PK

Hey Guys! I got another movie that I want to share with everyone!

PK! This is a hilarious Bollywood film that I highly recommend. It is about an alien who comes to Earth to explore, but he basically lost the keys to his spaceship and is now trapped here with us. When he asks for help, people respond with “idk, God only knows” so now he is on a quest to find God and ask him for his remote back.

This is such a funny movie. Because for the most part, you are just seeing him trying to navigate through different customs and religions. Example, when he first arrived on Earth, he was naked.

So then to blend in, he stole some clothes from “dancing cars” (I will not give that one away, that shit is hilarious)

But because he has no concept of fashion, you get him walking around like this:

It is the small things that make this moment. Because he is just trying to figure out how society works.

He sees a Hindu Woman dressed in White, and when trying to approach her he gets yelled at for bothering a widow in mourning (in Hinduism you wear white at a funeral). So he then saw a western bride in a white wedding gown, and expressed sympathy for her dead husband.

He learns that you give offerings at a Hindu temple, so he tries to give food to God at a Christian Church. The Church yells at him that it should be wine, so he then brings wine to a Muslim Mosque. WE get that there is difference, but he doesn’t. Which usually results in him getting chased.

When he finally does understand there are different religions, it becomes his mission to learn all about them so he might finally be able to reach God and get his remote. It is honestly his innocence that makes this movie.

He sees that Taxis are yellow to get people’s attention, so he wears a yellow helmet to get God’s attention. He follows every custom of every religion down to a T, even some religions you might not have known about (there are a ton of customs in India). He chased down a guy dressed as Vishnu (Hindu God) because he thought he was the god. He wears religious stickers on his face to prevent being punched, people people won’t “strike God’s image”. What PK does is he manages to take the information given to him, and apply it in clever ways.

Now while this movie does tackle religion, it does not insult or degrade them.

When I say to a T, I mean to T. There is a lovely montage in the movie where you see him trying to reach God by doing ALL of the religions. You see him in the middle of people praying, of different festivals, it is very beautiful to watch.

(Trigger Warning: In the montage there is a festival where men whip themselves with long knives - yes it is a thing - so if you want to watch it timestamp for that scene is 1:06:57-1:07:10 )

This movie is so fucking respectful of religion, even while poking fun at some of the unnecessary traditions it has, is amazing. Because the movie isn’t really focused on the religions, but how people treat and abuse it.

You know televangelists, where they ask people to give them money and basically con people in the name of religion? Yeah, that is the main target. Because PK never intentionally means to try and take down an Indian Televangelist, he just keep asking questions like “If my wife is sick why do I need to go to  different church to pray instead of being by her side” “if god really loves me, why does he tell me to give up money so he can love me more” and these are questions that undermine the Televangelist’s authority.

The pic above comes from my favorite scene in the movie. It is so charming and clever I dare not ruin it. But it go along with the asking “why” to the necessity of certain religions.

PK isn’t the only story being told. We also follow a woman named Jaggu who is a reporter trying to catch her Big Break when she meets PK. You see her life finding love while abroad in the cutest way possible.

Just look at that guy! I would love him too!

But there are family drama because she is Hindu (specifically that Televangelist group) and he is Palestinian. TL; DR on Indian history - family is prejudice on him for being Muslim (there is a lot more to India/Palestine than that, but that should be enough to understand the movie).

So you see her meeting up with PK, trying to guide him through human culture, but also answer his innocent yet hard questions about it.

Along with the comedy there are so many heart wrenching moments in here. Her being heartbroken. PK losing hope/faith for ever going home. I swear the biggest tear jerker is at the end, I could not stop crying over the emotional climax this movie had. Because it isn’t a battle of strength, it is a clash of religious ideologies on what faith really means.

For people who have not seen Bollywood before, you might get a little bit of culture shock from it, so I’ll give you the run down.

First, it is in Hindi. No getting around that. Luckily there are English subtitles so you can still get the jokes and what they are saying.

Second, Bollywood movies are LONG! Like, average 3 hours per movie. This movie is on the shorter side with it being 2.5 hours, but it is still a great watch. If you managed to watch Infinity War, you can sit through this.

Third, there are musical numbers. Bollywood movies really focus on the musical numbers. They can Literally make or break a movie if they are good/bad. Modern Bollywood movies can sometimes get away with musical montages (like the religious montage I mentioned before) but there ARE going to be song numbers. I think in total there were 4 in PK, and they do have a purpose in the movie for understanding the characters. Just keep that in mind so you won’t get too surprised.

Sum Up, I highly recommend this movie. It has so much innocence and care put into it, it is well worth the watch. You can find it on Netflix or Youtube with no problems so definitely check it out