the Hindi film industry, Omkar Das is sure to take you by surprise. You may not take to him instantly but his childlike vulnerability and subtle ways, win you over, as the story progresses. Be it his tripping in the gobar, or his confiding in Budhia that he doesn't want to suicide, or the tenderness with which he pats the goat, even as he lies cowering from his own set of woes. (Titbit - Apparently, Rizvi spotted Omkar Das at a play in Bhopal. Until then, Amir was suppose to play Natha) Raghubir Yadav is born to act. He emotes flawlessly. One such scene is where he is arguing with Natha over who should suicide. Within a second, he solemnly vows to suicide, all teary-eyed, in the next, he takes a 'relieved' drag off his beedi, having managed to convince innocent Natha to sacrifice his life ;) From the grouchy (yet entertaining) amma (Farookh Zafar), to Natha's nagging wife Dhaniya (Shalini Vatsa); from the B-grade Hindi news channel correspondent Deepak, to the stoic English news channel reporter Nandita (Malaika Shenoy), it's a perfect cast all the way. The film gets drab and predictable in parts but manages to leave an impact, nevertheless!

Peepli (Live) is a movie which had enormous expectancy levels from the trailers and the very fact that it was produced by THE "Aamir Khan Productions" which had gave birth to many enchanting & consummate cinematic experiences on celluloid... It has absolutely educed even more than the hype it produced, with Anusha Rizvi, a débutante, furnishing an outstanding satire on the backdrop of Indian farmer's suicides...

Not getting into the plot, as most of them know it already... What makes this movie into an astounding cinematic experience, is its utmost natural narration and simplicity.. Whether it be the characters, situations, dialogs... all were just near to utmost realistic...! Humour element used throughout the movie was smart as a whip... Loved the movie for another factor, that it was not preachy at all... Ending which was terrifically weaved out, in some ways, reminds me of one of the greatest satires in Malayalam "Panchavadi Paalam"

Anusha Rizvi, being a débutante, doesn't feel like one as the handling of the subject was just awe inspiring... Music and BG were top class... Camera work was good...The screenplay and dialogs were just tight and perfect... Among the performances, the whole cast were literally living their characters in this movie which makes it even more special!

One the whole, one should give a whole hearted standing ovation to Anusha Rizvi and Aamir Khan for making this film a reality,which has an amazing potential to be India's iconic movie in the International circuit!

Story: Story of two farmers Face loosing their land for an unpaid Government loan. At the time of National Elections they seek help from a Local Politician who suggests to commit suicide to get the benefit to their families.

* The Director and Producer deserve thumps up for coming with a movie with current issue - Farmers committing Suicide. * You too would have noticed 'What the News Channels' Want?! They are also marketing something, yes SO CALLED NEWS. And they market like anything. 'Death Toll Reaches 50 and Expected to reach 100 by Tomorrow morning', 'Breaking New - MLA's Sister had Knee Injury' etc..

Bollywood - Its very happy see this kind of movies in an Industry where Actors become just a Marketing Executive for their loose Products. Though there are a lot of Directors who just copies and rips from Hollywood or South Indian Movies, there are also few and very few directors and Productions houses who try to come up with new Innovative ideas. UTV is one such Brand and its great to see Aamir Khan producing as Movie in the kind of changing Bollywood to more meaningful.

The style of Director is sharp and strong though the director missed to convey a message - but sticked in to the story and left no Message. The film explores the response of the media. Many Scenes of the film spoofs the Internet and TV Media and Politics. The Natural and Simple Narration will take you to those good old Days where only good movies where produced. Problems of Farmers was usual topic in Malayalam Movies but Post 2000 - this is the best movie about Farmers to come in India.

Bollywood rarely make Sensible movies and Rarely does the Fans make them Box Office HIT. Different Attempt is not accepted easily in North comparing to South of India (Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada) wishing to see more people watching this movie. Promoting this movie only makes Bollywood Look better. Let they come up with more meaningful Movies here after.

I'm a native American and saw this movie in a theater with maybe 30 Indians (sorry, I'm old enough to find multiple ironies in that sentence). Anyway, I went into this movie with no expectations. Though I've seen a number of Indian movies over the last few years, I knew nothing of this author or director. I laughed out loud more than I have for any Hollywood movie this year. My cohorts found it even funnier than I, but I guarantee you that you don't need to know that much about Indian politics or media to get most of this satire.

It starts with a farmer deciding to commit suicide to get his family the $2000 that may save his farm from foreclosure. From there, the media and government turn it into a circus, stepping all over themselves in their self-serving ways.

It suffers only in minor ways from a few slow spots and odd shifts in tone, but these are worth sitting through. It's currently showing here only at a suburban Atlanta theater that shows a combination of H-wood and B-wood. This should have been picked up by some American distributer when it showed at Sundance. Hopefully, enough people will see it and generate the buzz to get it to a wider audience.

The film is a hard hitting satire about the country, its people and the living conditions. More importantly, it has exposed the Indian psyche. It shows that India is not run by anybody. It runs on its own.

The movie also depicts the news media in its true and natural color. I had personally once noticed that "Knee surgery for the PM" was the headline and "24 farmers commit suicide in a week" was under "News in brief" section. Some news channel report every news item as "Breaking news". Basically, they magnify, marginalize and sometimes distort any news depending upon who controls them. Everyone has vested interests.

All news channels have just one objective. Drive up their rankings. To do that, they will go to any extent.

The movie also depicts politicians in their true color. It is a known fact that they will do anything to win the elections. Well, you cant expect anything else from them because 99% of them are high class thugs.

The movie is not meant for the average Indian who expects the formula (1 hero + 1 heroine + villains + 4 love songs + i item girl song + 4 fight scenes) I loved the language used in the film. It is the way a farmer would speak. No fancy monologues (usually referred to as dialogues). There are a few bad words and I wonder what the impact will be if those are removed.

I strongly recommend this movie because the situations are quite funny and at times you will laugh like crazy.

So go ahead and enjoy!