Piku, as we all know, is one of the peak points of director Shoojit Sircar and actor Amitabh’s collective careers. Many consider Pink to be a more vital Bachchan-Sircar collaboration in the mistaken notion that the film was directed by Shoojit Sircar, a notion that Sircar has done nothing to quell.
In fact Pink was directed by the talented Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury. That he was robbed of proper credit for Pink is a very sad comment on the politics of the hierarchy of excellence in our cinema.
Looking back at Piku I see many flaws , not to mention a shamelessly manipulative ending . A death in the family is the most obvious way of generating empathy. It is also an easy way out when a filmmaker doesn’t know how to end a film.
I also some see brilliant acting by Irrfan who breathed life into an underwritten tenebrous role which no actor except the most brilliant would touch. I will tell you why: Irrfan’s Rana Choudhary was the third-most important character in the film. Irrfan told me he was not keen on doing any supportive roles. Way back in 2014 he had turned down a huge Hollywood film Jurassic Park after his role was chopped off in another Hollywood franchise The Amazing Spiderman.Anurag Basu had offered Irrfan the part of Ranbir Kapoor’s father in Jagga Jasoos and Irrfan felt right affronted.
Irrfan had said to me, “I can do walk-on part of 5 seconds if I have to . I’ve no problem with that. But if you are coming to me with secondary roles only because you have a bigger star playing the main lead then sorry, I’m not interested.”
Irrfan took up Piku because he was keen to work with Amitabh Bachchan and Deepika Padukone. He didn’t regret his decision. In hindsight Irrfan is the brightest point in Piku. Deepika in an author-backed role is adequate, though she could have done a lot more to the role of a working girl with a demanding father.The role was first offered to Parineeti Chopra who turned it down because, as she told me, she was doing a similar daughter’s role in Habib Faisal’s Daawat-e-Ishq.
Her zero chemistry with Mr Bachchan was a palpable hurdle.The two shared no personal equation during the shooting,so little so that when Deepika threw a party to celebrate the Piku success she “forgot” to invite Mr Bachchan).
Sircar should have been taken to court by West Bengal for Mr Bachchan’s “Bengali” accent in Piku. Being a Bengali himself, how could Sircar be so off-kilter with the accent?
As for that pillow tied to Mr Bachchan’s midriff, it was a paunch that deserved a punch.
Interestingly the wise and all-knowing Wikipedia informs us, “The film(Piku) is loosely based on the 1980 Bengali-language short film, Pikoo by Satyajit Ray.”
Sircar’s Piku and Ray’s Pikoo have nothing in common at all, although this is as close as Sircar gets to being compared with Ray.