An Indian comic satire, Peepli [Live] addresses two issues that currently plague India; one is of farmer suicides and the second of runaway media that rather than portraying the real news tries to sensationalize and sell it. Anusha Rizvi’s directorial debut is both, an entertainer as well as an eye opener.
Although the films takes a fictitious setting of “Mukhya Pradesh” (that rhymes with a real state in India – Madhya Pradesh) the language of the characters resembles a lot to the language of northern Indians of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar areas.
The films tells the story of two lazy and alcoholic brothers who are on the verge of losing their land to auction (foreclosure). What follows is their struggle to raise money to repay the bank which inadvertently turns into a fiasco which later turns into a media circus. The price of all this however is paid by a life.
Natha Das Manikpuri and elder brother Budhia are not only lazy but also drunkards who everyday spend whatever money they have on liquor. They are in desperate search of help to repay their bank loan, which if not paid will result in foreclosure. After exhausting all avenues, the duo turns to the village headman who, instead of helping, advices them to commit suicide as this will get them Rs. One Lakh, from the government.
After lot of contemplating, the elder brother Budhia manages to coerce Natha to agree to commit suicide. However, as the news spreads (primarily due to an overhearing local reporter), the family gets lots of attention not only from the media but also the politicians and the authorities. Such becomes the extent of the matter that the seat of the Chief Minister of the state becomes dependent on the matter; thus making Natha’s suicide, a matter of political importance and concern.
When the media is denied access to news from its main subject of interest, it either tries to cook up stories or covers the opinions of not so significant people. On the other hand, political parties try to leverage the situation as much as they can to their advantage.
All this portrays the recent scenarios in India wherein the farmers had been committing suicides since the 1990’s however when the news suddenly dawned on the mainstream media, it became a major issue. Although the farmers in the real case were committing suicides due to loans they were under as a result of low productive crop, the conditions that Natha and Budhia face seem to be self inflicted.
Apart from the showing the other sides of media as well as politicians, the films shows how the politicians try to win over one person and spend exorbitantly on it but none of them are ready to step forward and help the duo personally. The irony depicted in the film is also notable that the government helps the farmer’s family with a package of one lakh whereas the same government pays no attention to a farmer on the verge of committing suicide. Simply put, it places the value on a farmer’s death and not his life.