![Peepli [Live]](/files/peepli-live.jpg)
Review by Jenny Priestley
Stars Omkar Das Manikpuri, Raghuvir Yadav, Shalini Vasta, Farrukh Jafar, Malaika Shenoy, Vishal Sharma, Sitaram
Panchal, Naseeruddin Shah, Aamir Bashir
Written by Anusha Rizvi
Certification UK 15 | India A
Runtime 107 minutes
Directed by Anusha Rizvi & Mahmood Farooqui
As a journalist, I found the set-up of Peepli [Live] interesting. At its heart, it’s a film about the media and the insatiable need for new stories. In this era of 24-hour breaking news, it’s all about who gets the story first and it doesn’t matter who you step on to get the big scoop.
It's told from the point of view of only a few people, encapsulating a small story within a much larger theme. Brothers Natha and Budhia are at risk of losing their farm and therefore their livelihood. Then they find out the Government is paying out compensation to families of farmers who commit suicide. Budhia pushes his brother to do the deed, then the family won't lose their farm and he'll escape his nagging wife and overbearing mother. The media are already following the story of a large number of farmer suicides and when word leaks out of Natha's plans they descend on the small village of Peepli in droves.
The film primarily follows the two brothers and the will-he-or-won't-he decision of Natha. Into this mix come various journalists and politicians (there's a big election going on). This is where I started to have problems, there are too many story arcs to follow and I find that quite hard to do in a film with subtitles, in fact there were a few scenes here with no subtitles at all, leaving me at a total loss as to what was going on. It's an interesting story but for me it gets somewhat lost in translation.