Sightlines · how to watch
How to watch PK
2014 · Rajkumar Hirani · PK on Sightlines
5 things to watch and listen for on a first viewing, without spoilers, and 4 more once you have seen it. Each names something you can see or hear, the pattern it belongs to, and what noticing it gives you. How these keys work.
On a first viewing
Watch Khan's eyes while somebody explains something to him. (performance)
The stare is held past the point of comedy, helped by prosthetic ears and specialist contact lenses worn on the body rather than added later. The gait, the head tilt, and the flat delivery are built to match.
Payoff: The construction never winks at you. It is closer to silent comedy than naturalism, and it refuses to ask for sympathy.
Look at where PK's clothes come from. (setting)
He takes them from parked cars while the couples inside are otherwise occupied, so the outfit is a patchwork assembled out of other people's discarded layers. He wears it for most of the film.
Payoff: He walks through the story literally dressed in other people's love, and the costume is making that point long before anyone says it.
Listen to the rural dialect coming out of him. (sound)
PK picks up Bhojpuri, a rural eastern vernacular, and then speaks it in Delhi for the rest of the picture. The mismatch between the speaker and the speech never resolves.
Payoff: It marks him as an outsider from inside the country rather than from abroad, which changes who the satire is aimed at.
Look at how bright and saturated Delhi looks. (light)
C. K. Muraleedharan shoots high-key and warm, with the city rendered dense and crowded. The only passage of real austerity is the desert prologue, a figure against sand and sky in wide shot.
Payoff: The look keeps every gag legible and the ensemble readable, which is what lets the film carry an argument at comedy pace.
Notice how the story is told to Jaggu. (structure)
Hirani edits his own films, and the whole thing sits inside PK telling his story to Jaggu.
Payoff: The framing makes the film feel like a story being passed from one person to another.
The 4 rewatch keys open on this page when you choose "Seen it?".
Carry this in: Watch the clothes. PK walks through the entire film dressed in other people's love.