Peepli ALive OR Absurd Govt?

 

There’s a dialogue in the film that goes “Zindagi ban gayi hai bell-bottom aur khudkhushi ban gayi hai jeans pant.” Although it does not make sense to you now, it will by the time I finish with my blog. I’m pretty sure all of you would have seen the situation farmers of our country are going through today. Peepli Live showed us the satirical version of it. Released in 2010, Peepli Live tells is directed by Anusha Rizvi and produced by Aamir Khan. The movie tells the story of a farmer who is merely existing and ultimately has to suicide. It has brilliantly employed the use of media and politics to portray this area, this is, the increasing rate in farmer suicides.

We can see that there is a drop in farmer suicides in the country. But that doesn’t mean that the situations that farmers are facing have lessened. Look at the current scenario. A farmer’s law has torn the whole country apart. Is it actually a law or just another absurd government scheme?

In the movie, you can see how two brothers, who have lost claim to their ancestral land are told to commit suicide by a politician so that their family will get Rs 1 lakh as compensation. Let’s go back. Why are planning to suicide? Is it because they are done with life? Or is it for the money? The answer is the latter. Instead of having helped the brothers with some money to pay the bank so that they can reclaim their land, the opportunistic politician tells them to end their lives so that according to a Governmental scheme, they’ll be awarded Rs 1 lakh as compensation. Similar schemes like Baliraja Chetana Abhiyaan which was started by the Maharashtra Govt was also scrapped last year. This scheme sought to give counselling and financial help to distressed farmers, but did not see a decline in farmer suicides.

Coming to the movie and how they have portrayed the absurdity that the protagonist and his brother fall into, they fall in hard. As a by-election was proposed in the area that they live in, the news of the possible suicides of the brothers become a point of competition for the parties. One party tries to buy off one of the brothers, in the hope that that will push their party to victory. One part even goes to the extent of kidnapping Natha, the protagonist, so that he won’t suicide and create a ruckus. But little do they know that the circus has already begun.

As soon as the media gets a whiff of the news that the brothers might commit suicide, they come rushing to cover this. All channels have their own agendas, just like the crazy schemes that the Govt comes up with. Neither do the channels want to give up their exclusive stories, nor does the ruling party want to give up their power. The Govt works for their own good, introducing new schemes that will prove to be good for their party. But they do not realize that it is the common man that gets dragged into all of this.