Peepli Live (2010)
Average Rating: 6.2/10
Reviews Counted: 24
Fresh: 20 | Rotten: 4
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 6.3/10
Critic Reviews: 6
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 0
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 2,698
My Rating
Movie Info
A simple man learns he might be better off dead, at least financially, in this satiric comedy from Indian filmmaker Anusha Rizvi. Natha (Omkar Das Manikpuri) and Budhia (Raghubir Yadav) are two brothers who run a family farm in Peepli, a small town in India. Business has been bad on the farm, and the brothers are unable to repay a government loan, with a default judgment due any day. When the brothers call on a local politician to ask if anything can be done while they wait for a judge's ruling
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Cast
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Omkar Das
Natha -
Raghubir Yadav
Budhia -
Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Rakesh -
Shalini Vatsa
Dhaniya -
Farrukh Jaffar
Amma -
Malaika Shenoy
Nandita -
Vishal Sharma
Deepak -
Yugal Kishore
Chief Minister Ram Yada... -
Sitaram Panchal
Bhai Thakur -
Naseeruddin Shah
Salim Kidwai -
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All Critics (24) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (20) | Rotten (4)
A fitfully amusing Indian comedy that touches on a hot-button topic.
Top CriticYou can't decide whether to laugh because the events are so absurd or cry because you can imagine them really happening.
I liked Peepli Live, which is colorful and at times quite lively, but I wish it were funnier and its satirical edge a bit sharper.
Manages to mine substantial dark humor from this tragic situation while offering pointed -- and sometimes poignant -- social commentary in the process.
Both a heartfelt and a genuinely funny skewering of India's convoluted caste-consciousness.
It's an unusual taste of mainstream Indian cinema, unexpectedly irreverent with an earthier, folkier soundtrack than the typical Bollywood electro-bounce.
A better writer than director, the strength of Rizvi's 'Peepli Live' is the film's unsentimental portrayal of the poor
Thousands of poor farmers kill themselves every year in India and it was audacious of writer-director Anusha Rizvi to make a comedy out of the fact with her first film.
You can't fault the crusading spirit of this controversial Bollywood satire, just the blunt, one-note, entirely obvious execution.
There is a deadly serious message about India's rural/urban divide in first-timer director Anusha Rizvi's satirical gem, but it also happens to have a juicily vulgar streak.
Drawing on India's rural-versus-urban divide, Rizvi spins a dynamic, enjoyably-acted yarn that balances farcical humour with a satisfying seriousness.
While the tone may shift from satire to farce at times, this is a highly assured debut by Rizvi.
It's a worthy film. A little less worthiness and a little more sharply weaponised wit would have helped.
Rizvi keeps the humour broad (this doesn't have the metropolitan sharp sophistication of Chris Morris) but the premise is so strong that pithy satirical points are neatly scored.
This is a movie that opens with the hero puking, and spends the rest of its running time showing why that may be the only sane response to the state of the world.
The juxtaposition of the tragedy and the lunacy of the circumstances are not completely disparate; satire is an appropriate weapon here, but it's the drama in Peepi Live that truly resonates.
A poignant soaicl satire, with some elements of a funny screwball comedy about contemporary life in India, its greedy media, complex politics, and diverse populace.
Broad, entertaining satire, with heartfelt pleas, on the difficulties for the farmers and those who try to help them.
Its comical, sharply observant caricatures of India's political and media jackals offers a much-needed reality check in a country where celluloid escapism is too often the rule.
I just wish what [Rizvi] had to tell us about the India of today might have taken a form less distractingly reminiscent of the American classics of yesteryear.
A satisfying and searing satire on the plight of poor farmers in India and the lack of sympathy or understanding of them by the rich and the powerful who have their own plans for national progress.
Takes a deep look at an everyday tragedy and provides the humorous dimension that underscores the pathos. Who says Bollywood is only interested in lightweight romantic musicals?
Audience Reviews for Peepli Live
Super Reviewer
It's a story about two farmers in rural India, they can't repay the loan they took from the bank and are threatened with losing their land, to avert that an ingenius plan his hatched, one of them will commit suicide. Why? The government compensates the families of farmers who do so. This planned act of 'bravery' gets picked up by a local newspaper and then snowballs into an event of major consequences as other news media rush to cover this unique story. Its election time, the politicians get drawn into the fold, the opposition tries to take advantage of the situation, the incumbent to subvert it. And in the midst of all that the 'brave' man prepared to take his life for his family is forgotten, he is just a pawn in a much larger game.
The film strikes so heavily because even though everything is so surreal, it won't seem too far fetched for them to be actually taking place. No one cares about the poor, the media wants their ratings, the politicians their votes. The people are left to fetch for their own, that's the sad reality of our world and this film captures that perfectly.
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- Deepak: lf you look closely you 'll see Natha's footprints. Whether escape or abduction, here's where Natha perched himself for the last time. And here's the fruit of his toil, his faeces, commonly known as shit. Take a close look. Do not cringe at the sight, for, as long as we live, we will continue to shit. Psychiatrists claim that faeces reflect our mental state. The complexion of our shit is a window to the inner self. But here we see a mixture of hues. Therefore, before reaching any conclusions we need to bring in experts as Mr Natha was no ordinary man. For Bharat Live this is Kumar Deepak, live from Peepli.
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- Deepak: lf you look closely you 'll see Natha's footprints. Whether escape or abduction, here's where Natha perched himself for the last time. And here's the fruit of his toil, his faeces, commonly known as shit. Take a close look. Do not cringe at the sight, for, as long as we live, we will continue to shit. Psychiatrists claim that faeces reflect our mental state. The complexion of our shit is a window to the inner self. But here we see a mixture of hues. Therefore, before reaching any conclusions we need to bring in experts as Mr Natha was no ordinary man. For Bharat Live this is Kumar Deepak, live from Peepli.
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Foreign Titles
- Live aus Peepli - Irgendwo in Indien (DE)
