This year has been quite dull for Hindi cinema so far, but director Shoojit Sircar ups the bench with his latest release Piku ~ a comical, heartfelt tale of an ageing father and his accommodating daughter.
Deepika Padukone plays the role of Piku Banerjee, a 30-year-old Bengali architect living in New Delhi with her father Bhaskor, who has suffered from constipation throughout his life and has to yet find a cure for it.
From his medication to his health reports and his regular blood pressure checks, Piku is responsible for every aspect of his health and constantly finds herself nursing her demanding father, often at the cost of her own sanity and her personal life.
It seems like Bhaskor's character has been created keeping a needy child in mind. Everything he says is a call for attention or a complaint about his health. Piku, on the other hand, appears to be frustrated with her father's childish behavior and his constant need for her attention for the smallest of things. She gets irritated when she is updated on each and every cell's movement in her father's body, and they often argue and banter about his self-imagined health issues.
The film progresses as Bhaskor demands to take a trip to Calcutta to visit the family property, and insists on traveling by road as being in a train or a plane will disturb his bowels. Piku then arranges a car and a driver to drive them.
When the driver of the rent-a-car company ditches them, the owner Irrfan Khan steps in and decides to take charge of the journey. And so, the 3 principle characters of the film set out on a long road trip full of disagreements, toilet breaks, and eventually, some bonding sessions between the characters.
The casting of the film couldn't be any better, with Amitabh Bachchan and Deepika Padukone boasting superb father-daughter chemistry whenever they are on screen. Both play their part with brilliance and prove that they are truly Bollywood's finest actors in the business. Masuma Chatterjee plays Deepika's aunt in the film and makes the audience roar with laughter with her one-liners and her perfect comic timing. Irrfan Khan as Rana Choudhary is suitable for the role and also initiates many of the humorous scenes in the film.
Last year it was Queen, and this year it is Piku that touches your heart and brings a large smile on your face as you exit the cinema hall. If you haven't watched it yet, then stop everything else and book your tickets to watch this year's best film so far.