Peepli [Live] (2010)

Genre: Drama/Comedy

Starring: Omkar Das, Raghuvir Yadav, Shalini Vatsa, Farrukh Jaffar, Malaika Shenoy, Vishal Sharma, Nowaz, Sitaram Panchal

Lets get to the point. The movie is slow, quite slow and may not appeal to the mass audience. It seems to have been made more in accordance with satisfying critics rather than the regular movie-goer. Natha (Das) is an average farmer from Peepli, a village in central India, and has taken a loan from a bank against his farmland. He is unable to pay off the debt and the local landlord, Bhai Thakur (Panchal) suggests to Natha that he commit suicide because the government would pay his family a sum of Rs 1 lac after he dies as compensation. Natha's brother, Budhia (Yadav) manages to convince Natha that he should commit suicide because it would benefit the entire family. The local newspaper reporter, Rakesh (Nowaz) overhears Natha's plan to kill himself and realises this could be a big story and informs his head office in New Delhi. Word spreads like fire and before anyone knew it, Peepli became a village of commotion and nuisance with political parties and newspaper reporters hunting for Natha for their own greed. The movie has satirical humour and is very different from conventional media. Aamir Khan has done a commendable job in putting forward a message but has failed to entertain the regular audience. The movie is plagued with rural dialects, profanity and sarcasm which makes it a good laugh once in a while. Not a single actor is a known face in the industry and most of the movie was shot in actual villages with actual villagers or lesser known artists playing the major roles. The humour is inconsistent but Natha's mother, Amma (Jaffar) takes the cake in really making you laugh. Don't go if you wish for entertainment, but is a critics delight.

Thumbs up: A different kind of cinema, which is a step in the right direction for Bollywood

Thumbs down: Gets a bit slow and may not entertain the average person.

Rating: 7.6/10