PK debate - arguments and counter-arguments

PK was expected to be the most talked about, much awaited movie of 2014. Now that its released, we can safely say it lived up to its expectations. Despite releasing on 19th Dec, it still is the most talked about movie – for different reasons altogether. 

(Spoiler Alert) - For those not in-the-know of things happening around them, “PK” is a movie of an alien landing on Earth but losing his remote to return home. In his search for finding the remote, he tries learning the behavior and culture of the people around him. That’s when he realizes that only God can help him find his remote. He starts searching for God but meets people from various religions and confronts godmen and religious beliefs in the process. Post confronting the belief system, he wins back his remote and returns home. That's all about PK in a nutshell.

Any film that provokes debate (healthy, I might add) is a good movie. PK has polarized the Indian movie watching audience like few other movies have in the past. Significant number of people wants to boycott the movie and equally compelling are those who feel the movie actually makes a lot of sense. Some of the arguments for boycotting PK and my counter-arguments – 

• PK is an anti-Hindu movie. PK has various scenes that hurt Hindu sentiments. The scene with Lord Shiva’s character was in bad taste. The movie attacks the belief system of Hindus, especially those who travel long distances on bare foot to visit and pray in a temple when PK argues that God is everywhere. It states that religion is becoming a business in India with little investment and huge returns even on the first day. The movie safely left other religions aside when they are also in the same boat. 
  Counter-argument: First of all, PK is not an anti-religion movie. It’s not attacking any religion. It is satirically addressing the belief system prevalent in every religion. There is a scene where PK brings coconut to Church and breaks it in front of the holy altar. PK then brings wine to mosque. The final debate between PK and Godman is a healthy one with both putting their best foot forward (while I personally feel the movie failed to grab the potential of a healthy final debate). I think all of us agree that there are selfless as well as selfish godmen, the former a diminishing lot and the latter increasing in number. I don’t see anything wrong in attacking the latter lot. And by the way, every religion has these two types of godmen.
• The release of PK is wrongly timed. A certain section of India is boiling over forced conversions in various parts of the country. Rates are being quoted for converting from one religion to the other. For all the “unity in diversity” strength we as Indians have, this comes as a big blooper for our constitution. During these times, releasing a movie that attacks religion was uncalled for. 
  Counter-argument: Fair argument. It’s wrongly times. But I don’t think it’s the movie’s fault. A lot of background preparations go into making a movie. Even the date of release plays a big role in the success of the movie. Dec 2014 had only one big budget movie releasing and it was “PK”. Pre-poning was not an option at all as no one can predict the forced conversion scenario. Postponing a movie will result in the movie losing out on a huge revenue base (holiday season). 
• Ohh My God (OMG) was better in addressing the concept. 
  Counter-argument: No counter-arguments here. I completely agree. Although I feel these two movies should not be compared as PK turned out to be PK’s personal story of finding the remote to return to his home. Religion was just a sub-plot PK encountered in his search for remote. If PK is raking negativity, OMG should have had a nationwide ban!
• PK got its funding from Dubai and ISI. 
  Counter-argument: Let’s not even debate this as no one apart from his “source” knows the facts. No facts, no argument and hence, no counter-argument.

I, for one, believe the movie has raked up unnecessary debate for various reasons, some of which are mentioned above. Personally, I was not too pleased with the ending, the love angle to be precise. The director kept the debate open without any credible conclusion. Maybe it was the director’s way to avoid controversy or maybe the director intended the movie to be based only on PK, the character, rather than religious belief angle.

India has always accepted diversity and diverse opinions. If someone likes a movie, watch it again or promote it by word-of-mouth or simply enjoy and move on. If someone doesn’t like a movie, please don’t watch. If you are having a counter-argument, have a healthy debate through lawful means. Vandalizing property is not justified under any circumstances. If at all anything, calls for banning the movie is proving counter-productive as the curiosity of people who haven’t watched the movie only increases. PK will only stand to gain financially.

Why "PK" has to deliver now?

Movies are usually promoted in multiple ways. A 150 second official trailer is one of them. A trailer is (normally) supposed to inform the moviegoer what a movie contains, a brief storyline, some punching dialogues, a song that’s among the chartbusters. These 150-odd seconds should attract the viewer to watch the movie when it’s released - a crucial moment of truth for the movie. Having a popular actor or successful director or sequel to a successful movie has its own pull factor. For example, a Salman Khan / Shahrukh Khan movie will be watched by his loyalists irrespective of the trailer / songs / storyline etc. Director Rohit Shetty ensures his movie is full of entertainment and car chases. A Dhoom series will be watched despite what you think of it.

Once in a while comes a movie that goes against the norms of movie promotion. So much so that the movie will be released in a few days’ time and we still don’t know for sure what this movie is all about. I am, of course, talking about “PK”. The movie posters don’t reveal much. The movie trailer is more intriguing than the posters. These touch-points confuse more than convince. We have no idea of the story, no idea of the genre, hardly any concrete information on key characters. Initially, there were rumours that “PK” is about god-men and then about Aamir Khan’s character as an alien. 

“PK” team has gone for teaser campaigns to promote their product. The beauty about teaser campaign is that it will keep on testing the viewers, make them think. Maybe PK will be the name of Aamir Khan’s character, we don’t know for sure. Aamir Khan’s character appears to be very curious about everything that’s happening around him (Ranchordas from 3 Idiots, anyone?). He goes against the society norms, wears almost comical outfits. We already have many theories regarding “PK” based on the poster background, Aamir Khan’s attire, his wide open eyes, his exposed ears, the transistor et al. People are talking and now it has reached a stage that they want to watch what the movie is all about. Curiosity kills the cat, they say. And till now, “PK” has succeeded to do what they wanted. 

But teaser campaigns are a double edged sword. It’s a high risk, high reward game. The teasers will involve viewers like no other promotional channels. But the climax has to live up to the teasers. And the team, led by Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra, knows that this is a huge gamble. And that’s where the problem lies with “PK”. The critical success / failure depends on the climax now, which is the movie itself. The climax should be at least as good as, if not better than, the promotions. And even if it’s slightly less exciting, the same people who are talking about it and are part of the viral marketing campaign, will go against you. 

After all the intrigue, “PK” now has to deliver and deliver big. A product of Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Aamir Khan is bound to be financially successful, but these are the same people who also vouch by critical acclaim and that’s what should matter more than money. I am an Aamir Khan fan and I expect this to be an epic, but don’t count on me. I am the same guy who thought Aamir Khan will bring his unique and smart touch to the Dhoom series and I obviously messed up my prediction last year. 

“PK” will mint money for sure, but can it sustain and bring in more people than anticipated remains to be seen. The promotions have ensured that this could either be a “3 Idiots” or a “Dhoom 3”.

Where "Eaten Alive" messed up?

I finally got to see the video that made headlines for all the wrong reasons in the past one week! That “Eaten Alive” broadcast on Discovery where a naturalist and a wildlife filmmaker, Paul Rosolie, was supposed to enter the belly of a giant Anaconda and yet survive. If you haven’t heard of this, you are seriously missing something! Whether he entered the belly or not is another story altogether!

If you enjoy watching wildlife channels like Discovery, Nat Geo or Animal Planet and you were completely oblivious to the promotions, you would have loved this show. Seriously! This show starts with Paul Rosolie and his team of experts searching for what Paul claims to be one of the biggest Anacondas alive in Amazon. Their hunt passes through the dense forest of Amazon right up to the floating forest (which, by the way, is awesome – not for a vacation, but for viewing purposes). On the way, they come across relatively smaller Anacondas, Alligators, Electric Eels etc. Later, they realize they could not find that giant Anaconda and had to make-do with a relatively smaller one. Paul, in his hi-tech suit, tries to grab the Anaconda’s attention. Anaconda gives it, grabs the head of Paul, starts swallowing and slowly reaches his shoulders when Paul snaps. His team comes to his rescue and, well, that’s it. To be fair to Paul, he attempted something unique and he and his team deserves due credit (assuming you still haven’t seen the promotions). Technically, Eaten Alive lived up to its name. Paul was eaten alive. 

Now see how they promoted the show - 

This is exactly where they messed up – promotions. They heavily promoted eaten alive to the extent where curious viewers (me included) were expecting Paul to be inside the belly of the snake and will remain there till help is called for / snake decides to push him out. But neither happened. Instead Paul called for help immediately when the Anaconda reached his shoulders. With due respects to Paul for even attempting such a feat, fooling viewers was just not what the doctor ordered! When the promotions were being aired in November, I initially felt they were crossing the invisible line which they are not supposed to cross and decided never to watch / support such an initiative. But these promotions totally gripped me like an Anaconda normally would do to its prey.

Discovery also got some serious negative publicity (but publicity, nevertheless) from various wildlife conservationists / organizations. They were contemplating banning the show altogether. Entering the belly of any animal alive, let alone a giant anaconda goes against the basic right of the animal to live. The animal may get killed during the “stunt”, may be seriously injured and in any ways, won’t be benefited at all. Paul Rosolie defended the stunt claiming they are doing this to generate awareness on reducing numbers of Anaconda. Quite an ironic argument, I must say. If you want to generate awareness, you could have done it with anaconda facts and figures, reasons why their count is reducing, and how viewers can contribute towards this cause. 

Another area where I feel they goofed up was that the “eaten alive” part of the show was smaller in comparison to the “search” part. The search for the biggest Anaconda was shown for almost an hour and the actual stunt was just about 15 minutes. They could have easily reduced the viewing time from over 90 minutes to less than 45 minutes by just concentrating on what they intend to show. As a viewer, you had to go through virtual treks and informative discussions on Anaconda to reach the climax, which was primarily the reason why you decided to view this.

The first show of “Eaten Alive” turned out to be more like “Tasted Alive”! Overall, a decent enough show killed by its own promotions! If eye-balls are what they were looking for, they got it right. But will they sustain it? I doubt.