Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani on Sunday praised Aamir Khan’s film Peepli Live for its “realistic depiction of village life,” but wished that the filmmaker had chosen a subject other than farmers’ suicide.
Directed by debutante Anusha Rizvi, the film is a satire on the country’s agrarian crisis and the subsequent media and political response.
Mr. Advani was impressed by the stark portrayal of rural India in the film, but said the film was “distressing” while depicting families affected by the suicides.
“When last week Mr. Khan arranged a special show of Peepli Live for our NDA MPs, I complimented him on the fact that his film was a sharp contrast. It was a starkly realistic depiction of village life. For many urban viewers, it may have been a first time experience,” the veteran leader wrote on his blog.
“I told Aamir: ‘I have been to villages in Andhra Pradesh and Vidarbha, where many such suicides have taken place. And I can well imagine how distressed these families would feel if they were to see the film and find that the tragedies they have passed through were being made an object of mockery. The film would have been very effective if it had chosen some subject like MNREGA as the central theme’.”
Mr. Advani said he was greatly impressed by the caricature the film had made out of the rivalry between TV channels and politicians.
“The villages, which film goers generally see in Bollywood movies, are phoney, studio outfits. As a rule, the actors are no different. They also are patently urban folk and not the farmers, rural folk etc, they portray in the film...
“But I wish for the main theme of the story, the film-makers had chosen some subject other than farmers’ suicide,” Mr. Advani wrote.
Nonetheless he praised the efforts of Mr. Khan and the whole team.
“Even so, this latest production of his also once again shows that Aamir is a rare film-maker who never hesitates to experiment with off-beat stuff. This film impresses even though Mr. Khan is not the director; nor is he acting in the film. The director is Ms. Rizvi, a former TV journalist,” Mr. Advani wrote.
“If this is her debut film she certainly deserves rich kudos. And so does Omkar Das Manikpuri, the lead actor, who had faced a film camera for the first time in his life,” he added.
