Review of Peepli Live (2010) by Sri Raghu Kishore P — 31 Aug 2010

Takes the real-life phenomenon of high suicide rates among Indian farmers as the basis for a droll - sometimes strained - black comedy: part "Dead Man's Curve", part "Ace in the Hole".

.. It's an appealingly passive, rather bovine performance from Das in the lead role, and "Peepli [Live]" is mildly hobbled by its sympathy for the protagonist: the script, for one, can't even bring itself to *think* about how the farmer might top himself.

A weird tension creeps in as we wonder whether the film is going to negotiate a happy ending unimaginable to those the scenario has been inspired by; in the end, it finds a way of connecting country and city that's both neat and not entirely in synch with what's gone before.

Still, Rizvi proves skilled at offsetting the raucousness - mostly care of a bedridden mother-in-law who spends most of the film out of her box on the local dope - with more tragic elements, like the painfully thin figure we observe from afar digging a hole that turns out to be his own grave.

It's a little overstretched, and the comedy could do with a bit more oomph behind it, but it absolutely underlines [producer Aamir] Khan's commitment to pressing social themes: even the big mid-film musical number is about the damaging effects of inflation.