FILM INTERVIEW: AAMIR KHAN
'3 Idiots' Star Produces simultaneously Bollywood and non-Bollywood film
This is Priya’s first film review. When she is not daydreaming about how to manipulate words to create sentences, Priya works in the field of educational research, learns about the world and its infinite absurdities, doodles, and perfects her curve-ball. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Business Administration degree from California Polytechnic University, Pomona. Priya is a dynamite story listener and an aspiring storyteller. On a personal note, her father spent the last year planting edibles, growing cotton, tending livestock, digging a well, and reliving his youth as a farmer in Kuraj — a small village approximately 94 kilometres from Udaipur, Rajasthan in India. For multiple reasons, the story of ‘Peepli [Live]‘ is especially moving.
Critically acclaimed actor, director, and producer Aamir Khan continues his string of broadly entertaining, sharp-witted, and socially-conscious films (3 Idiots, Ghajini, Taare Zameen Par, Rang De Basanti) with Peepli [Live], his latest project about village life in central India. A simultaneously Bollywood and non-Bollywood film, this thoughtfully clever satire features a talented cast of rising stars (Omkar Das Manikpuri, Raghubir Yadav, Malaika Shenoy, Shalini Vatsa, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and Vishal O. Sharma) as well as veterans (Naseeruddin Shah and Farrukh Jaffer). Written and directed by journalist and debutant feature filmmaker Anusha Rizvi and in conjunction with UTV Motion Pictures, Peepli [Live] skillfully employs a humorous and neutral lens to spotlight life in the rural margins of India. Aamir Khan recently sat down with Buzzine to share the motivators and aspirations for this film.
In the fictional village of Peepli, Natha, a simple-minded and good-hearted farmer, and his like-minded elder brother, Budhia, are on the verge of losing their family land and desperately scramble for a solution to their financial hardships. They learn about a government programme that offers substantial compensation to the family of any farmer that commits suicide. Budhia convinces Natha to prepare to take his own life, activating a series of hysterical events that rapidly attracts the attention of local and state politicians, high-ranking bureaucrats, federal ministers, the national media, and citizens everywhere.
The sharp divide between urban and rural India is brought to life with equally sharp wit, deep intimacy, and matter-of-fact artistry in Peepli [Live]. The truth breathing through the storyline is that the majority of India’s citizens are tucked deeply in the country’s rural corners. Surfacing occasionally to serve as the backdrop to songs in contemporary Indian films, villages continue to be largely invisible to the country’s other citizens and policy makers. Abundantly laced with senses of humor and gravity, this dark comedy primarily aims to entertain while subtly exposing the underserved needs and prolonged neglect of a stratum of India’s hidden citizens.
“I loved the script and found it to be very engaging, very funny, but also very heartbreaking,” Khan recounts. In addition to entertaining and engaging the audience, “I am hoping that it sensitizes people and today, as a society in India, we are not thinking of people in rural India, we are not even aware of their existence. They are invisible to us.” Khan acknowledged that the success earned from spending decades operating in mainstream Indian films has afforded him the luxury of taking chances on voices and stories that other filmmakers would hastily overlook.
Peepli [Live] is an organic story that grows outwards from the village and its citizens. From the deliberate selection of a cast mainly comprised of rural folk actors to the collaboration with Indian Ocean, the true voice of contemporary India, the film deftly and sincerely captures the reality of its characters and its cause. “Making a film with no name faces and no stars is a challenge in itself but we are tackling that. It is more important to be honest with a film and that’s where we are coming from.”
When asked about the responsibility of films to draw attention to social issues or galvanize social activism, he responded by revisiting the purpose of cinema and his duty as an entertainer.
“Cinema’s primary responsibility is to entertain and engage the audience, a social responsibility in itself which Indian filmmakers have been shouldering quite well for the past seventy or eighty odd years. As an entertainer, my primary responsibility is to the person who has worked hard all month and uses part of his monthly salary to buy a ticket to my film. He should get his money’s worth. Along with that, whenever the opportunity arises to give a platform to a social issue, I am happy to do that.”
He continues by declaring that this film “does not tell you what to do in any case nor does it pass any judgment on the characters that it is talking about. On a lot of levels, it is a story about survival that does not take a judgmental view on anyone. So, whether you are Budhia or the politician or somebody from the administration or a media person, each one of them, in their different environment and situations is doing what they believe they need to do in order to survive in their own space.” Such a neutral and unbiased perspective separates Peepli [Live] from films such as Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India, Taare Zameen Par, and 3 Idiots which, to varying degrees, navigated the audiences’ judgments and emotions.
Economic changes over the past few decades have taken a detrimental toll on poor Indian farmers resulting in a substantial set of suicides.
A masterfully realized story making visible an invisible India and advanced by a troupe of colorful characters and an air of rustic rhythms, Peepli [Live] is a comically provocative 106-minute three-wheeled tempo ride through the beautiful enchantment and sincere reality of rural India.
Written and directed by Anusha Rizvi and co-directed by Mahmood Farooqui, Aamir Khan’s Peepli [Live] opens in theatres worldwide on Friday, August 13th.
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