Movie Review: Piku Motion Se Hi Emotion..a clear albeit not so clean drama

I have waited for Piku with a great sense of anticipation and a certain amount of trepidation as well. While Vicky Donor was an unexpected hit and most sang praises of it, I wasn’t as impressed especially with the second half of the movie. The trailers of Piku weren’t that promising either, with a fair amount of focus on ‘motion’ rather than emotion, to attract its audience. The good news is that Piku delivers on most fronts – though one wishes it had been a tad shorter and snappier

From its opening moments it becomes abundantly clear that there isn’t going to be much of a storyline to Piku. This one focuses on the characters and the writing more than anything else and the constant bickering between its main characters makes for all the laughs. Further it handles sensitive issues in a refreshingly direct manner. Two lines is all it takes to make its point and then that’s it – no unnecessary melodrama or exaggerated effect. In fact, its in the attempts to impress by literally saying it out loud where Piku actually falls flat

The over-focus on motion itself is perhaps a subtle message to be less prejudiced and more open about one of our most natural and normal activities. One could argue that the movie over-does it, though I wouldn’t really go so far as to label it as toilet humor of the Delhi Belly variety. Despite it coming up in every few dialogues there is still an air of subtlety about the way its done – a feature that extends across the movie – right to its product placements as well

Piku is very clear about how it wants to portray and address certain issues and in those terms deserves all the applause. It doesn’t beat around the bush, tells it like it is and covers a decent amount of ground – the right argument for women’s liberation, the mutual responsibility of children and parents towards each other (this is exactly where Baghban made a mess of things) – all very neatly done.

Deepika Padukone dresses in plain clothes throughout the movie with minimal make-up. However she looks gorgeous and her natural beauty shines through. Her expression is near-perfect as ever and there is even the hint of modulation to her dialogue delivery so things might finally be looking up for her as an actress as well. There are moments of hysteria or panic which she still makes a mess of though, screeching rather than sounding over-wrought. Big B makes no such mistake and delivers his customary solid performance. Irrfan has possibly the best character and the best lines and he delivers them in his trademark no-nonsense fashion, which suits the movie perfectly.

Despite all the good news, the stuff that irks the most is those long passages of time which do nothing for the story, yet they are just there. The movie veers off course a bit, but there’s nothing to be achieved by doing so – its meandering path is puzzling and disappointing and makes for the many moments that add to the drag in its run-time despite being fairly short by Bollywood standards at 2 hours and 5 minutes. That’s a real bummer because otherwise it offers quite the joy ride

There are many who would object to the ending of the movie but in my view it was perfectly apt given the context. To say more would be to say too much.

Despite being a bit of a drag towards the end, Piku is definitely recommended as a watch. It balances both its motion and its emotion really well and will keep you entertained for most of its journey - twenty minutes shorter and it would've been a real cracker. Oh well, we can't have it all...