Piku

Plot

Piku Banerjee (Deepika Padukone) is a 30-year-old Bengali architect who resides in Chittaranjan Park, Delhi along with her 70-year-old widowed father, Bhashkor Banerjee (Amitabh Bachchan). The hypochondriac Bhashkor has problems with chronic constipation and traces the root of every problem to his bowel movements. His habits often lead to arguments between Piku, the servants and Piku's maternal aunt, Chhobi Mashi (Moushumi Chatterjee), who often visits them. Piku loves her father and, as her mother has died, takes good care of him, but at the same time, also gets extremely irritated with him because of his eccentricities. Bhashkor has several medical tests done, but everything comes out to be normal, severely disappointing him. Ignoring Piku's vehement objections, he has also recently fired the maid for stealing phenyl, a charge that the maid opposes, and this is the fifth maid that Bhashkor has fired in the last two months. Moreover, Bhashkor is also opposed to the institution of marriage and wants Piku to take care of him to satisfy her maternal urge. He states that marriage is a low IQ decision, and that he wanted Piku's late mother to be independent, but she wasted her life in the service of him. Bhashkor also criticises Chhobi Maashi for marrying thrice and states that her own daughter, Eisha (Rupsa Banerjee), was never a priority for her.

Piku's business partner, Sayyed Afroze (Jisshu Sengupta), is a good friend of taxi business owner Rana Chaudhary (Irrfan Khan), whose taxi Piku always uses to commute to her workplace, but is notorious for being a very difficult customer. Regularly stressed both by her work and by her father's finicky behaviour, Piku criticises the taxi drivers with excessive backseat driving, due to which they lose focus and cause several car crashes. As no taxi driver at Rana's company wants to take Piku's duty, Rana complains to Sayyed but Piku brushes both of them off, offended by Rana's rude nature, and tells Sayyed that she is taking a break from the office. When Piku goes for a date with Aniket (Akshay Oberoi), Bhashkor keeps interrupting her, claiming that he has a fever, and makes such a fuss that Piku has to call his regular doctor, Dr. Srivastava (Raghuvir Yadav), and talk about Bhashkor's feces texture and temperature, causing Aniket to lose all appetite. Bhashkor also has a bit too much to drink at Chhobi Mashi's marriage anniversary party and later dances at home, which results in his blood pressure dropping and him being put on oxygen therapy, leaving Piku distraught. Elsewhere, Rana has his own family problems with his widowed mother and sister. Rana's sister stole her mother-in-law's jewellery and gave it to her mother, due to which her husband abandoned her along with their baby.

Cast

Amitabh Bachchan as Bhashkor Banerjee, Piku's father

Deepika Padukone as Piku Banerjee

Irrfan Khan as Rana Chaudhary, a taxi business owner and Syed's friend

Jisshu Sengupta as Syed Afroze, Piku's business partner

Moushumi Chatterjee as Chhobi Mashi, Piku's maternal aunt

Avijit Dutt as Bodo Mesho, Chhobi Maashi's husband

Balendra Singh as Budhan, the Banerjees' servant

Swaroopa Ghosh as Moni Kaki, Piku's paternal aunt

Raghuvir Yadav as Dr. Srivastava, Bhashkor's doctor

Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury as Nabendu

Rupsa Banerjee as Eisha

Oindrila Saha as Nisha

Sumanto Chattopadhyay as Saurob

Akshay Oberoi as Aniket (cameo appearance)

Production

Casting

Shoojit Sircar's original choices of the main cast were Parineeti Chopra in the title role, Amitabh Bachchan and Irrfan Khan. These three actors were given the script. However, Chopra turned down the part. The cast of Deepika Padukone, Amitabh Bachchan and Irrfan Khan was finalised in mid-2014. In preparation for the role of Piku, Padukone learned Bengali as her character is from Bengal. There were early reports that Jisshu Sengupta was cast as the romantic lead opposite Deepika Padukone, but Sengupta plays Padukone's character's best-friend. Irrfan Khan plays the romantic lead opposite Deepika Padukone. Bachchan essays the role of Piku's father, while Moushumi Chatterjee portrays Piku's maternal aunt. Akshay Oberoi was cast in a cameo.

Filming

Principal photography for Piku began in August 2014, when the film's first schedule took off in Kolkata. The first schedule for Piku was also filmed in Delhi and Mumbai and included indoor scenes. The second schedule of filming started on 30 October 2014 in Kolkata, mostly in the north. Specifically, shooting took place at the Howrah Bridge, in the city's Shyambazar neighbourhood and at Bishop Lefroy Road. During the shooting at Howrah Bridge, Bachchan bicycled around the city dressed as his character. The Kolkata schedule was completed on 18 November 2014 and shooting now shifted to Delhi and Patdi Near Surendranagar in Gujarat.

The "Journey Song" was shot in Gujarat in December 2014 on the state highway connecting Ahmedabad to Bhuj. Shooting in Delhi took place at Gurgaon cyber hub and city club where Padukone and Khan were seen filming. The film was wrapped up after its last schedule shot in Varanasi. Padukone and Khan shot on the ghats of Banaras under chilly conditions and attracted a crowd. Shoojit Sircar said Piku was not written with an interval in mind, but because of the tendency of Indian theatre operators to force intervals into films during screenings, Sircar decided to accommodate an interval during the editing stage.

Music

The music of the film is composed by Anupam Roy while the lyrics are penned Anupam Roy and Manoj Yadav. The first song, "Journey Song", was released on 1 April 2015. The official music album was released online on April 21, 2015.

Marketing

The makers of the film released a video of day one on the sets of Piku which is called Piku Begins. The video has the cast speak about what viewers can expect from the film. As a part of promotions, the makers released on-set pictures of the shooting where the main cast are seen in character. Bachchan's first look was revealed — depicting his character of an old Bengali man with long hair and a big belly. On 25 March 2015, as part of the promotion, Deepika revealed the poster of the film through her Twitter handle.

Reception

Box office

Piku grossed ₹2.0 crore (US$210,000) in India on its opening day. On Saturday, the film earned ₹13 crore (US$1.3 million), showing a growth of 65%. On Sunday, it earned ₹11 crore (US$1.1 million), for a domestic weekend total of ₹24.5 crore (US$2.5 million). Internationally, Piku had the biggest opening weekend for a Hindi film of 2015, earning over US$2 million. Box Office India reported that the film had a "very strong hold" on its first Monday in India, earning ₹25 crore (US$2.6 million), and it eventually earned ₹60 crore (US$6.2 million) at the end of its first week. In ten days, the film earned ₹70 crore (US$7.3 million) in India. The film earned ₹22 crore (US$2.3 million) in its second week, and Box Office India projected that the film would earn around ₹80 crore (US$8.3 million) domestically at the end of its theatrical run.

Critical response

The film received widespread critical acclaim upon its release. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the movie has an approval score of 89% on the basis of 19 reviews with an average rating of 7.4 out of 10.

Raja Sen of Rediff.com gave Piku 4.5 out of 5 stars, writing that it is a "film with tremendous heart -- one that made me guffaw and made me weep and is making sure I'm smiling wide just thinking about it now -- but also a sharp film, with nuanced details showing off wit, progressive thought and insightful writing". In a 4 out of 5 star review, The Times of India praised the writing, direction and performances. Pratim D. Gupta of The Telegraph India gave an average of 7/10, saying "Don’t go in with a lot of laugh-out-loud expectations and you will enjoy Piku for what it is –– a simple, slice-of-life bittersweet tale about a family fighting constipation". Gayatri Sankar of Zee News gave 4 out of 5 stars and wrote "In totality, Piku is a wonderful family film, which will certainly make you wear a broad smile." Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave the film 3.5 stars out of 5 and said "On the whole, Piku is a must watch this season as it brings back the memories of the legendary directors Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Basu Chatterjee and likes".

Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN gave 4 stars out of five and said "Piku, directed by Shoojit Sircar, is a charming, unpredictable comedy that – like Sircar's Vicky Donor – mines humor from the unlikeliest of places". Anuj Kumar of The Hindu gave it a positive review, saying "A slice of life that deals with the practical difficulties in loving your aging parents in a light-hearted, feel good way, Piku is a progressive piece of cinema that brings the parent back into the picture". Sweta Kaushal of Hindustan Times praised the portrayal of a strong, independent female protagonist and noted on how well Sircar presents a "realistic view of a typical Indian family". Anupama Chopra gave 4 out of 5 stars and said "Piku is a delightful film about very little and yet it says so much. This isn't a movie focused on reaching a destination. This is a movie about the journey, both literal and emotional". Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave 3.5 stars out of 5 and called it a "magnificently original film that delivers a memorably unique movie experience" and praised the performance of the three leads. Tanmaya Nanda of Business Standard praised the film for its feminist tone and its unique approach in dealing with scatological humour. Namrata Joshi of Outlook gave 3 out of 5 stars, and wrote "Piku goes into an atypical zone for a Hindi mainstream film. It breaks the plot-driven, high on drama rule and yet manages to forge a big connect with the audience; The slice-of-life film has characters, relationships and interactions that feel real and evoke empathy in viewers—be they aging parents or their caregivers".