Piku!

There are very few movies which have the perfect ingredients for you to be drawn to the theatres. Piku is one such film. Shoojit Sarkar (aslo the director who gave us Madras Cafe) and Juhi Chaturvedi unite again after writing Vicky Donor. The tag line of " Motion se hi emotion" is self explanatory and tells us whats the movie is about. The trailers and the tag line are a tad misleading as even though you will see Amitabh ranting about his not-so-good bowel habbits through a major portion of the movie, there is much more to the movie. The movie in fact is  more about the latter half of the tag line i.e emotions rather than the former i.e. motion. The story is a simple one which by now you guys must have figured out. Amitabh is a crancky attention seeking hypochondriac bong dad who wants his daughter's life to revolve around him.  To such an extent that, at one point he even explains a guy Deepika meets how she isn't a virgin and he should not think of marrying her. Deepika is this frustrated daughter who inspite of being fed up of her dad and his irregular bowel habbits , tries to cater to all his needs; however eccentric they may be. Then comes in Irrfan Khan, owner of a cab hiring company who himself is frustrated by his own mother and sister and is forced to drive this unusual "couple " all the way from Delhi to Kolkata.

Coming to performances , I loved all three :Irrfan , Amitabh and Deepika (in that order. And yes Irrfan >> Amitabh). Irrfan has this uncanny way of making you laugh in the simplest possible way. Amitabh Bachan as the bong Bhaskor is a treat to watch and is the quirky element makes us laugh with his paunch ,the bong accent , his idiosyncrancies (hiding the salt everyday) and at the same time the childlike innocence (best seen in the last seen when he comes back cycling all over Kolkata). Dee"Piku" has given probably her best performace. The de-galm look and the the way she portrays the character of the irritated but caring daughter is excellent. Not only the casting of the lead actors is great the supporting actors like Raghubir Yadav (Mungerilal anyone?) as the family doctor  and the thrice married bong aunt Moushumi Chatterjee are a delight to watch too! The music and the background score is also nice, Anupam Roy making a superb debut as a music director and singer. Not even once it seems intrusive and you aren't left wondering when, why and how did this song happen (Bhai fans take note!)

And last but never the least, the direction. Kudos to Shoojit Sarkar for blending all the elements in the perfect way. The way he tells this simple yet interesting story is so good. He repeats what he did with Vicky Donor, where he presented a taboo topic without even a hint of sleaze. This time around he selects a topic which not everyone would like to be vocal about and one that may disgust most of us. And trust me, no where in the movie does the poop-talk make you go "ewww". It always gets a smile. Full marks for him for that. One particular scene where they are about to start their journey and Irrfan Khan expects Deepika to sit besides him rather than the family servant is hilarious wihtout having a single dialogue. One expects in that in a Bollwood film there will be atleast one song/ scene where the lead couple is seen moving around hand in hand. But thats not always essential as the audience is intelligent enough to understand stuff in a subtle manner. He depicts the same in the last scene of the movie where he wants to show that Deepika- Irrfan get together. He simply shows a badminton game between them referring to a prior similar scene.

A director's excellence doesn't rest in painting a larger than life picture with lavish sets and random unrealistic situations (Bhai movies being a perfect example) but rather it lies in making the audience feel at home, giving them situations that they can believe can happen it their routine life.  For eg all Rajkumar Hirani movies. The scene where the sweeper gets irritated with Munna for walking over the floor he cleaned moments ago is something which we must have encountered sometime. Its this method of story telling that I personally like. My favorite being Hrishikesh Mukherjee. His movies had such simple topics and routine issues presented in the most believable way. Be it the couple rivalry in Abhimaan to the fear of death in Anand and others movies including  Awara , Mili, Bawarchi, Chupke Chupke , Gol Maal . Definitely. Shoojit Sarkar is no Hrishikesh Mukherjee, but he does come close.

All in all its a simple tale presented in a nice way!



Rating : **** (Do watch this one in the theaters.)

P.S. I don't know what is it with all these talented bong artists ! Be it actors ,singers (Kishore Kumar GANGULY :) ) , musicians to directors- Khub bhalo dada log!!