PEEPLI LIVE; ANOTHER GREAT AAMIR KHAN PRODUCTION.

Peepli Live, a film produced by Aamir khan, starring no big names but wonderfully directed which has a strong content and multi layered satire. This film takes you straight into the heart of the real India. It basically explains the problems of the BPL (below poverty line) people. The script while focusing on the predicament of the farmers also manages to bring in the role of the media and the politicians. Hence it is probably one of the better rounded scripts in Hindi cinema in recent times.

The plot centers around a poor farmer named Natha from Peepli village in the heart of rural India is about to lose his plot of land due to an unpaid government loan. A quick fix to the problem is the very same government’s program that aids the families of indebted farmers who have committed suicide. As a means of survival farmer Natha can choose to die!!. Though he himself is reluctant to do so, his brother is happy to push him towards this unique “honor”. Local elections are around the corner and what might have been another unnoticed event turns into a “cause célèbre” with everyone wanting a piece of the action. Everybody wants to stake their claim such as high ranking bureaucrats, politicians and ever fanatical media and so they descend upon the sleepy Peepli. The biggest question for everyone that arises is “will he or wont he?” As the mania escalates what will be the fate of farmer Natha; nobody seems to care how he really feels.

The film has its moments of quick, unintended laughs. The turn of events in Peepli Live provides full entertainment during the films running time. Basically Aamir Khan brings out the plight of poor farmers in India and how their devastated conditions force them to take such steps as ending their own lives. As for the intrusive habits of the media and the government’s apathy towards the farm sector, we have all been reading about them for a long time now. So there is nothing strikingly new that the filmmakers are dealing with. This might be counted in the negative points of the film and so the film succeeds only to an extent. But by and large, Peepli live is a lively and living document that lives beyond the same ideas of Hindi movies of love and romance. While on the periphery the film might appear to be a take-off on the farmer suicides, it ends up conveying much more and presents some shocking facts.