Piku

I saw a movie at a theatre after a long, long time. And it turned out to be worthwhile. Piku is a thoroughly enjoyable movie.

A whole movie centred on an aged man's bowel movements? Sounds incredible but Piku pulls it off. Amitabh Bachchan's constipation problem is only a means for exploring relationships- between an old man and his only daughter, the daughter and the people who make up her daily life, and the Bachhan-Deepika duo and their extended family.

Deepika is thoroughly modern in every way but, when it comes to her widower father, she cannot shake off her deep-rooted sense of responsibility. Not just her work but her personal life comes to be subordinated to what she perceives as her duty to minister to her father.

It takes a taxi ride all the while from Delhi to Kolkata- the taxi  ride happens because the father won't think of travelling by air or rail- to lay bare the father-daughter relationship. And it requires the taxi owner-driver Irfan to tell Deepika that her father is being thoroughly selfish and that if she carries on the way she is doing, she will be 50 before she can think of her own life- and then, of course, it will be too late. Irfan and Deepika get close towards the end but we are spared the banal tying of the knot....there is just a telling shot at the end of their playing a game of badminton in front of Deepika's house.

I don't want to read to too much into the movie but it does seem that, amidst much that is modern in India today, the heavy hand of tradition is very much in evidence. There isn't much of a story line but the dialogues and the acting ensure that the movie unfolds smoothly. And the absence of blood and gore and the usual dance routines are a relief. The point about a good movie is that it takes up a simple theme and keeps you absorbed for a couple of hours. It's refreshing to see a Bollywood movie at least once in a while that measures up to the better standards of Hollywood.