Aamir Khan + Rajkumar Hirani = Box Office Hit – Correct.
Aamir Khan + Rajkumar Hirani = Paisa ten times recovered – Correct.
Aamir Khan + Rajkumar Hirani = Feel good factor, social media big time buzz, public in awe – Correct.
Five years after the success of 3 Idiots, the duo have done it again, as the latest wires tell of a total figure of 650 crores collected! What other conviction do you seek to endorse the fact that PK is the flavour of the year!
One of my favourite novels is George Orwell’s Animal Farm and one of my all-time favourite quotes from it is, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
If I were to sum up PK’s message, it would be this. We are all in search of that lost something, on a voyage called life; but what is that divine something? It’s hardly and seldom comprehended by us correctly- we give it a name and for argument’s sake let’s call it God.
The metaphor used by the humanoid alien PK (Aamir) through the film will actually make one sit up to realise this search of ours, from ‘dancing cars’ to fashionable brands, comforts of human hands, hope, aspiration, courage, tragedy, goodness to a whole gamut of emotions; we are all in search of something, every day of our lives.
PK is an alien, whose transmitter is stolen by a villager when his craft lands him in a deserted location of Rajasthan (and we always thought that aliens only landed in the USA- perhaps the bad ones only, ironic, or pun intended?).
In search of his remote he bumps into travelling bandwalla Bhairon Singh (Sanjay Dutt) who assumes because he has knocked him with his vehicle, the man has lost it.
Paradoxically, PK learns to speak and articulate his thoughts after he spends a night in the house of a prostitute- glorifying. After all the idol of the powerful Devi Durga is considered incomplete unless the soil of prostitute’s house is mingled with it!
In search of his remote, PK comes to Delhi and is told by hundreds of people that only ‘God’ can help him and thus begins his search for the divine. That is when he is discovered by jurno Jaggu (Anukshka Sharma) and she puts him on TV.
What follows next is the complete questioning of the system, the path man has created between himself/ herself and God- the managers of the religions. From lighting candles, to offering wine, from walking bare feet to rolling on the floor, PK does it all. Alas in vain! For neither he finds no God, nor his remote.
The crux of the question has been discussed in the 2012 satirical comedy-drama OMG-Oh My Godwhere the protagonist Paresh Rawal questions the Godmen/ women and their acts- herein PK takes it one step further when he asks if God himself/ herself had asked for the things we do in order to please, or is it more of a business.
Religion, portrayed as a unified, commercial platform used for creating a body of so-called believers and defenders of the faith, is not the cornerstone of any religion and PK depicts it in the best possible way ever.
I believe the heart of the film lies in the track by Sonu Nigam, ‘Bhagwaan Hai Kahan Re Tu’ penned by Swanand Kirkire where the singer narrates that he went in search of the divine master to every designed building of worship yet failed to find Him.
I will leave most of the film to your interpretation for like you I am also in search of the divine, one that lies within me and the one without. PK merely will regenerate the same feeling and endorse facts that we as humans are already aware of.
4/5