A naive alien lands in Rajasthan and loses the remote that can call his ship home. Everyone tells him God can help, so he sets out to find God and hears very different answers. Rajkumar Hirani turns a sweet comedy into an argument about religious fraud, and the alien's simple questions do the arguing.
PK is a 2014 comedy, drama and science fiction film directed by Rajkumar Hirani. This breakdown covers 5 techniques (3 narrative, 1 psychology and 1 cinematography), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, The Shawshank Redemption uses several of the same techniques.
Telling the story through someone at the margin, such as a lowly servant, an animal or a drifter, so the world looks different from their position.
How this film uses it
PK sees Earth like a child. He survives by taking clothes from couples and learns how people behave by watching them. His honest questions show customs that people stopped noticing.
Where to see it
The temple donation box. PK is arrested for trying to take money from a temple donation box, and Jaggu gets him released.
Setting religious belief against class, money or social structure so that faith and power collide, exposing how institutions and values shape characters' choices.
How this film uses it
PK goes from one faith to the next asking for help. He visits Hindu, Sikh, Christian and Muslim places of worship, and none of them gives him his remote back. The jokes land on how belief, money and power get tangled.
Where to see it
The search through places of worship. PK tries each faith in turn in his search to recover the remote.
Holding back a key piece of information for a large part of the film, then revealing it in 1 moment. Everything you already watched now means something different.
How this film uses it
Early on, Jaggu gets a letter calling off her wedding, and a godman claims he predicted it. The film holds back the truth until a televised debate. There PK shows the letter went to the wrong pew, and the Pakistani embassy confirms the other side got the same letter.
Where to see it
The televised debate. PK exposes the godman Tapasvi by showing the wedding letter was misdelivered.
Letting two characters share memories and feelings through a technology or power. Nothing stays private, so trust and old pain both show on screen.
How this film uses it
PK absorbs memories and language through touch, which is how he learns Bhojpuri. Holding a person's hand hands him their past in seconds. It makes friendship fast, and it shows how little he knows about boundaries.
Where to see it
PK and Bhairon Singh. The alien befriends a bandmaster and learns his language by absorbing his memories through touch.
Filming in recognizable real places so the setting acts like part of the cast. Streets, buildings and landscapes shape the mood of the story.
How this film uses it
The film was shot in Rajasthan, Delhi's Chandni Chowk and Bruges, the first Bollywood film shot in Belgium. The desert, the crowded Delhi streets and the quiet old town give each part of PK's trip its own feel.
Where to see it
The opening in Rajasthan. The alien lands in the desert, and a thief steals the amulet he uses as a remote.
Questions
PK: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does PK use?
CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in PK (2014): Outsider Viewpoint, Religion and Society Collision, The Long Reveal, Mind-Link as Intimacy Device and Real Locations as Character.
Who directed PK?
Rajkumar Hirani directed PK, released in 2014. CineCode also covers 3 Idiots (2009).
What films are similar to PK?
Films that share techniques with PK include The Shawshank Redemption (1994), There Will Be Blood (2007), A Separation (2011), Cinema Paradiso (1988).
