Movie Review

Director: RajkumarHirani
Casts: Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma, BomanIrani, SaurabhShukla, Sushant Singh Rajput and Sanjay Dutt
Runtime: 150 minutes
Strength: Amir Khan's performance deserves great respect
Weakness: a bit lengthy
Rating: 4/5

PLOT: A stranger's childlike curiosity and world-view challenges people's long-held notions, making friends of some and foes of others.

REVIEW: PK, buoyed by a magnificent script and outstanding acting all around, is an uplifting fantasy that springs a surprise at every turn but never overplays its hand. It comes as close to storytelling perfection as any mainstream Hindi movie has done in living memory.

This is an unlikely saga of an alien who lands in the desert completely naked like a new-born baby and then proceeds to acquire the ways of human adults in a bid to survive in a hostile environment.

His fate hinges on whether he can regain a stolen gadget that he needs in order to return to his home light years away and cling on to his purity as his brushes with mankind becomes increasingly hazardous.

Rajkumar Hirani's first film in five years is a warm, funny and piercingly provocative satire that should blow the blues away. The five-year hiatus between 3 Idiots and this film has clearly served them well. The screenwriters have worked a delicately crafted love story into the taut tapestry of PK, thereby lending it an emotional dimension that usually eludes a high-minded satire.

PK is propelled primarily by Aamir Khan's delightfully droll superstar turn as a nameless seer from outer space who is stranded on Planet Earth - in Rajasthan and Delhi to be precise.

P.K. is dialectic on religion on the big screen, without much of the splendor of cinematic technique. It is rooted in dialogue, scene and character, like Hirani's other films. But the director's biggest feat is the idea, its effortless translation and its politics. Someone in the broad-stroke canvas of populist Hindi cinema has finally spoken on behalf of the agnostic. Given the news headlines, how much more relevant can that get?  Do watch out for Ranbir Kapoor - a little icing on a cake so appetizing that it will have you clamoring for more.

Reviewed By Broti Rahman