Anusha Rizvi

Our media are always running after new sensations and seem to love every crisis. In the Indian comedy Peepli (live), a former journalist shows us how much the media likes to influence events, when they end up smelling their headlines or the supposed scandal. This story takes place in a peaceful Indian farming village where the families have too little to live and too much to die. The farmer Natha fights for the survival of his wife, mother, brother and children as a way out of the misery looms: The government has set up a program to compensate the bereaved if a farmer kills himself. One could also use this offensively, one of Natha's family could kill himself so that the others could earn something. The media, who are currently accompanying the local election campaign, are getting wind of the idea, and suddenly the planned peasant suicide becomes the number one topic. You don't want to save the farmer, you want to be the one who is there live when he does. Bollywood star Aamir Khan (Lagaan) has produced Peepli (live), Anusha Rizvi has sovereignly designed the amusing and thought-provoking debut film and you can feel that she knows exactly what she is talking about. She does it with pleasure.