Peepli (Live)

     Clearing my head of all the much-hyped associations with its producer, I decided to watch Peepli (Live) in a city multiplex one sunny afternoon with The Boy only to find out whether Natha (Omkar Das Manikpuri) will die in the end or not. Right from the opening credits to the closing one, Peepli (Live) came across as one of the most courageous movies of our times. And the dripping irony only added much to the beauty. The saccharine rich sarcasm aimed at the media frenzy that followed Natha’s decision to kill himself so as to claim the Rs.1 lakh compensation from the government to reclaim the family farm from moneylenders formed the movie’s spine. Also painfully touching is the portrayal of the relationships within Natha’s simple household.

   Natha, born to an improvised village life and with the prospect of his farming land being seized looming large, decides to end his life unceremoniously only to find a barrage of media vans and a stream of politicians and bureaucrats at his doorstep in a jiffy. Reason? Natha’s village Peepli is the Mukhya Pradesh (note the semblance) CM’s constituency and
the elections are round the corner. 

   Peepli (Live) has some stellar performance by unknown faces. The media-driven hullabaloo reaches its nadir when the entire entourage chases Nathu to the field while he relieves himself in the fields and celebrated journo Deepak (Vishal Sharma) gets down to inspecting the remnants of the deed to delve into human psychology! And when it finally ends with a dark ironic twist, Peepli is left staring at a floor of discarded Bisleri bottles.

   With black comedy at its best, Peepli (Live) questions the ridiculousness that the Indian media has come to be. Hori Mehto’s (the digger) deadpan expressions asks us those questions quietly. The earthy soundtrack with the gem of a song by Indian Ocean was uplifting, to say the least. Only, an otherwise firehouse Naseeruddin Shah seemed underutilised. I was much surprised when the movie made the cut for the Oscars because given past I&B selections, My Name Is Khan seemed to be the more likely candidate.

   Finally Natha did die... He ceased to be in the village’s consciousness only to reappear at a nondescript construction site in one of the ever burgeoning metros.