Black Humour Movie (Peepli Live - 2010): A Resilient Satire on Indian Media and Politics

Abstract (English)

This paper emphasises on a famous black humour movie Peepli Live. It is a satire on farmers' suicides and the country's subsequent media and political response. Movies are a powerful medium of expression that conveys useful information on history, civilization, philosophy, politics, education and religion (Nayak, 2015). The film Peepli Live employs black humour to expose several ambiguities related to India's sociological, psychological, political, and economic contexts. The design intensifies as the story unfolds, with each of the sub-plots interacting increasingly with each other. The main character Natha is a poor villager portrayed as a helpless person in very tragic circumstances and is presented in a comic light throughout the film. The film begins with Natha and his brother worrying about their financial condition and their futile attempts to find a solution for it. It all starts as the two brother's approach a heartless and corrupt politician who sarcastically suggests that committing suicide could help solve their financial woes since the government was offering monetary compensation to the families of farmers who commit suicide. The helplessness in the situation was caused by many factors, including poverty and made worse by societal and governmental systems. However, the situation's absurdity and poignancy are powerfully captured with the help of dark humour since an issue as grave as suicide may perhaps be addressed successfully only through this device. As the story unfolds, new situations arise, which add further chaos to their already chaotic world. The story finally ends with Natha having avoided the imminent threat of forced suicide unexpectedly. The main objective of this paper is to examine the satire the  current system  of  local and  national  politics, and  the  media in  India.