Movie Review - PK -來自星星的傻瓜

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“PK” is an Indian film directed by Rajkumar Hirani and written by Hirani and Abhijat Joshi. The Chinese name “來自星星的傻瓜” may hint at its being a sci-fi film featuring the story of an alien. But it is also a movie with a mix of a ton of laughs, a melodrama, a musical, all rolled into one, thus abounding in entertaining elements. 

The story begins with the alien, who, shortly after his arrival on Earth on a research mission, is robbed of his remote, his only means of contact with his fellow countrymen in the extra-terrestrial world. As the device is later known to have been sold to a godman in Medi, India, a country with polytheistic beliefs, his quest to retrieve it leads to his encounters with people engaged in different religious practices and he ends up questioning the religious dogmas and superstitions.

What impresses me most is that despite his non-earthly identity and limited understanding of human nature, he gradually develops very enlightening ideas about religious faith. According to him, there are two gods, one who has created human beings and the other whom human beings have created. And it is the second god that is responsible for sins such as greed, wickedness, deceit and foolishness, suggesting that self-centeredness is the root of all evils. He points out that fear is the reason behind religious faith as people tend to turn to a supernatural power for security and protection. 

Above all, he understands what genuine love means, condemning the act of inflicting pain to oneself in an attempt to please god. The true god, like a kind father, will not take pleasure in seeing his children hurting themselves. And he is, in fact, a living proof of sacrificial love. He chooses to hide his love for a journalist, knowing that she has got someone else in her heart. “He loves me enough to let me go,” the journalist says with tears in her eyes. So he has deeply touched not only the journalist but practically every one of us viewers.

This is a great movie with a meaningful message behind the hilarious jokes, the romantic aspects and the boisterous singing and dancing. If you care to reflect on your faith from a point of view different from what you have been accustomed to,  this is a movie for you.