PK

Rajkumar Hirani’s PK is a good comedy with a generous view of people and a rather generous allowance of time. Its alien visitor, played by Aamir Khan, tries to make sense of religious beliefs and the habits that go with them. Hirani lets the questions sound simple enough to be dismissed, then gives us room to notice that the answers are not terribly satisfactory. It is worth an evening, provided a wandering story is not a deal-breaker.

Khan is the reason this works as often as it does. Playing an innocent can become an exercise in asking an audience to adore the actor, but he keeps PK’s confusion at the centre of the joke. We laughed at his attempts to understand religious rules, then felt protective of him. The questions are reasonable, and Khan makes the need for an answer feel personal. That matters in a film whose slapstick might otherwise allow us to enjoy the disruption without caring about the visitor causing it.

The screenplay by Hirani and Abhijat Joshi is most persuasive when it allows that curiosity to guide the comedy. Religious differences become puzzling because PK has no reason to regard any one set of customs as the obvious choice. We do not need the film to settle every question about belief; watching people struggle to explain what they accept is enough. Its kindness keeps the humour from turning into a prolonged exercise in congratulating the audience on being cleverer than the characters.

C.K. Muraleedharan’s cinematography serves the comedy well, keeping our attention on Khan as the puzzled visitor. Production designers Rajnish Hedao, Sumit Basu and Snigdha Basu have a useful starting point: ordinary human life is already strange enough when seen by somebody who does not understand it. For us, the visual interest is in watching Khan try to make sense of those surroundings. The emphasis on people suits a story concerned with how they behave around one another.

Anushka Sharma, playing Jagat ‘Jaggu’ Janani Sahni, helps make the company agreeable, and Saurabh Shukla’s Tapasvi Maharaj belongs in a comedy willing to let people be ridiculous. Neither performance displaces Khan as the main attraction. Ajay Gogavale, Ankit Tiwari, Atul Gogavale and Shantanu Moitra supply music that fits the film’s geniality. We could have done with less encouragement to feel fond of everyone; Khan has already done much of that work.

Hirani also edits, and this is where a firmer hand would have helped. At 153 minutes, the film gives a good comic idea more room than it needs. The plot asks for indulgence, and its conveniences become harder to overlook when the pace slackens. There is pleasure in spending time with PK, but not every detour earns its place. A tighter cut would have helped both the jokes and the moments that want us to care.

We ask an outsider comedy to make familiar behaviour look peculiar, and PK comfortably passes that test. We would have liked to feel more for the people being questioned, especially over such a long running time. Settle in for Khan’s company, rather than a brisk demolition of organised religion.