Review of Peepli Live (2010) by Anish G — 02 May 2013

Peepli [Live] is a striking satire on the media-centric world we live in. Funny and sad at the same time, it's a film with a strong voice. The script is crisp and witty, the acting goes well with the rural and earthy feel of the film and does justice to the script.

It's a story about two farmers in rural India, they can't repay the loan they took from the bank and are threatened with losing their land, to avert that an ingenius plan his hatched, one of them will commit suicide. Why? The government compensates the families of farmers who do so. This planned act of 'bravery' gets picked up by a local newspaper and then snowballs into an event of major consequences as other news media rush to cover this unique story. Its election time, the politicians get drawn into the fold, the opposition tries to take advantage of the situation, the incumbent to subvert it. And in the midst of all that the 'brave' man prepared to take his life for his family is forgotten, he is just a pawn in a much larger game.

The film strikes so heavily because even though everything is so surreal, it won't seem too far fetched for them to be actually taking place. No one cares about the poor, the media wants their ratings, the politicians their votes. The people are left to fetch for their own, that's the sad reality of our world and this film captures that perfectly.