Peepli Live is a 2010 Indian satirical black comedy film that explores the topic of farmer suicides and the subsequent media and political response.[3] It is written and directed by Anusha Rizvi in her directorial debut, and produced by Aamir Khan Productions. The film stars Naya Theatre company member Omkar Das Manikpuri as well as Naseeruddin Shah, Raghubir Yadav, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Shalini Vatsa and Malaika Shenoy along with a number of newcomers. Peepli Live, distributed by UTV Motion Pictures, was released on 13 August 2010.
Natha is a poor farmer from the village of Peepli in Mukhya Pradesh who struggles to earn enough money for his family. After taking a trip to the city with his elder brother, Budhia, Natha discovers that the banks will seize his farm if he does not pay off his outstanding loans. Meanwhile, the Mukhya Pradesh Government have called a by-election where the opposition party believe they have a chance to form the government. The agricultural, poverty-stricken population has lost faith in the long-serving ruling party, whose Chief Minister, along with the Federal Agriculture Minister, believe in the industrialisation of rural areas.
Natha and Budhia request financial help from the village headman, who mockingly suggests that they commit suicide, after which his family will receive monetary compensation for his death from the government. Budhia encourages Natha to do this for the sake of his family, but Natha is hesitant. While the two discuss at a tea stall, Rakesh, a local journalist, overhears the conversation and reports Natha's impending suicide on the news. The report quickly spreads to national news channels; one high-profile journalist, Nandita, joins Rakesh to interview Natha and his family. A rival channel also picks up the story, and each compete to report on Natha's suicide, increasingly intruding on his private life.
The media at large soon descends on Peepli to await Natha's suicide, monitoring him at all hours. Natha becomes a celebrity, attracting visitors and businesses to the village. The ruling party try to bribe Natha to prevent him from committing suicide, fearing it will galvanize the opposition. Conversely, the opposition encourages Natha to commit suicide, hoping to win the election while also using the media attention to advance their own agendas. Rakesh, meanwhile, discovers a poor farmer in Peepli has died after his land was seized by a bank. He proposes writing a piece about the farmer to Nandita, who becomes frustrated and instructs Rakesh to concentrate on Natha's story.
The village headman, allied with the ruling party, secretly kidnaps Natha and holds him ransom from the opposition parties. Rakesh tracks down Natha to a warehouse in Peepli and contacts Nandita, who rushes to the location; however, the rest of the media follow her there, suspecting she has a lead on Natha. In the resulting confusion, a spill from a Petromax lamp sets fire to the warehouse, which explodes, killing Rakesh. Government officials mistake Rakesh's badly burnt body for Natha's; after ruling that the death was an accident, the government refuses to compensate Natha's family, leaving them helpless. After Natha's death is reported, visitors and media depart from Peepli, leaving it decrepit. Before driving off, Nandita briefly wonders what happened to Rakesh.
Peepli Live began as a script written by NDTV journalist Anusha Rizvi called The Fallen. In 2004 Rizvi asked Aamir Khan to read her script and, although he initially refused as he was preoccupied with shooting Mangal Pandey: The Rising, he eventually decided to finance the film after she described the plot to him.[7] In an interview, Khan explains the meaning of the movie title: "When we were looking for the right title before we began the publicity and promotions of the film, we came up with Peepli Live. Peepli is the village that film is set in, the "live" part is meant to indicate: here is a story that is happening in Peepli that the filmmaker is bringing to you live. That's why it's Peepli Live."[8] Peepli Live was filmed on various locations in Madhya Pradesh such as Bhopal, Indore, Tikamgarh, Khurai as well as in New Delhi. Maxima Basu designed the costumes aptly capturing the rural essence of the film. According to Aamir Khan, many of the actors are Adivasis from the sub-urban area of Bhopal, Bhadwai in Madhya Pradesh.[9] Other cast members are from playwright Habib Tanvir's theatre troupe Naya Theatre.[10]
Peepli Live competed in the Sundance Film Festival, the first film from India to achieve this feat. With support of media billionaire Keyur Patel of Fuse Global who is major hollywood financier "Peepli Live" was selected at Sundance Film Festival and his relationship with Robert Redford provided a great platform there.[11] It received an 'A' adult certificate in India for language use.[12] The movie was picked up by speciality German distribution company Rapid Eye Movies for a special screening at the Berlin International Film Festival.[13] It was also named the Best First Feature Film at the 31st Durban International Film Festival in South Africa.[14] In the United Kingdom, the film was released on 24 September.[15] Peepli Live reportedly recovered its cost before its release itself.[16]
As of June 2020[update], the film holds an 86% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 28 reviews with an average rating of 6.32 out of 10.[25] On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 69 out of 100, based on 12 reviews, indicating "Generally Favorable" reviews.[26]
The film was subject to a few controversies. VJAS (Vidarbha Janandolan Samiti), the Nagpur-based farmer's advocacy group, asked the Maharashtra government to ban the film due to its depiction of farmer suicides. Kishor Tiwari, the president of VJAS, stated: "TV serial 'Bairi Piya' has shown that debt-trapped Vidarbha farmers are selling daughters to clear their debt, while 'Peepli Live' is far from reality and an insult to poor farmers of Vidarbha who have been victims of globalization and wrong policies of the state."[40]
In addition, according to the Hindustan Times, "folk singer Rama Joshi alleges that a song Chola Mati Ke Ram, which has been used in the film, does not give credit to Gangaram Siwar, a celebrated folk singer of Chhattisgarh and the original lyricist of the folk song." In response, Nageen Tanwir, who sang the song in the film, stated: "The song, Chola Maati Ke Ram, has been composed by Gangaram Siwar in Chhattisgarh, but the Habib Tanvir theatre group has officially purchased rights for the song. So I don't understand why people from Chhattisgarh are asking for their due again."[41]
The film's storyline also shares similarity to Malayalam film Pakal. Its director M. A. Nishad says: "The storyline of the Bollywood movie Peepli Live has a similar theme to Pakal, which was released much before the Hindi film. The difference was in the narrative style."[43]
The song "Mehngai dayan khaye jat hai" was challenged in court by the Congress party alleging that Sonia Gandhi was called as "Dayan" (female ghost) in the movie. However, the argument did not sustain and the case was dismissed by the court holding that Sonia Gandhi was not responsible for the rising inflation in India.[citation needed]
Deepak: lf you look closely you 'll see Natha's footprints. Whether escape or abduction, here's where Natha perched himself for the last time. And here's the fruit of his toil, his faeces, commonly known as shit. Take a close look. Do not cringe at the sight, for, as long as we live, we will continue to shit. Psychiatrists claim that faeces reflect our mental state. The complexion of our shit is a window to the inner self. But here we see a mixture of hues. Therefore, before reaching any conclusions we need to bring in experts as Mr Natha was no ordinary man. For Bharat Live this is Kumar Deepak, live from Peepli.
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Successful sequels are hard to make. Yet, the script in the follow-up to Natha's story takes it to a darker, deeper and more disconnect place. The plot could not have picked up from a better place after 2010.
The story telling genius uses a life like protest against the government on farmer issues as the perfect backdrop. The protagonist CM of a fictional state is there. All and sundry from the media gather in numbers. Then the final climax - a live suicide on national TV.
5 years ago Natha disappeared into oblivion only to show up as labor at an anonymous construction site in Gurgaon, leaving the media to pack up their brigades and the commercial Mela to wind-down in Peepli.
Seems these 5 years were well spent on the next screenplay. So close to reality is the premise, that the average hawker who made money from the circus at Peepli is nowhere to be found. But the political parties and news agencies have surely managed to do what they failed to in the 2010 release - encash Natha's death.
There have been multiple historical accounts indicating Indians are wired to be short tempered. A demonstration against any issue is a ticking time-bomb. It makes sense then to have places allocated for such protests where people can make an organized, civil and peaceful demonstration of their displeasure.
Jantar Mantar and Ramleela Maidan in Delhi are probably better off for at least keeping things relatively organized, but the lack of measures to ensure personal safety shows a blatant disregard for the value of human life.
It would be easy to put the onus of anything and everything on to the authorities, but the organizers must share part of the blame. The whole dichotomy of expecting the one who is being demonstrated against to safeguard the protesters would not only be ironic, but full of philosophical impracticality.
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