The Dark Knaik’s 9th FilmFair Awards 2022

INTRODUCTION

I welcome all of you to my 9^th edition of Bollywood’s Best for a calendar year. An effort I have been making for my own version of Filmfare since 2014.

The reason for blogging this particular material for the past eight years is because I and surely most of you have understood for a long time that the most prestigious award which is Filmfare has lost its credibility for some decades. The deserving people most of the time do not even get nominated or if they do, they do not win. Many potential films are least considered or perhaps not at all for Filmfare. Why? A few bullet reasons can be a failure at the box office, or a not-so-well-known cast leading to a lack of interest despite having a potential story.

So, with such yearly disappointments, I got annoyed and felt I had had enough of this nonsense. And someone has to take the initiative. I do not claim that I am the first to start my own Filmfare but it has now become a part of my nature to honor and recognize with the highest possible accuracy in my decisions every year.

I promise and guarantee that my picks will not sound reward but an award. My decisions will not be biased but simply on my judgment scale. Many of my finalized nominations and winners are about to surprise you like every year.

From 2014 until 2021, click any report below you would like to visit.

2014  2015  2016  2017  2018  2019 2020 2021 

And since I have become a vlogger, a content creator, and a YouTuber, I am happy to inform all my readers that for the first time in 9 years, my annual report is transformed into a vlog. If you want to watch instead of reading, click below.

 

And I will no longer call my annual reports “My Bollywood’s Best of” whatever year. From this 9^th edition, I am renaming it “The Dark Knaik’s FilmFair Awards”.

Note: “The Dark Knaik” is my avatar and the name of my YouTube channel. Subscribe to my channel here: https://youtube.com/@thedarkknaik

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HOW FILMFAIR AWARDS ARE SHAPED?

Like every year, I present my nominations and winners for each category by dividing all the categories into three major sections.

The first is the ‘Musical Section’ that will have 6 categories.

Then the next is the ‘Technical Section’ that will consist of 12 categories.

And the last one is the ‘Major Section’ which will have 6 categories.

So, there will be 24 winners from 24 categories. And each category will have a maximum of 5 nominations.

Also, I will rank all the nominations of all the categories.

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HOW WAS MY EXPERIENCE FOR 2022’S BOLLYWOOD?

I was generally disappointed after watching around 45 films from 2022. Bollywood had not much to offer, to be honest. There were several good stories but most of those failed due to bad execution. And then Bollywood’s mainstream aesthetics do not change. Unstoppable uninspiring musical scores, mentioning Salman Khan, needless songs, forced humor, unknown extras or unrelated characters knowing the dance steps in all the songs, stereotypical portrayals of hazuris and janabis, concluding the film on a terrible note, and many more.

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THE DARK KNAIK’S 9TH FILMFAIR AWARDS

Readers!

The wait is over…

Allow me to honor Bollywood’s artistic and technical excellence in 2022.

MUSICAL SECTION

BEST BACKGROUND SCORE

CLINTON CEREJO (COBALT BLUE)

2nd. Kabeer Kathpalia (Gehraiyaan)

3rd. Tanuj Tiku (Laal Singh Chaddha)

 

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY

GANESH ACHARYA – DANCE KA BHOOT (BRAHMĀSTRA)

2nd. Bosco–Caesar – Rangi Saari (JugJugg Jeeyo)

3rd. Kruti Mahesh – Dholida (Gangubai Kathiawadi)

 

BEST MALE PLAYBACK SINGER

SHAHID MALLIYA – NIRBHAU NIRVAIR (QALA)

2nd. Arijit Singh – Deva Deva (Brahmāstra)

3rd. Arijit Singh – Kesariya (Brahmāstra)

4th. Shadaab Faridi – Tur Kalleyan (Laal Singh Chaddha)

5th. Kanishk Seth – Rangi Saari (JugJugg Jeeyo)

 

BEST FEMALE PLAYBACK SINGER

KAVITA SETH – RANGI SAARI (JUGJUGG JEEYO)

2nd. Sireesha Bhagavatula – Phero Na Najariya (Qala)

3rd. Lothika Jha – Doobey (Gehraiyaan)

 

BEST SONG & LYRICS

KESARIYA – PRITAM, AMITABH BHATTACHARYA, ARIJIT SINGH (BRAHMĀSTRA)

2nd. Ghodey Pe Sawaar – Amit Trivedi, Amitabh Bhattacharya, Sireesha Bhagavatula (Qala)

3rd. Rangi Saari – Kanishk Seth, Kavita Seth (JugJugg Jeeyo)

4th. Aadhi Kahani – Vishal Mishra, Raj Shekhar, Jubin Nautiyal (Nazar Andaaz)

5th. Aadmi Bhutiya Hai – Shantanu Moitra, Rahgir (Sherdil)

 

BEST MUSIC

AMIT TRIVEDI (QALA)

2nd. Pritam (Laal Singh Chaddha)

3rd. Kabeer Kathpalia, Savera Mehta (Gehraiyaan)

4th. Pritam (Brahmāstra)

5th. Achint Thakkar (Monica, O My Darling)

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TECHNICAL SECTION

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

SHEETAL IQBAL SHARMA (GANGUBAI KATHIAWADI)

 

2nd. Veera Kapur EE (Qala)

3rd. Priyanka Agarwal (Thar)

4th. Darshan Jalan & Neelanchal Ghosh (RK/RKay)

 

BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS

DNEG & REDEFINE (BRAHMĀSTRA)

 

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

PREETISHEEL SINGH D’SOUZA (GANGUBAI KATHIAWADI)

2nd. Seema Mane, Rihead Ronni Jr. (Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2)

3rd. Serina Tixiera (Thar)

4th. Nusrat Abbas Rizvi, Kajol Kanther (Cobalt Blue)

 

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

MEENAL AGARWAL (QALA)

2nd. Subrata Chakraborty, Amit Ray (Gangubai Kathiawadi)

3rd. Amrita Mahal Kahai (Brahmāstra)

4th. Wasiq Khan (Thar)

5th. Sanjeev Khandekar, Vaishali Narkar (Cobalt Blue)

 

BEST SOUND DESIGN

KAAMOD L KHARDE (ANEK)

2nd. Bishwadeep Dipak Chatterjee (Brahmāstra)

3rd. Baylon Fonseca (Drishyam 2)

4th. Bishwadeep Dipak Chatterjee (Runway 34)

5th. Anthony B Jayaruban (Jalsa)

 

BEST EDITING

NITESH BHATIA (GEHRAIYAAN)

2nd. Sumeet Kotian (A Thursday)

3rd. Sandeep Francis (Drishyam 2)

4th. Aarti Bajaj (Thar)

5th. Dharmendra Sharma (Runway 34)

 

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

TIYASH SEN (SHERDIL)

2nd. Kaushal Shah (Gehraiyaan)

3rd. Sudeep Chatterjee (Gangubai Kathiawadi)

4th. Vincenzo Condorelli (Cobalt Blue)

5th. Ravi Varman (Salaam Venky)

 

BEST ACTION

SALAAM ANSARI (THAR)

2nd. Stefan Ritcher, Riyaz & Habib (Anek)

3rd. Vikram Dahiya (A Thursday)

4th. Dan Bradley, Diyan Hristov, Parvez Shaikh (Brahmāstra)

 

BEST STORY

R. BALKI (CHUP: REVENGE OF THE ARTIST)

2nd. Rajat Kapoor (RK/RKay)

3rd. Anirudh Iyer (An Action Hero)

4th. Prajwal Chandrashekhar, Suresh Triveni (Jalsa)

5th. Sunil Gandhi (Uunchai)

 

BEST SCREENPLAY

RAJ SINGH CHAUDHARY (THAR)

 

2nd. Ayesha DeVitre, Sumit Roy, Yash Sahai (Gehraiyaan)

3rd. Aamil Keeyan Khan, Abhishek Pathak (Drishyam 2)

 

BEST DIALOGUES

RAJAT KAPOOR (RK/RKAY)

2nd. Kanika Dhillon, Himanshu Sharma (Raksha Bandhan)

3rd. Srijit Mukherji, Sudeep Nigam, Atul Kumar Rai (Sherdil)

4th. Yash Sahai, Wajid Shaikh (Gehraiyaan)

5th. Vijay Maurya (A Thursday)

 

BEST SCENE

NIKO WITNESSING ARRESTS AND FIRE IN VILLAGE IN ONE-SHOT SCENE (ANEK)

 

2nd. Pushkar trying to eat a biscuit during a lamenting poetry from a distance (The Kashmir Files)

3rd. Alisha speaking about life and relations with her father (Gehraiyaan)

4th. Rookie Gangu’s first day at work on the door (Gangubai Kathiawadi)

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MAJOR SECTION

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

ANUPAM KHER (THE KASHMIR FILES)

2nd. Shrikant Yadav (Jalsa)

3rd. Sanjay Dutt (Toolsidas Junior)

4th. Atul Kulkarni (A Thursday)

5th. Vijay Varma (Darlings)

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

SHEFALI SHAH (JALSA)

2nd. Mona Singh (Laal Singh Chaddha)

3rd. Sheeba Chaddha (Doctor G)

4th. Sayani Gupta (Sherdil)

5th. Simone Singh (Maja Ma)

 

BEST ACTOR

KUMUD MISHRA (NAZAR ANDAAZ)

2nd. Siddhant Chaturvedi (Gehraiyaan)

3rd. Akshay Kumar (Raksha Bandhan)

4th. Kartik Aaryan (Freddy)

5th. Pankaj Tripathi (Sherdil)

 

BEST ACTRESS

DEEPIKA PADUKONE (GEHRAIYAAN)

2nd. Alia Bhatt (Gangubai Kathiawadi)

3rd. Vidya Balan (Jalsa)

4th. Tabu (Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2)

5th. Madhuri Dixit (Maja Ma)

 

BEST DIRECTOR

RAJ SINGH CHAUDHARY (THAR)

2nd. Sachin Kundalkar (Cobalt Blue)

3rd. Shakun Batra (Gehraiyaan)

4th. Suresh Triveni (Jalsa)

5th. Abhishek Pathak (Drishyam 2)

 

BEST FILM

DRISHYAM 2

2nd. Thar

3rd. Gehraiyaan

4th. Jalsa

5th. Cobalt Blue

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TABLE OF MULTIPLE WINS & NOMINATIONS

MULTIPLE WINS & NOMINATIONS
WINS	NOMS	FILMS
3	9	Brahmāstra
3	8	Thar
3	6	Qala
2	12	Gehraiyaan
2	7	Gangubai Kathiawadi
2	3	Anek
1	7	Jalsa
1	6	Cobalt Blue
1	5	Sherdil
1	5	Drishyam 2
1	4	JugJugg Jeeyo
1	3	RK/Rkay
1	2	Nazar Andaaz
1	2	The Kashmir Files
1	1	Chup
	4	Laal Singh Chaddha
	4	A Thursday
	2	Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2
	2	Runway 34
	2	Raksha Bandhan
	2	Maja Ma
	1	Monica, O My Darling
	1	Salaam Venky
	1	An Action Hero
	1	Uunchai
	1	Doctor G
	1	Toolsidas Junior
	1	Darlings
	1	Freddy

Thank you for reading my annual Bollywood honors report. I will return with a new report next year. Share your opinion below.

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Film Review: Toolsidas Junior (2022)

Toolsidas (Rajiv Kapoor) is a snooker player who, every year, loses the final of the Snooker Championship to Jimmy Tandon (Dilip Tahil). Humiliated by the losing streak, Toolsidas’s son Midi vows to learn snooker and defeat his father’s rival and settle the dust.

Toolsidas Junior is the director Mridul Mahendra‘s story. So if this story is true then he holds the liberty to dramatize his account if he wants to. It is an interesting story and from the cinematic point of view, a very predictable film. Besides, this story is unable to justify its importance due to extremely weak filmmaking that subdues plotholes and stretches the script needlessly.

Due to inexperience in film direction, the director fails to understand what scenes didn’t need to stretch and which scenes had the potential to expand. Just for an example, Midi’s coach arrives in the tournament’s final to watch him. The staff knows him and are surprised that he is none other than the former Snooker champion who trained him; and here the audience will realize that there was something about the coach the director failed to include – some character development. Our instincts will develop a theory here that perhaps they knew him personally or met in their primes. It would have been so better if the director had bothered to reflect on the coach’s character.

The first forty minutes of screen time gave me a regret-feel because the buildup in the plot was unimpressive and a needless comedy was very forced. The writing of this film was really below-par.

Sanjay Dutt as Midi’s coach Mohammad Salaam is the biggest plus of the film. After a long time, the audience will get excited to watch his performance. In his usual baba-style, it looks very inspiring when he tries to inject spirit in Midi that the game is not played for winning but for playing. The Midi kid Varun Buddhadev was quite an excellent selection and showed some glimpses of acting promises.

I just don’t understand one point. What took so long for Rajiv Kapoor to return to the film industry? He returned to the silver screen in more than thirty years. I am not saying that he was impressive but he fairly played his role and I feel he could have been in a lot of films doing some average or above-average supporting roles. Unfortunately, this was Rajiv’s final film as he died last year. Therefore, Toolsidas Junior is a posthumous release.

One thing I liked about the film is that I happened to watch a sports drama based on a very different sport. So India doesn’t stick to one sport and the filmmakers are eager to focus on different sports stories. Yes, I believe that the film deserved a better director to give justice to Mridul’s story.

RATINGS: 4/10

Film Review: Sanju (2018)

It is my firm believe that when the producers and the director decides to make a film based on an individual, your account your narration your presentation should be precise especially in a case when the individual has a disturbed life blended with the personal violence, shattered image, serious accusations, drug abuse and complicated relations with the family and friends.

The Indian cinema with many unforgettable celebrities offer scores of background stories which has the required material to translate their lives in the reels. Sanjay Dutt is one such story and when the project was announced, I was excited. But when the news broke that Rajkumar Hirani would be directing this, my court of judgments objected the announcement with a question mark bigger than the one in the headline of the cropped newspaper from the scene.

Because Raju Hirani is known to present the subjects and messages to the viewers with a screenplay which can adjust a well equipped rib-tickling comedy. Munnabhai duology, 3 Idiots and PK worked well with the humor because the stories of all the four films were fictional and flexible enough to bend with a typical Hirani humor.

But Baba’s story is dark, real, serious, traumatic, painful and disturbing. Will Raju Hirani make his first serious film or will his directional artistry of presenting sensitive subjects in a cleverly humorous way, this time on the real subject, will work again?

When the teaser and trailer were released, the presentations didn’t buy me at all. Because the seriousness of the content was glorified and looked entertaining instead of thought-provoking. So I said to myself, let me watch the film first and decide if the biopic justifies.

Now that I have watched on Netflix, I am much convinced to conclude that Sanju is easily one of the worst biographic films I have ever watched. This work is easily Raju’s worst. Raju making Sanju is like Taika Waititi making Thor: Ragnarok.

Sanju is bad, really bad, on many counts. One major reason is that when you watch the film and if you are a good observer, you realize that the motive of this film is to give a visual presentation of Sanjay Dutt by his close friend Raju Hirani concluding “Look guys! he was a bad boy, now he is a good boy, so please forgive him”. Baba doesn’t need to earn his name, people love him, people adore him. He has one of the biggest fan-following among the South Asians on a global stage. So stop being naive and focus on the most sensitive incidents of his life because this film is extremely sympathetic to the actor.

And that is where Sanju disappoints me. The screenplay dreadfully emphasizes on his drug usage and relation with his father than anything. You make a lengthy 160-minute film avoiding many important moments and touching a couple of topics is not a smart move. A director can do a lot of things in a screen time of 160 minutes.

MISSTAKES

Fine! Sanju has to be a miniseries to focus and touch all the vital portions of his disturbed timeline. Fine! everything cannot be presented in a very limited screen length. The director may have to divide the film into two like Gangs of Wasseypur, or consider sequel or trilogy, or overtake Tamas, LOC Kargil, and Mera Naam Joker to make the longest Hindi-language film ever to justify Baba’s life story. But I am not asking or expecting to somehow show a complete Sanjay Dutt story. At least mention or give the reference of the missing parts.

How disappointing is it to watch only the current wife, Manyata Dutt, but completely ignoring his other two wives? Especially the first one, Richa Sharma, who died of the brain tumor and was mentally disturbed by the rumors of her husband getting married to Madhuri Dixit. Speaking of the latter, Sanjay-Madhuri affair being once the most famous talk of the town got no space in the screenwriting of the film. With this effect, Baba’s eldest daughter Trishala is automatically out of the frame and shows only two young kids from the current wife, Manyata.

It is strange that Baba admits to the biographer to have slept with at least 300 women including the harlots but the director is scared of speaking a few close ones in his life. Neither his off-screen affair with Tina Munim comes to exist nor Madhuri in the film. But a character Ruby is perhaps intermingled to many of his relationships. Ruby is portrayed by Sonam Kapoor in a short role but gives an impressive performance.

Another strange application is Baba’s friendship with a Gujarati New Yorker (based on his real best friend, Paresh Ghelani) to an extent of his being a major supporting role bigger than his father’s in the film but ignoring the popular jigarship with Kumar Gaurav, the actor and friend who risked his acting career and fame requesting his actor-father Rajendra Kumar to give his friend Sanjay Dutt the role of his brother in Mahesh Bhatt‘s Naam. Result? Sanjay Dutt’s good time in acting career began from this film. This Kumar Gaurav is someone about whom Baba once admitted to shedding his blood for him if required. A friend who is even the husband of his sister Namrata has no mention at all.

And Jim Sarbh‘s Borat look-alike character. It was an important role but I wonder if the director forgets to bring him back in the frame after he speaks to the biographer to check Kamlesh. His role ends pretty prematurely.

DUTTS

Only Baba’s father, Sunil Dutt, is the center of attraction from the entire Dutt parivar. Paresh Rawal plays the senior Dutt’s role which is quite an odd choice. Neither the personality nor the voice of Sunil Dutt reminds you of Paresh Rawal. Paresh Rawal’s role wasn’t close to the senior Dutt but was similar to what he did in Paa. Aamir Khan was offered Sunil Dutt’s role which he refused because of Dangal’s shooting. Paresh and Aamir both were bad choices. In fact, it is hard to find someone like Sunil Dutt to play that role. Surendra Pal perhaps. Unfortunately, there are no heart-melting scenes of the onscreen father-son to take back, neither the seaport scene nor the magic-hug scene.

Baba’s sisters hardly spoke any dialogues in the film. The mother-son onscreen chemistry is shockingly overlooked. Manisha Koirala playing his famous actress-mother Nargis has to be the only satisfying selection in the entire casting. Not only Manisha does resemble but even acts like Nargis so well and alas, she is there for only a few minutes.

At least 1993 Bombay bombings made it into the script among the traumatic incidents of Dutt’s life but even here, Raju Hirani was not interested to go deeper in details and tell us about Sanjay Dutt’s connection with Abu Salem or any terrorist involved in the tragic incident.

BAD USE OF WOMANIZING HUMOR

It is quite bizarre to observe how womanizing is taken so light because it is a sympathetic script based on Baba to clean his image. If this film was based on a notorious criminal, the confession of completing a triple century on the bed would have dropped a nuclear weapon on the viewers. On the contrary, when Baba confesses, Manyata chuckles and the biographer is impressed and it looks way odd for entertainment. Not only this, Baba’s one-night stand with his best friend’s girlfriend hardly makes any sense. This incident is true as per Paresh Ghelani but the portrayal of a well-cultured Gujarati girl shy of wearing a nightie for her man at Baba’s house suddenly turning into Venus bold enough to shamelessly expose her skin to Baba and show a willingness to make out with him looked overdramatic. From Sita to Monroe in 40 seconds, a typical Bollywood u-turn for the viewers! And what is this five-minute sequence even doing in the film in the first place? Was this sequence relevant?

These 160 minutes could have been better utilized or reduced if Raju Hirani would not have pulled a Taika Waititi. Needless and forced humor damaged the screenplay. Not only Gujarati girl scene, many irrelevant scenes like a sleepy politician, over exaggerating Tripathi’s Bapu-Sanju comparison, hospital scene with the death of Ruby’s father, Ruby’s change of heart over her favorite animal, Sanju’s scenes with Bandu Dada also made it in the cut.

RANBIR KAPOOR AS SANJAY DUTT

Now about Ranbir Kapoor as Sanjay Dutt. See, the first matter of fact is to admit that if there is anyone who can play Baba’s role is Baba himself because finding an actor to play him is most likely unworkable. So the selection of Ranbir for the role is by far the closest a director can think of because Ranbir naturally carries two exceptional qualities of Baba. One is height and the other is the voice.

No offense but sometimes I feel if Ranbir is Baba’s son more than Chintu‘s. Ali Asgar has to be Chintu’s son. Anyway, the struggle over being Baba has to be tougher because on the screen we do see Ranbir giving his best Sanjay Dutt impression as much as he can. Height and voice naturally helped Ranbir. The rest was the bravura of the makeup and styling artist whoever he/she was.

Let’s not say if this is Ranbir’s best performance to date because I believe his performance in Rockstar and Barfi was far superior to this. Because it is all about the execution of the role. Ranbir’s presentation of pain and grief in Rockstar is more compliant than in Sanju. His role in Barfi was more challenging and handicapped.

Ranbir with the gifted height and voice had strong assistance of makeup, styling and costume designing helping further to assume him Baba. But after all the tools and despite carefully adopting Baba’s mannerism, Ranbir reminds Ranbir.

There is one really intense scene in the jail when the pot overflows. Baba loses patience and gets emotionally disturbed. He repeatedly knocks the door while the water touches his feet. This is the time when I wait to see how Ranbir as Baba loses his patience and go maniac. But then the scene ends and moves two months later?!?!

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It is not that the film is completely nil. Being a biopic, it do has some accuracies like Baba ticking all the drugs while filling the form, trying to commit suicide, the judge clearing him from terrorism, hiding heroin in his shoes while traveling with his sisters, Nargis dying a few days before Rocky‘s premiere, Tabu giving Filmfare Award for Munnabhai MBBS etc. Makeup, styling and costume designing are also top notch.

But then so many technical mistakes like chronological inconsistencies over most of the vehicles used in different timelines. Look at the KFC chain behind Baba during his struggle to reach New York. That is the current branding philosophy of the chain applied. That scene is from the 80s and KFC branding philosophy was extremely different back then.

Unnecessary tracks stretch the length and the background score is extremely ordinary. Leaves me towards Raju’s direction which I believe is the weakest of all the films he has directed. The story and the screenplay don’t buy me at all.

The filmmakers have to decide if the Indian cinema is ready for biopics. And when I say biopics, that means an honest and accurate biopics. Another point which comes to my mind is that the director must believe that a biopic can win the audience even without being concerned to entertain and box-office results.

I must appreciate that Ranbir did his best being Baba. He is a very talented actor. I am sure if project Sanju would have gone to the right man, may have pulled the right strings.

Ratings: 3/10

Movie Review: PK (2014)

Once upon a time, an unknown creature from other gola comes to a great nation with many cultures and religions on a research mission. Why did he choose India?? Probably because it is a Bollywood movie and good Aliens always come to India as compared to US.

Dropped on earth in Rajasthan full naked. Nope that is not T-800, that is an alien with no name, no language, but is going to trace the life of earthlings. He wears green remote stolen by a thief who runs away to Delhi.

His super-strength is that he can see the whole life history of a person whose hands he touch which helps him adapting the local life easy. His research mission turns to remote mission as he crosses different shades of life among humans from Rajasthan to Delhi.

With the passage of time, he is named PK. PK’s quest reaches no boundary as he confronts with different people of different faiths and beliefs and in all this trauma, the alien meets a news reporter Jaggu and details his account. No not Jackie Shroff, Jaggu is nick name from Jagat Janani. Jaggu finds PK very interesting and plans to bring him on media where he opposes local godman, Tapasvi Maharaj who actually has his remote.

PK is a comedy-drama movie produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra (Parinda, 1942: A Love Story) and directed by Rajkumar Hirani (Munnabhai series, 3 Idiots). This is their 4th collaboration as producer-director with all movies achieving huge success with sky-touching box-office collections. With brilliant promos and strong marketing, casting the brand itself Aamir Khan, well-publicized lip-enhancing story of Anushka and cameo of Raju’s ‘Munnabhai’; PK already was a smashing hit before its release and had promised to become India’s all-time highest grossing movie ever to date. By 1st of January, 2015, PK had already crossed Dhoom 3 with ₹264 crore in India and ₹492 crore worldwide in just 13 days. 

There is a tremendous depth of take-a-look over the nature of funny asylum. Filmmaker Raju and screenplay writer Abhijat Joshi once again put a load of questions in viewer’s mind like the duo did in the past. They used Gandhi’s philosophy and thesis in a country of a forgotten leader in ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai‘, then took an individual’s brain and heart to break the silence over richly disturbed educational and employment system in ‘3 Idiots’.

Now the writers plot a more common root of religious beliefs and ritualities. India is globally an economic and financial booster among many great nations with a population exceeding over a billion. With that fact, languages and religions play a prominent part in nation-building. But with all social and moral justifications, PK the alien discovers the richness of deception among the majority. That deception comes from their godmen who multiplies their so-called religious business by deceiving those who follow God but not holy books.

PK is an object by a thinker applied on one sector of earth and called ‘research mission’. The flow of script paces towards his various ideologies over a confused state of ‘Call’. In a confound world; PK is disturbed, confused and frustrated to whom shall he call for help when you need. That is the greatest depression of 21st century when a human is effed by state’s politics and law enforcement, and civil war among people of different faiths (sometimes of same faith but different sect). Sect?? yes sect – where school of thought among same people differs and that is what happened in movie as few seconds of Shiite’s Ashura were picturized.

Even India is just an example, godmen are everywhere and people are tremendously tweeting those nuts. PK/Tapasvi scenes are very thought-provoking, specially their last segment of on-air talk show is worth listening. Not only religions but mental understanding between people of two nations are superb. The Indo-Pak affair among larka-larki in Belgium is short on-screen but of prominence.

Minuses? Every movie has, so has PK. Background score has no ears to seduce, songs are way flat. In fact script never demanded songs but being a commercial Hindi movie it is a financially must. Two of the songs ‘Love is a waste of Sperm’ and ‘Chaar Kadam’ already develops heard-before feeling.

I might have less knowledge of internet as I fail to understand the continuity of a video call from house of Jaggu’s father to Tapasvi Maharaj’s center. But more massive error was the talk show which schedule to on air 6pm in Delhi but when calling Jaggu’s lover Sarfaraz in Pakistan, it is day over there.

Plusses are many. Screenplay has already been detailed above as the director has superbly executed the script. Director brilliantly manages to shot highly sensitive religious aspects of the movie in satirical way. Thank God bottle of Vines never reached masjid :P Make-up and costume designing was very creative, PK’s weird match of dressings were well-explained and the over-usage of vehicles sketch a sharp contrast of India’s huge concerns over non-stop population or HIV aids (just another small thought over writer’s flow of ink on paper).

I really don’t see Sanjay Dutt’s heavy-duty on cameo of that prominence. Anyone could have played that role. He surely was picked to bring Munnabhai back to some circuit. I am majorly surprised that this time Raju put Boman Irani in such a minor role as compared to other notable roles in previous Raju movies. Anushka gives life to her Jaggu character and Saurabh Shukla‘s Tapasvi role is just another highlight of his superb CV.

Aamir Khan as PK proves yet again why is he called the ‘Perfectionist’. He goes naked, dresses weird, adopts what he breath. Saying in short, he customise and smokes the role in very AK way. He is an absolute showstopper who will entertain you in the whole movie. His facial expressions have no full stop on limits, the Rajasthani dialogue delivery is remarkable.

PK is a must watch movie, not because it is an Amir Khan movie but also it appeals you to understand. The message has social and religious issues but vehement.

Ratings: 8.7/10

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