Below The Surface. Review on Piku

There are a few fine reviews of the movie in this very site. Reading them I was suitably impressed and had decided that I do not had much to contribute. But somehow, the subject of the movie kept on nudging me and at different times a new dimension of the subject presented itself in front of me.

Tall claims for a commercial Bollywood movie! Yes, I too initially thought so. After all it is a sallow take on father daughter relationship with some witty and emotional moments thrown in. But .

Yes, on the surface the movie is about a quirky old man(No, it is not abou ‘Piku’ as the title claims though it sounds cute) who seldom thinks beyond his narrow interests and doesn’t mind even sacrificing his daughter’s happiness and future for its sake. He is self centred and arrogant, he is reasonably well off financially and has hit upon(or invented) an awkward philosophy to discredit the institution of marriage(it is a low I.Q. arrangement in which dice is always loaded against the fairer sex and therefore they should avoid it at all cost). Since he does not have a creative past time(also known by the name ‘hobby’), he spends most of the time worrying about his own health in general and ‘potty’ in particular. He thinks he is in control of the household but secretly(or shall we say subconsciously?) knows he is totally dependent on his daughter. Now we know that child always have a particular fear – the fear of abandonment by their, usually, parents. One guesses the fear returns in old age as ones capacity to meet the challenges of life diminishes. However, while a child gets his / her attention through cries and tantrums, the older generation normally invents ingenious ways of getting it.

Now let us travel from father to daughter. Though, in the movie she is projected as the victim of her father’s often unreasonable demands on her time and everything else, in real life things are a little more complicated. One’s character is not completely at the mercy of the significant others however significant he or she may be. Thus, reason for Piku’s irritation with drivers and colleagues cannot be wholly explained away with quirkiness and unreasonableness of her father – there are bound to be other reasons – part of which can be explained and a part cannot. If we examine our own character or that of someone close to us, we will reach the same conclusion – almost never can one come across with a ‘one to one correlation’ or ‘cause effect’ phenomenon that can explain uniqueness or peculiarities(or is it PIKUliarities?) of one’s character.

So will Piku now have a healthy relation with Rana or someone else once the source of her irritation is taken away? The answer to this question is uncertain because in the movie at least we have not come across any ‘moments of truth’ in which Piku realised her unreasonable behaviour towards others which may take her towards the solution and there is a shadow of her father in this who too never caught admitting his mistakes. Thus, while we can venture some educated guesses regarding causes of peculiarities of her father, we have less insight about her own peculiarities.

The character of Rana is even less developed. His metamorphosis from a detached bystander to interested companion has been beautifully developed though. However, we know little about him besides knowing that he is patient and used to handle some complicated characters in his household too. Whether that qualifies him as a suitor for Piku is open to debate. While death of Piku’s father apparently has solved many problems of the household, the situation may not be so simple in real world. But then – it is ultimately is just a movie and that it has raised some issues worth intellectual(there, I flattered myself) engagement is much more than 99% of the bollywood movies manage to do.

A few words about the performances. Deepika played her part with competence and she managed to look ravishing in a role which is far from glamorous. Irrfan, as can be expected, is natural to the core and the role of a detached bystander had a perfect fit with his personality. AB caught napping in the area of giving credence to his Bengali accent but his expressions were just perfect – frame by frame.

Piku has a simple message – value the elders in your life for you do not know when will they desert you but also learn to ignore their tantrums. And, your character or nature is your responsibility – blaming someone else for your failings will not take you far.