PIKU - MOTION SE HI EMOTION-- MOVIE REVIEW

Piku, Shoojit Sircars's latest offering is a film that borders on being irritatingly cute. The opening credits roll out on a black screen to the tune of a wonderfully composed sitar composition (Anupam Roy). And that kind of sets up the mood of the film, relaxed but never laid back. Analytical, yet never probing. 

More than the script or the concept, what works for Sircar is the conversational style in which the film has been conceptualized and executed. Also the conversations work so effectively purely because of the wonderful characters that have been etched out. 

Sircar, being a pro that he is in creating humorous community centric antics (The Punjabi-Bengali tiff in Vicky Donor where the two families meet at Vicky's house to discuss the wedding remains one of the best community clash/conflict I've ever seen), this time around takes on a Bengali family and a slice from their life, sketches it across a Delhi canvas and paints it with shades of a road trip, vintage Calcutta cinematography and soul searching conversations to deliver a a film which doesn't seem effective from the outset but grows on you invariably.

Trapped between her father's tantrums and her work life pressure, Piku is searching for her moment to break free, to breathe without tension. This might not be apparent but Piku is one of the finest acts by Deepika considering the varied range of emotions which were required, sometimes in a single frame. Her care-free nature which has genuine care for her father, who more often than not drags her to the heights of getting irritated, taking sex as a need more than anything else, for her father's over protective nature and logical reasoning wouldn't let her settle down to the final gentle conversations with Irrfan, she looks like she owns Piku's character. (Also I find myself for the first time praising Deepika Padukone for her acting skills)

Amitabh Bachchan plays the bowel-troubled Bengali father who wishes to get through one good motion at least before he dies. So life for him has taken a metaphorical turn where all he could think is about toilets, gastro troubles and shit and relating life situations to it. So while it is utterly nonsensical at times, humorous for a large part, it is also heart warming at fair enough places. And it is only an actor of the class of Sr. Bachchan who could pull it off with such poise. 

Hidden beneath the obvious truth of death was an insatiable desire to live. 

Buried under the image of an over protective father and a selfish ego filled man was a child who came to life while Bachchan cycled across Calcutta. 

And of course there is Irrfan Khan who gave Bachchan Sahab a run for his money every freaking time they appeared together on the screen. Also one could easily gauge the way the two of them were trying to surpass each other in almost every frame with such great spontaneity. Given the fact that Irrfan's character was the one who brings about a sense of calmness and steadiness to the proceedings, he too carries an emotional backlog. Though it is never fully explored, it is faintly narrated none the less. So at least as far as casting is concerned Piku does not leave any loose end. 

{P.S--Irrfan Khan is a sheer genius} 

As per the requirements of a conversational style of film making, there a lot of characters who do not have a very large impact on the final picture but they are efficient enough to create subtle moments here and there. Piku's Mausi, her Aunt, the servant and Deepika's partner are such characters. 

(Mind you some of the conversations helmed by Deepika's Mausi are outright hilarious)

It would be unfair to not make a reference to the Man who gave birth to this kind of film making, brought about the stories that touched anyone who saw it for somewhere, it were their stories. 

Back in the mid 60's, entire 70's and early 80's, there was a brand of cinema that was emerging in India, a new era which was seemingly creating its space in the Indian Movie plethora. Film aficionados popularly refer to it as the Hrishikesh Mukherjee era, the time where conversational style of film making easily surpassed heavy concept backed films; the times when a movie would not make you fall off your seats laughing but had a rare capacity to bring a smile and stretch out a tear, all in one scene, one singular emotion.

(Basu Chatterjee too held on to this brand of film making before the Parallel Cinema movement took Indian Film Industry by storm with the likes of Shyam Benegal, Gulzar, Saeed Akhtar Mirza, Govind Nihalani etc controlling the reins.)

And it was only in the mid 2000's that we, the Hindi  film audience saw a film maker (Rajkumar Hirani) trying to walk on the path created by Hrishi Da, which had been long forgotten. With the huge success that Hirani experienced, there emerged a lot of film makers who were picking up concepts from the daily life of an individual and trying to create a scenario which was more involving and immersive than it was repulsive and expressive.

And I find it fair enough to relate Sircar's latest work to the legacy that Hrishi Da left behind.

The huge advantage that Sircar has as a film maker is his versatile nature of film making. If Yahaan was captivating, Vicky Donor was conceptually brilliant, Madras Cafe was as honest as a real story could get, Piku is immersive and more of a self realization journey of the characters involved. 

Another thing which strikes me is the huge advantage Sircar derives from being from an advertising background that he knows the customer perspective, he can think like his audience and hence we see his films having an instant connect with the audience. So while he directs the conversation to yield the desired emotions, Juhi Chaturvedi's delightful writing keeps the motions going. Also there is a beautiful parting scene when Irrfan leaves from Champakunj and Deepika looks on. Okay there are many such scenes.

While the cinematography is catchy and visually very appealing, the editing department churns out a crisply done film. The surprise elements though are the wonderful compositions by Anupam Roy. Fresh is the word which comes to my mind. Bezubaan has become a personal favourite. 

The film does get stuck at times when you realize that there is no logical end where this movie could lead to. There are moments when the screenplay does nothing to add up to the movie's virtue and the pot talks do go over board at places but all of this is never the less pulled up before things could go out of proportion. 

To be a little mild, this could be termed as Sircar's most self indulgent work. 

There are emotional under-currents that flow throughout the film. While the emotional journey of Deepika and Bachchan Sahab comes to a very conclusive and logical end, Irrfan's journey is left incomplete and that is a very sour point that remains for me from the film.

To be really honest, Piku does not live up to the vibe that Vicky Donor had generated or the grit that Madras Cafe had on display but it, at its own pretty pace lives up to the beauty of its conversations and relationships.

**3 STARS**