There
is
a
lingering
moment
towards
the
end
of
this
unvarnished
look
at
life
way
beyond
the
poverty
line,
when
the
village
strewn
with
vehicles,
equipments
and
over-curious
media
persons
are
suddenly
emptied
out.
What
we
are
left
to
look
at
is
a
village,
a
family,
a
life
and
a
situation
on
the
same
threshold
of
pain
humiliation
hunger
and
poverty
where
the
whole
rigmarole
had
started.
The
silence
between
that
moment
of
excruciating
emptying-out
and
embracing
that
emptiness
is
so
palpable,
we
the
audience
cannot
miss
its
significance.
Peepli
Live
produced
by
Aamir
Khan
is
a
work
of
damning
ramifications.
Debutante
director
Anusha
Rizvi's
writing
skills
are
never
made
evident
in
the
vast
canvas
of
rural
characters
who
cling
to
the
poverty
line
hoping
that
some
government-sponsored
miracle
would
rescue
them
from
the
dread
and
drudgery
of
daily
extinction.
Though
there
are
echoes
of
films
as
far-ranging
as
Mehboob
Khan's
Mother
India
(remember
Nargis's
husband
Raj
Kumar
vanishing
after
a
farming
accident?)
to
Mazhar
Kamran's
Mohandas
Anusha
Rizvi's
treatise
on
the
common
man
is
one
helluva
original
take
on
the
sins
of
squalor.
The
characters
are
all
played
by
brilliantly
self-effacing
'actors'
(are
they
really
actors?),
so
much
so
that
you
wish
the
known
faces
,
seasoned
and
brilliant
as
they
are,
like
Naseeruddin
Shah
and
Raghuvir
Yadav
would
not
come
into
the
docu-drama
content
of
this
ode
to
the
wretched
and
the
damned.
To
most
of
us
out
here
sitting
in
the
auditorium,
farmers'
suicide
is
just
a
headline.
Read,
regretted
and
then
put
to
bed.
Peepli
Live
is
that
savagely
raw
and
hurtful
wake-up
call
for
the
conscience
which
does
not
mince
words.
Yes
it
has
very
funny
moments
when
death
becomes
a
laughing
raw-stock
for
the
television
camera.
But
Peepli
Live
is
not
a
funny
film.
Not
really.
The
dialogues
are
not
what
you
will
hear
in
the
inner
chambers
of
a
fashion
show.
The
words
don't
seem
written.
They
just
seem
to
come
to
the
two
brothers
Budhia
(Raghuvir
Yadav)
and
Natha
(Omkar
Das
Manikpuri)
as
they
walk
the
slushy
muddy
paths
of
a
village
that
seems
to
exist
outside
camera
range.
To
Raghuvir
Yadav's
credit,
he
blends
into
the
symphony
of
anonymity
as
well
as
the
screen
Natha,
though
Yadav
is
of
course
a
well-known
actor.
In
a
sequence
written
with
the
taang
firmly
away
from
the
shriek,
between
them
the
two
brothers
choose
Natha
for
the
suicide
that
would
bring
some
financial
succour
to
the
impoverished
family.
There
begins
the
circus
of
the
self-serving.
Politicians
are
of
course
brutally
satirized
by
the
script.
And
you
wonder,
is
it
really
the
politicians
to
blame
for
the
condition
of
the
Nathas
in
our
part
of
the
world?
It's
the
electronic
media
that
comes
for
the
most
ruthless
reprimand
from
the
script.
The
journalists
played
by
actors
who
seem
to
be
wedded
to
the
tyranny
of
the
TRPs
are
all
so
splendid
in
their
news-hound
roles
you
wonder
which
came
first
the
news-bytes
or
this
film
about
biting
into
the
byte!
Peepli
Live
is
shot
by
cinematographer
Shanker
Raman
in
stern
solid
colours
connected
to
Mother
Earth.
We
can't
say
the
camera
is
unobtrusive.
But
this
film
is
about
the
infinitely
intrusive
nature
of
the
camera…right?
Should
one
comment
on
the
quality
of
the
performances
in
a
film
where
'acting'
is
not
an
assumed
conceit?
The
'actors'
all
uniformly
blend
into
the
fertile
earthy
fabric
of
this
homage
to
the
grass
root.
But
a
special
word
for
that
extra-special
actor
Nawazuddin
Siddiqui.
He
is
the
only
character
with
a
conscience
in
this
film
populated
with
merciless
opportunists.
The
means
to
survival
is
to
be
among
the
fittest.
Anusha
Rizvi
is
an
astonishing
addition
to
the
repertoire
of
directorial
forces
that
matter.
By
making
her
first
film
on
those
who
don't
matter
beyond
a
random
survey
during
the
electoral
consensus
she
has
proved
that
the
conscience
as
a
cinematic
commodity
still
survives.
Story first published: Monday, August 16, 2010, 10:57 [IST]