Delicious
I was hearing good reviews of this movie from my friends, so went with my family to Piku (2015) today. Why today?. Only on Thursdays, Satyam Cinemas show English sub-titles, and I need them to understand Hindi movies better. In this film, Amitabh Bachchan comes as a Bengali “Bhashkor Banerjee” who is retired and settled in New Delhi with his only daughter Deepika Padukone who is a successful partner “Piku Banerjee” in an Architect firm. Irrfan Khan comes as “Rana Chaudhary” the owner of a local taxi company that is hired by the Architect firm.
The film starts with a message read out by Piku’s (Deepika) receptionist while she is in a client meeting, the message dictated by Piku’s father Bhaskor (Amitabh) describes his stool composition and his “possible” constipation, this trend of discussing constipation continues throughout the film. Bhaskor even has a philosophy for it, “Your Emotion is depended on your motion“. Talking on-screen about the digestive system and constipation can quickly turn sickening, but Director Shoojit Sircar has deftly handled the subject. The movie is a full-length comedy with brilliant performances by both Amitabh and Deepika, a rarity to see today a clean comedy that you are comfortable to see with your kids. Deepika appears with minimum makeup, still captivates the audience with her body language. It’s not easy to share the screen with a larger than life personality like Amitabh, in the film Deepika never tries to over-shine him, instead she gets noticed by her underplaying of the character.
Director Shoojit Sircar has shown on the silver screen the present-day dynamics between dependent parents and their children. For those living in urban India handling their busy career and being an attention-seeking parent (who are behaving like kids) is a difficult art, you are constantly torn between your affection & work. Bhaskor who is clinically fit as a fiddle is obsessed with his digestion tract (!), he takes numerous homoeopathic medicines every day and is constantly worried about his death which he expresses by being overly curious about any discussions around illness or death. At a party for his Sister-In-Law, Piku meets a prospective date, Bhaskor cuts in and blurts out awkward things ruining any chance of romance or marriage for Piku. Bhaskor’s handling of the servant maid or his asking Rana who has come to be their driver for a trip from Delhi to Kolkata for his driving license, his behaviour to Rana during the road trip are all well-laid screenplay. I liked Rana’s reply saying “Matha kharab nahi hai mera” (I am not mad up there) to Piku’s question that one who marries him has to take care of her 90-year-old kid :-)
Thanks to the road trip from New Delhi to Kolkata, we get to see a tiny glimpse of Benares, Kolkata and places in between. Anupam Roy as a music composer with his background score has given a soothing feeling to the whole film.
Overall a good comedy film that’s a must-see of the season.
Piku (2015)