पीपली [लाइव] Peepli [Live] (Peepli Live)

Not an easy movie to review for me as didn’t enjoyed much because I always recognize that I have a very peculiar kind of humor that goes to the darkish side and this satire was like an American screwball that definitively doesn’t allow me to enjoy at all, plus style, performances and situations were not really appealing to me. Still, I forced myself to watch it until the very end as we all know that’s India’s submission to Oscar.

Film is a comic satire about media and politics “irresponsible” way of dealing with situations. Here is the case of rural India “farmer suicides” due to their inability to find a way to repay a Government loan and being in the verge of losing their land, which is the only thing/object they have. So when Natha decides to suicide -so his family can collect money from Government- and a reporter finds out, the circus starts with all media to soon be followed by Government personnel due to the public attention that the constant news coverage gives to Natha.

After reading about film I found that perhaps the major merit this film has is that is one of the few films of India that depart the traditional escapist and entertaining format that most Bollywood -or not- films usually do. It’s commendable that mainstream films try to break a pattern, but I believe that in the rest of the world we have seen media and politics satires developed either comically or seriously since a long time ago and film doesn’t gives us more than entertaining and laughs. Still I also believe that this particular story doesn’t benefit at all whatever image we foreigners have about India.

So if you enjoy American screwball comedy then perhaps you will enjoy this film but be prepared to a very different kind of acting.

On the positive side, I was able to watch it until the very end which hasn’t happened with other submission’s to current Oscar where I stopped film as couldn’t take any more.

Sigh.

Watch Trailer @MOC