The Darker Side of The Culture Shown in ‘pk’ Movie

The movie ’PK’ is an Indian movie which was released on December 19,2014.It follows a comedy-drama approach. Its directed by Rajkumar Hirani and written by Abhijat Joshi and Rajkumar Hirani. It was produced by Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra. The film’s sountrack was composed by Shantanu Moitra, Ajay-Atul and Ankit Tiwari with lyrics written by Swanand Kirkire, Amitabh Varma and Manoj Muntashir. UTV Motion Pictures acquired the distribution rights of the film. The running time of this film is approximately 152 minutes. It holds Aaamir Khan as its lead character, Anushka Sharma and Sunjay Dutt. It was the first Indian film to gross more than 700 billion and $100 million throughout the world. It is the first highest grossing film among all the Indian movies with a budget of Rs.85 crore.

Positive criticism was shown as on Aamir Khan’s role of portraying supersitions. Since, it was an influencing one. This film made it possible to convey a serious message in a fun way. By getting the appearance of an awkward man, not only appearance but the his parlance and gait clearly portrayed the character of an alien on Earth. It was about how an alien understood our God behaviors. Simply, it left him very confused and finally he understood something and went away. Later he came back with a pack of aliens to understand more. Movie sends the message that God is there and will hear you but the medium is not important though it can be used. It means that stay attached to God not the medium. This message is sent in variety of ways, specially in the later parts because that is when PK has understood that humans use different ways to get to God (and thinks it is stupid). And then he sees not just the stupid effect of it (mainly in the Hindus) but the dark side of it (when an Islamic group resorts to violence). He looses his best friend in the attack and decides to send the message to people that “religions” are useless and can be abused. Moreover, he uses “wrong number” for it and that leaves many movie viewers unclear. Some think this “wrong number” is “Babas”, some think this is “Hindu”, some think it is “Idol Worship” etc.

Further evidence is in the scene where he is checking infants for birth-signs of their religions. He clearly gets that religions are man made, Bhagwan-Allah-etc-etc are all man made and wants to send that very message. Most of the Hindus called it as Anti-Hindu sentiments. Because of the culture which has been shown of Hinduism negatively. According to the critics, it has shown that God doesn’t lives in Idols they worships, not in the temples where they are worshipping and giving money in the name of charity, not in worshipping those cows but in heart. By critically analyzing the movie, first of all it shows that how people think that they are right and the others are wrong. That emerge different conflicts based on their culture and opinions which raises issues and hatred among people. And to a third person, it seems so stupid. Very important critism on this movie is that no tolerance is depicted when it comes to religious issues hence no questions being raised, people are shouted upon if they raise a question just because they don’t want to follow people.

Hence, no willingness to grow. Every human being in this world has its own definition of its culture, Its traditions and people are just thrown into the pool of following what others are doing without them questioning anything. It also shows that how religion is used as a weapon in order to exploit others. It shows how different cultures are getting benefit by the help of money they are getting in the name of God. For instance, this movie shows different practices of temples in which they portray that how much money Pandits take from the normal people in the name of religion and those people don’t have the idea of the purpose for which it is being used. Diverse variety of religions has been shown in this movie, either they are Muslims, Hindus etc. Moreover, another critism on the culture portrayed in this movie is how unknowingly it has erased the unity among people and have divided them. And has lost the true essence of belief in God that it lives in our hearts not in the culture, not its practices, not in its mediums.

Works Cited

1. Hirani, R. (Director), Joshi, A., & Hirani, R. (Writers). (2014). PK [Motion picture]. India: UTV Motion Pictures.
2. Chopra, V. V. (Producer). (2014). PK [Film]. India: UTV Motion Pictures.
3. Moitra, S., Ajay-Atul, & Tiwari, A. (Composers). (2014). PK (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) [Audio CD]. India: T-Series.
4. Kirkire, S., Varma, A., & Muntashir, M. (Lyricists). (2014). PK (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) [CD booklet]. India: T-Series.
5. Bollywood Hungama. (2014). PK Movie: Box Office Collection, Budget, Verdict, First Look, Release Date, Music Videos, Audio Jukebox, Screen Count, Predictions, Star Cast, Story, Hit / Flop.