As with every Aamir Khan movie, the expectations very skyrocketing with "Peepli Live" too, though it wasn't featuring the mega-star himself but still his association with the movie itself is a big enough reason for everybody to go and have a taste of his creation. For me there was certainly one more reason to watch the movie and it was the setup around which the movie has been made, Farmer Suicide. This has always been an intriguing and disheartening chapter and hence to know about it through Aamir Khan's kaleidoscope was certainly a mouthwatering opportunity. And without doubt and expectedly the movie did quite well at the box office too and it recovered all its expenses even before its release, thanks to the marketing genius of Aamir Khan and naturally the reviews from the critics all around have been overwhelming too. Usually I watch all such releases on the very first weekend itself but due to some other commitments I have to wait for this one for its second week. So the curiosity to meet 'Nathha', 'Budhiya' and 'Ammaji' (all being the main protagonists of the flick) was at its zenith.Now the issue on which this piece of art has been made is a very sensitive one. In the last 10-12 years over 2 lakh farmers across the country have committed suicide due to their inability to make a living out of farming, hence out of their misery, helplessness and failure to feed their families they are forced to take this horrendous step. The reasons of these suicides are manifold, ranging from failed monsoons, lack of finances to buy appropriate farming equipments, indebtedness through use of Bt Cotton, misuse of agricultural chemicals, lack of expert advise and guidance or negligence on the part of government authorities but the truth of the fact is, the end result of all this in the form of mass genocide is absolutely unacceptable and a complete failure on the government's part. Because if our country which has always been thriving on the agricultural and green revolution for its development,has to face such an epidemic, then it surely reflects the sorry state of affairs of the microlevel governance. And if somebody has taken an initiative to bring this problem at the forefront through the medium of cinema, then it is definitely worth all the praise.
But after watching this 110 minutes odd piece of art I was utterly disappointed, rather I was deeply hurt. Its perfectly acceptable that the makers of this movie tried to make a satire out of it, but did it actually turned out to be one? For many, rather for most it did, at least the box office numbers and the reviews suggest so but for me it didn't. For me it was a mockery of the entire issue considering that the core of this issue of Farmer Suicide is such a sorry and dreadful affair and the condition of those people who are actually forced to commit this heinous act and that of their family members is beyond imagination. Agreed, that people might be actually committing suicide or pretending to commit suicide in the lure of that Rs 1 Lakh catch, but the movie no where captured what leads those poor people to do so or what can be the remedial actions for it or what are the loopholes in our system which leads to such a misery which is still unsolved for past so many years. And honestly I went in to watch this movie with these expectations only. Some might argue that the movie has exceptional performances from its main protagonists i.e. 'Nathha', 'Budhiya' and 'Ammaji' , but was it really the case? Factually it was not. Because in the 110 minute long venture Natha had 5, may be 6, Budhiya had 8 and Ammaji had 5 dialogs in all, that's it! And people, rather critics are talking of classy acting based on these 5-6 dialogs; hilarious! Rather majority of the footage is dedicated to the media channels, no wonder what they showed about the TRP hungry media channels is absolutely correct but the makers could have dedicated an entire movie towards that comical and overtly dramatic set of events, hence mixing such a serious issue, which needed some really good treatment with those media gaffs is a total injustice with such a sorry state of affair.
Though these are my personal views and a majority might not agree with them but I am still wondering why is this movie such a heartthrob among masses. Probably because people connect very well with the acts involving 'M...', 'B...' or 'G...' abuses, as seeing and hearing all that with such ease they can find a part of themselves in such acts or may be people and critics are so spell bound and intimidated with the maestro Aamir Khan, that they don't have the guts to even think that anything coming out of his hat can be detested, criticized or denied. Whatever be it, I still feel such an important national issue needed a far better treatment than what it has got from its makers but at the end of it we live in the era of absolute freedom, hence the movie has been made and hence this writeup has been penned down:).
JAI HIND!
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kin...
Well written but my thoughts are very different from what has been expressed by you. The script was well written and the movie even better projected the plight of the farmers and clearly brought out the skewed role of media and politicians-how in the race of power and TRP, they forget what is their responsibility and make a mockery of the law and the role which they are supposed to pay. what the movie rightly projected how the actual serious issue of farmer suicide was addressed by the politician and the media and how they actually missed out on the what the farmers go through..the portrayal of the characters was very apt and the entire plot was phenomenal..kudos to the actors and the director :)
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