(Sunetra Choudhury is Associate Editor, National Affairs, NDTV 24x7)As a news reporter, I went to see PK, our desi version of ET with a heavy message of harmony in diversity, to figure out what the fuss was all about.
I wanted to see which hashtag I felt closer to- the one that supported PK or the angry one that was spewing in the mouth about it. But in the trail of all the Gods and godmen, I got distracted.
I started making notes about how PK had portrayed the other, much-vilified acronym - TV. I figured Aamir Khan was a perfectionist, so from one professional to another, he might appreciate a real reporter's take on what Anushka projected so prettily.
1. I start right from the beginning when Anushka's character, Jaggu, meets her love interest. When she finds out the boy is from Pakistan, her face falls.
Reality: No TV reporter would ever be disappointed about meeting a Pakistani, that too a looker like Sushant Singh. To us, all Pakistanis are a potentially good story so we're always thrilled to meet them all.
2. Anushka plays a modern career woman who's pursuing media studies in Belgium. But when her family is shocked by her Pakistani boyfriend, she challenges it by asking him to marry her immediately.
Reality: There's no good journalism school in Belgium. Even if there was, which sassy TV reporter will jump into marriage during j-school just to prove some Godman wrong? Not realistic.
3. Anushka's boss, played by Boman Irani, acts like a real TV anchor when he wears track pants under his formal jacket. Yes, many of us do that. But then he wants Anushka to do a story about a depressed dog and a debate on it.
Reality: Indian TV takes itself very, very seriously. We may do debates about Godmen but we never do debates about animals, even though sometimes, we probably should.
4. PK manages to get into police lock-up by peeing publicly and making sure the police catch him.
Reality: I have been a reporter in this city for 15 years and more, and I have seen nobody get arrested for public urination. You can piss into police patrol vans, and you may get a lathi or two for it, but you won't go to jail for it.
5. Anushka uses a dictaphone for interviewing PK.
Reality: We never use that. Never used it as a print reporter either. We now have apps to record, but even then, unless it is a sit-down interview of a politician who is likely to go back on his word, we don't use tapes. Especially not those old fashioned tape recorders seen in the film.
6. PK sees couples making out in cars all over the countryside. He dubs them 'dancing cars' or some such.
Reality: We have make-out areas in gardens, make out areas in Bombay's bandstands. But 'dancing cars' are too much of a Hollywood adoption, not in the Indian landscape in the bright sunlight.
7. Anushka hugs her editor.
Reality: The Indian newsroom is a manic place and while lot of office romances and love-hate exchanges are common, we don't hug our boss when he okays our story idea (note from editors - we wish you would. Sort of).
8. Anushka carries her subject, PK, home with her.
Reality: When she bribes for her story, I bought it. When she chases her story for days, even though we have shorter, more urgent deadlines, I still accepted it. But really, no right-thinking, safety-conscious Delhi reporter will bring some strange man home- even if he looks good naked like Aamir Khan does.
9. And finally, did you see Anuskha's house presumably in Nizamuddin East overlooking the Humayun's tomb?
Reality: Most TV reporters' single pad doesn't look like that. And neither do those interiors.
What the film gets right of course is that we would all love to have someone take on a Godman like Aamir's character does with Tapaswi. And, hell yeah, what a great TRP maker it would be! And just like Boman Irani relates how he got trishulled by unhappy Godman's followers, we too can't forget how Baba Rampal fuelled violence that landed many NDTV crew members in hospital recently.
So do go, enjoy the movie, but remember, TV's a bit different than how Raj Kumar Hirani and Aamir Khan see it.
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