I can watch this movie on a loop almost everyday. So, when I watched it today, it made me question myself, why do I find this movie comfortable and why do I feel a sense of peace prevail me everytime I finish watching this movie.
I wouldn’t be able to talk about the cinematography or the other nuance of the movie because I don’t think I qualify to even talk about it but what holds my attention each time I watch the movie are the characters. Each actor in the movie is well cast but it’s the essence of these characters that we relate.
The core of the entire movie is based on constipation. And if I have to draw a parallel to our own lives that’s the most common discussion that I have with my family on a daily basis. Our day goes good if we have the best bowel moment on that day and goes bad if we don’t. On bad days our entire day goes by thinking about our constipated stomach rather than the work at hand, what we eat, how we eat when we eat and what we are going to eat the entire day is the most common discussion we have on daily basis and that’s the reality of life.
What struck me the most though was how Amitabh’s character tells his daughter in the entire movie, even though he is a cranky old man, to be financially independent sexually independent and wants her to have a mind of her own unlike her mother who sacrificed her happiness n independence to keep her father happy! Entire movie he emphasises on the fact that she shouldn’t give up on her own identity that she has created to marry a man to provide for him sexually and to be a maid for the man. The fact that the concept of marriage is considered low IQ if a woman needs to sacrifice her own happiness is what I liked the most ( I wish more woman would take that as a life lesson).
This movie also talks about Indian values on how important it is to take care of our aging parents. Like how they took care of us when we were small it becomes our responsibility to take care of them irrespective if you are a boy or a girl. We are morally obligated to have them with us likehow they had us with them. Even when they are difficult, when they don’t listen, how patiently we need to be with them
Each time I watch it I feel peace and I feel it’s us on screen and it’s our daily life that’s been laid out for everyone to see and understand, Piku feels like home.