Religion and PK movie

Hello, i am himanshi parmar. As a part of thinking activity related to book, A tale of tube by Jonathan Swift, here I write a blog about religious controversy in movie pk. Also i mentioned here the story outline of PK, cast of PK, awards to this movie, some of the discutable news about PK movie. The question given to us is -

Identify any one movie/web series/song/poem/novel which talks about the sensitive topic like religion. Write in brief about it and explain what kind questions are raised through that work.

     The Bollywood movie pk is about an alien who comes to earth on research mission, and lost his remote, was stolen and sold to a godman. Then the alien and his friend journalist quest to retrieve remote, and superstitions, and unlogical beliefs. PK is one of the best movie who satire so harshly on religion with humour. It is a 2014 Indian Hindi language science fiction comedy drama film. Which was directed by Rajkumar Hirani and written by Rajkumar Hirani and Abhijat Joshi. Also it was jointly produced by Hirani and vidhu vinod chopra, under the banners, Rajkumar Hirani Films and Vidhu Vinod Chopra films respectively.

Cast of the Film :-

Directed by :-  Rajkumar Hirani

Written by :-  Rajkumar Hirani, Abhijat Joshi

Produced by :- Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani

Starring :- 

1)Aamir Khan

2)Anushka Sharma

3)Sushant Singh Rajput

4)Sanjay Dutt

5)Boman Irani

6)Saurabh Shukla

Narrated by :- Anushka Sharma

Cinematography :- C. K. Muraleedharan

Edited by :- Rajkumar Hirani

Music by :- 

Songs :- 

Shantanu Moitra

Ajay−Atul

Ankit Tiwari

Background Score :-

Sanjay Wandrekar

Atul Raninga

Production companies :- Vinod Chopra Films and Rajkumar Hirani Films

Distributed by :- UTV Motion Pictures

Release date :- 19 December 2014

Running time :- 152 minutes 

Country :- India

Languages :-

Hindi

Bhojpuri

Rajasthani

Budget :- ₹85 crore ($13.9 million)

Box office :- ₹854 crore

($140 million)

After the success of 3 Idiots (2009), Hirani and Joshi's began scripting their next project; finding similarities with the plot of Inception (2010), they scrapped the film. It was later rewritten with a different angle and tone. During production, the film was first titled Talli and later Ek Tha Talli before being changed to PK as the latter title was found too similar to Ek Tha Tiger (2012). The film's soundtrack was composed by Shantanu Moitra, Ajay−Atul and Ankit Tiwari with lyrics written by Swanand Kirkire, Amitabh Varma and Manoj Muntashir. UTV Motion Pictures acquired the distribution rights of the film. PK was the first Bollywood movie to be shot in Belgium.

Awards to film PK :-

PK was released on 19 December 2014. It received generally positive reviews, with praise for the performances, particularly by Khan, and its portrayal of superstitions. The film received eight nominations at the 60th Filmfare Awards, winning two. Additionally, it won five Producers Guild Film Awards, and two Screen Awards. PK garnered the Telstra People's Choice Award at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. Produced on a budget of ₹850 million (approx. $12 million), PK was the first Indian film to gross more than ₹7 billion and US$100 million worldwide. At the time, it emerged as the highest-grossing Indian film of all time and ranks as the 70th highest-grossing film of 2014 worldwide. The film's final worldwide gross was ₹854 crore (US$140 million). It currently stands as the 5th highest grossing Indian film worldwide and 5th highest-grossing film in India.

Characters of the movie :-

Aamir Khan as PK, a humanoid alien

Anushka Sharma as Jagat "Jaggu" Janani Sahani, a news reporter & Sarfaraz's love interest

Sushant Singh Rajput as Sarfaraz Yousuf, a Pakistani Muslim & Jaggu's love interest

Sanjay Dutt as Bhairon 'Bhaia' Singh, PK's beloved friend

Boman Irani as Cherry Bajwa, Jaggu's boss

Saurabh Shukla as Tapasvi Maharaj, the godman

Parikshit Sahni as Jayprakash Sahni, Jaggu's father

Amardeep Jha as Mrs. Sahni, Jaggu's mother

Ram Sethi as the old man in Belgium who betrayed Sarfaraz & Jaggu

Sai Gundewar as the Belgium show Ticket Seller

Rohitash Gaud as Mr. Pandey, a police inspector

Ranbir Kapoor as a fellow alien from PK's home planet (special appearance)

Reema Debnath as Phuljhadiya, the prostitute

Sachin Parikh as Tapasvi's manager

Michael Pekala as bystander in train station

Rukhsaar Rehman as Pakistan embassy receptionist

Plabita Borthakur as Jaggu's sister

Anil Mange as character dressed as Shiva

Brijendra Kala as idol seller at a temple

Alok Pandey as a Reporter

Rajeev Gupta as Inspector of the New Delhi railway station

Monali Thakur as a Kashmiri girl

Maanvi Gagroo as Mitu, Jaggu's colleague

Shaji Chaudhary as Tapasvi Maharaj's bodyguard

This is the list of all the characters, who played a role in the movie. Now let us discuss about the story line of the film and then pk and religion, and controversy between it.

Storyline of the movie :-

An alien (Aamir) lands on earth and is immediately robbed of the only thing he's wearing - his remote to get back to his planet. Wandering desperately, the alien learns he must wear clothes, which he steals from couples making out in 'dancing cars'. He also learns he needs notes to buy food - and he needs to learn a human language which he can only do by holding hands for six hours.

One day, the alien - whose name becomes 'PK' after people think his bizarre antics mean he's drunk - gets knocked down by rustic musician Bhairon Singh (Sanjay Dutt). Bhairon likes the strange guy and thinks he's longing for a woman, so he takes him to a bordello. Here, PK holds a girl's hand all night - and thereby her language, Bhojpuri, is transmitted to him, finally enabling him to express himself.

PK tells Bhairon his valuable remote has been stolen. Bhairon tells him to go to Delhi to search for it but in Delhi, PK is only chased away by unsympathetic cops. People brush him off, telling him God knows where his remote is. Seeking God, PK now goes to temples, churches and mosques but he's utterly confused as each has different ways to worship and different rules. PK can't find God and starts handing out pamphlets seeking the divine. This is how he meets Juggu (Anushka), a TV reporter who saves him from being beaten in a temple, then follows him to the lock-up to learn his story.

Juggu is shocked to hear that PK's remote is now with Sadhu Tapasvi ji (Saurabh Shukla), her family guru, but is determined to get it back for him - using his straight, simple, clear questions and honesty as weapons. Using PK's concept of 'wrong numbers' to the divine against fake god-men, she convinces her channel head Cherry (Boman Irani) to produce a show pitting PK against Tapasvi. PK meanwhile has fallen in love with Juggu but can't say it when he learns she's broken-hearted, thinking her Pakistani boyfriend Sarfaraz (Sushant Singh Rajput), who met her as a student in Belgium, had ditched her, which Tapasvi ji had warned her father (Parikshet Sahani) about and which caused a huge family rift for Juggu.

Meanwhile, Bhairon catches the thief who had looted PK's remote and brings him to Delhi, but both perish in a terror bomb blast which leaves PK shaken. In the TV show later on, Tapasvi ji challenges PK to tell the truth of Sarfaraz's story and take back his remote. PK reveals how a mistaken letter - and not religious differences - parted Sarfaraz and Juggu. Cherry rings the Pakistani Embassy in Belgium live on TV and Juggu and Sarfaraz are reconciled after which PK wins back his remote.

PK is escorted by Juggu to the desert where he's called his spaceship. As he leaves, she discovers he loves her but PK has also learnt to lie and says he's carrying back various sounds from earth where in fact his transistor tapes only contain Juggu's voice. She later writes a book on PK, saying how much she misses him and how he gave her two great gifts - her father's love and Sarfaraz.

PK returns to earth one year later with a new research team, also containing Ranbir Kapoor as an alien.

Watch the full film here -

Pk and religion :-

Khan plays an alien in the film who comes to visit the earth and almost immediately falls victim to human greed.His "remote control" - a device without which he cannot go back to his planet - gets stolen.From that moment, he embarks on a journey to discover the world. He meets people, "both good and bad", visits places and learns the language. He painstakingly discovers that many people believe that only god can help him find his remote control.

So that he visits remote temples, mosques and churches. He follows advices given by priests and religious leaders to convince the god of every faith. And suffer a lot for this. But he can not get any result and hope to get his remote back.pk slowly finds out that some self-styled gurus or "godmen" use superstitions and "fraud" to "cheat" people. And concider themselves very close to god. And their conversation with god as a "Tapasya". But when we see the movie, we find that There where a harsh satire on religious priests and god men. There is one scene in the movie where one priest doing magic and evils gold chain in his hand. At that time one man from audience asked him that if you are this much capable to produce gold by your own, then why you asked for a money to us for your religion, temple works and why don't you pay all the dues of nation. That time we feel that it has some logic in the dialogue of the man. And that force us to think of it.

In one of the scenes, a priest tells a man to take an arduous journey to a temple in the Himalayas to ensure that one of his sick family members gets well. PK jumps into the conversation and asks the priest if it's true that god considers all humans as his sons and daughters. Yes, says the priest. PK follows up with another question: "Which father would send an already troubled son on an arduous journey?". Such simple but important questions have made the movie a thought-provoking drama.

The another satire he claims on people that people only remember the God when he is in trouble. If everything will run smoothly then no one can going to remember god. And to prove this point in the movie, there is one scene is mentioned. In which pk and the team of T. V reports go out of the one college. Where the exams is running on. And there pk take one stone, colour it and put it under the tree. And after a few minutes students started praying to that stone. And started putting coins and money there. This how the film makers satire on two concepts, first the concept of "dakshina". And other one is concept of "god and fear".

The another satire on casteism we find in the part of movie where jaggu fell in love with a pakistani Muslim man named sarfraaz Yusuf. And when her family, the biggest disciple of hindu prist called "Tapasviji",came to know about this they denied to their love because of tapasviji's suggestion. Who claims prophecy that the muslim Pakistani man can definitely betray jaggu. And the prophecy also comes true. But at the end audience come to know that it was happened because of misunderstanding not of prophecy.

 When we all fighting for casteism and religion conflicts and harming human being. The movie pk satire on casteism by single dialogue that, " where is the symbol on human body whuch reveals that he or she belongs to this cast and this religion." God made no changes among all human being. That is we who distributed our selves among the boundaries of cast and religion.

We also come across ‘wrong numbers’, which are priests whom falsely bless their worshippers with fake solutions. As the public come to terms with P.K. they begin to notice how they are being fooled, thus causing hype around the country. And we are also able to find certain kind of situations around us, in our society and in religion. And we also started analysing all this things, so basically this movie gave us such vision to see all the superstitions by being out of the box.

Controversial script of PK :-

Many of the controversies occurs after the publishing of movie. His script is also can not be apart from this. Because the famous author Kapil Isapuri accused that the concept and many of the Themes and dialogues are stolen from his book, titled "Farishta". And he filed case against the team of PK. To read full information about this script controversy (click here).

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Videos :- 7

Images :- 5

References :-

1) filmibeat.com.

2)https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PK_(film)

3) timesofindia.com

4) bbc.com