PK Movie Review

5 years after 3 Idiots, arguably the most entertaining film of the last decade, Aamir Khan, Rajkumar Hirani and Abhijat Joshi (writer) return with a film titled ‘PK’. Expectations of a wholesome entertainer are sky-high. The buzz around PK has slowly but surely built up and the trailers have created tremendous curiosity amongst the audience. Comparisons with classics like Munnabhai M.B.B.S, Lage Raho Munnabhai and 3 Idiots will be inevitable. So does PK fulfil all those lofty expectations? Let’s find out!

Story: Jagat Janani (Anushka Sharma) encounters a strange man (Aamir Khan) with strange habits and an unusual lingo while traveling in Delhi. He says his name is PK. He says a lot of things which makes Jaggu feel that he is lying. No sane human would take his words as the truth. He pees in public places to get himself locked up in Delhi lockups to escape the rains. He steals money from beggars. He doesn’t understand how life on earth works. He is looking for a thing very dear to him. He asks God for it repeatedly, but doesn’t get any reply. There begins his journey to understand life and in that process he makes us all understand what life is all about.

First things first, when you go to watch a Rajkumar Hirani film, the yardsticks are different. You don’t just pay to get entertained, but also to get enlightened, as each of his films carry a social message. In that regard, PK falls well short in the second half after an outstanding first. The first half is rip roaring and brings the house down with plenty of trademark Hirani moments. In the second half, the pace begins to dip. (Spoiler alert) The bomb blast scene was unnecessary and you fail to understand the purpose it served. The romantic angle between Jaggu and PK was definitely not needed when a cute friendship would have sufficed just as much. The second half felt a little too similar to ‘OMG: Oh My God’ and the TV show scenes just did not hit home the point as well as it should have. It wasn’t even clear what Hirani was trying to say. Was the film about inter-religion marriage, atheism or superstition?

Anushka Sharma, Aamir Khan - PK

Anushka Sharma, Aamir Khan – PK

The technical aspects of PK are top notch. The cinematography is excellent. Both Delhi and Bruges are captured beautifully. The editing by Hirani himself is spot on although the duration could have been cut short by a further 5-10 minutes to speed up proceedings in the second half. The music of PK suits the tone of the film and the songs are pleasing to the ears.

PK has to count amongst the best ever performances of Aamir Khan. To say he is amazing in and as PK would be an understatement. The type of commitment he has shown in the film is terrific. His mannerisms, his expressions and his hold of Bhojpuri sets an example for other actors to emulate. PK will always be a special Aamir Khan role. Anushka is very good as Jagat Janani although there are shades of her character from Jab Tak Hai Jaan in PK. She is charming and lovable. Sushant Singh Rajput plays his part well. Saurabh Shukla is a knockout as the main force of opposition in PK and is probably Hirani’s all out black character. Boman Irani has an insignificant role. Sanjay Dutt has a small role to play, he does well.

Overall, if the first half of PK made us feel like Hirani was at his very best, the second could possibly be his worst so far. It felt like the post-interval portions were directed by a different director and not Hirani. One of the hallmarks of a Hirani film are the strong supporting characters and PK has no character that stands out. There was too much focus on PK and that’s what undid the film. Having said that, PK is definitely better than 95% of the films that are made in Bollywood. It deserves a watch but doesn’t have the repeat value of 3 Idiots or Munnabhai films. Don’t make the mistake of expecting too much and PK will keep you hooked.

Box office: PK is expected to create history with 3 open weeks at the box office, and the goodwill of Rajkumar Hirani and star-power of Aamir Khan will help tremendously. However, the lack of repeat-value, limited appeal towards the masses and a poor second half, might affect the film in the long run.

Rating: ★★★½☆ Way better than most films this year, but you expect more from a Hirani – Aamir film.

Advertisements

107 Comments

  • indicine pk is example of typical cinema and message of today’ youth about godmen so don’t underestimate this movie And today movie is masla movie mardar and no message of socitey so this movie message of socitey

  • @lisa
    Koimoi also stated that Hirani went wrong with 2nd half and many others are also saying the same thing
    And other thing is common in all reviews that the concept is totally that of OMG.So its not only indicine

  • @indicine what about PK BO opening ,many sites are not reporting .At time of HNY,Kick there was morning,noon,evening reports with lot of other articles regarding response and other things but today no one is doing this

  • Very funny comments.People have not watched the movie PK and commenting here but lifetime collections of PK will shut their mouth.

  • Lack of repeat value,like really ??? I have seen it twice already and plan to see it again and i like salman’s movie more than aamir’s. Everybody in our theatres were clapping and laughing on so many scenes and contrary to what you suggest many ppl think that the second half rocked and was absolutely awesome. I know public will reward it because it’s a well made film.

  • @arjun kapoor omg is any time better then pk. as omg has clear vision as what the film is going to say but pk is confusing. didn’t expected from a director like Raju hirani he made time pass film. not a great film. it falls very very short on munnabhi series or even 3idiots. lastly disappointed from Raju.

  • Radio: the radio which covered aamirs private parts was a connector to communicate with the aliens.
    Sushant: Sushant is Anushkas lover, they united at last.
    Eyes: Aamir had to widen his eyes and strech eyebrows just like SRK in My Name Is Khan.
    OMG: PK is fully entertainment oriented massage film, while OMG! is fully massage oriented entertaining film. In this case, OMG! is better than PK. Because, OMG!’s unnecessary song Go Govinda is better than all PK songs( just think that a film which is said to be entertaining has no song entertaining, what kind of entertainment these boring songs serve? )

  • @sweet_heart: reviews are opinions of people and can differ…..

    the point i was trying to make was as a professional film critic or reviewer, one cannot give reviews merely on the basis of expectations…..ultimately a better film should get better star ratings…..simple

    so if PK gets 3.5 stars and another film gets 4 stars or so, this means that the reviewer thought that the other film was better than PK.

  • Please don’t compare 3 idiot with this movie. Its completely different. 3 idiots is the only movie which would never made again.. PK will be the highest grosser of all time.. KICK is waste infact Salman is waste. He will always remake movies.. He don’t have a movie of his own..

  • @Lisa – Awesome comment

    They give less stars to a well made movie and give more stars to crappy movies like HNY.
    Moreover this is a SRK favoring site. Just see the number of article they dedicate to SRK.

    A honest and professional reviewer will give the review on the basis of merits of the film irrespective of who the star is. I remember that they mentioned the same thing during 3 idiots that they were expecting more of Aamir and Raju combo. They are mentioning the same thing in case of PK citing 3 Idiots now. lolzz

  • @MKJ, lol. Isn’t PK remake of OMG??? PK is unofficial remake of OMG movie.
    What your amir not do remake?? Gajani movie remake of south Gajani. Better you keep quite lol.

  • If PK script offer to Amir by others director. Definitely amir rejected the script. He sign because best director of India and he know the script similar to OMG but accept the script just like YRF’s DHOOM 3. He sign D3 because of D2 is all time highest grosser.

  • @gauravv forget that even Indicine is Aamir hater,though they try to be smart by not saying againnst him directly.Even though the Raju and Aamir has high anticipation still the movie got 4/5 as average rating despite it second half slightly drag.Still Indicine said the film no where near to omg and others.They given 3i only 3 stars and saying now we had high hopes, this way pk got 1/2 star more than why disappointed.Actually admin got patriotic feeling and felt proud being an Indian after watching HNY as they had no hope from srk and farha but they had all hopes from Raju And Aamir and despite bring good to feel they are criticising film on comment section. hahaha.
    Have you watched the film and what you feel about the movie as I have booked my ticket for Sunday noon show.
    Meanwhile my 3 friends have seen the movie and they all loved the movie.

  • If going to simple logic while seeing Arjun kapoor films Indicine don’t like him and no expectation still movie got good rating and Arjun performance not.Being this logic Indicine shouldn’t expect Mich from him but still they thrashing his performances.
    Kick and hny 4/5 seriously especially they given bang bang 2.5/5 but hny 4/5.For me kick was better than bang vang and hny.Hny is poor than all of 3. And I know pk is best Among them.Reviews of other sites saying the same.

  • Where are all they who were saying pk will be master piece? This called sasta piece of work copy paste Omg.now king khan record safe…Alien went to sachin but could not save this mela returns…lol

  • @Indicine hats off to you….the truth revealed keep going.these ppl barking let them bark bcz they all in shock how Amir failed again to select script…talaash d3 and pk..

  • I saw the film and aamir khan was outstanding. However the film was good not masterpiece. Akshay kumar’s omg was same concept and was flawless but no one even gave any attention to it in Bollywood circle, and suddenly it’s aamir khan film the same concept is being called unique, original and masterpiece.

  • Awesome movie Aamir and hirani rocksss again haters first go and watch the movie then put yor faltu cmnts or go and watch any news channel Pk ki dhoom har jagh fayli hui hai

  • OMG- Just come from My second show of PK with family and I loved it more than the first time. Short review as Im pretty tired from drive back n wallet surgery- expensive day but well worth every penny.
    Ok so repeat values are definitely there and content is strong n captivating. Second half has the right elements including the forsaken love angle which mass audiences would love so I dont buy ‘this forced love angle sentiment’ of yours Indicine. (Read your review and will not respond to it as its not the right place to do so)
    The best scene was the ‘The final Question’ segment- again similar to OMG but not many saw OMG n more will see PK so the emotions delivered by PK in his response n subsequent reasonings were sublime. Paresh did a stellar job but here PK is really exhausted searching for God n his suffering brings a silence to the room as we all can relate to similar frustrations/ fatigue. I get frustrated seeing dynamic made chameleons on Indicine roaming freely or SSS Khans spelling deteriorating or Indicine posting more silly Qs from
    Sambuddha Mukherjee about Arjun Kapoors potential debut in Tollywood or a possible reconciliation between Saruman and babaji kshitij Srivastava….!
    Also the Sarfaraz / Jaggu church scene retold brought a tear to my eyes n audiences held their breath during that part. Really heartfelt emotional ride- top work team. I think second half was GOOD n ofcourse first half rocked big time but the ending scene (I wont spoil anyones enjoyment here so relax) brought the house down.
    All in all PK the character was magnificently played by Aamir- cant see anyone else doing that role- he held the audiences attention with everything he did or said- proud of Raju Sirs direction as his friendship with Aamir ensured he got the maximum out of Aamir and PK….!
    The only thing stopping me from giving the movie a total 5 stars is I (spoiler alert) would have loved it if Raju Sir had shown the audience PK using his ‘remote’ to actually send out signals to his spaceship… This was shown in Jaadoo Mil Gaya n the kids loved this in that movie so more so for the kids this addition could have given greater scope for kids to come back for more.
    Film deserves more than 4.5 stars but thats the best I can give it.

    Watch it and forget 3 idiots- different topic with 3 lead characters who brought so much to the movie- here PK and Jaggu are main draw so they are one man down compared with 3 idiots but still do enough to keep you intrigued through 150 mins. This ones a classic and boxoffice winner all the way into the 300 cr club.

Leave a Comment