Critic Reviews

• Rachel Saltz, New York Times

  A fitfully amusing Indian comedy that touches on a hot-button topic.

• V.A. Musetto, New York Post

  You can't decide whether to laugh because the events are so absurd or cry because you can imagine them really happening.

• G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle

  I liked Peepli Live, which is colorful and at times quite lively, but I wish it were funnier and its satirical edge a bit sharper.

• Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times

  Manages to mine substantial dark humor from this tragic situation while offering pointed -- and sometimes poignant -- social commentary in the process.

• Eric Hynes, Time Out New York

  Both a heartfelt and a genuinely funny skewering of India's convoluted caste-consciousness.

• Aaron Hillis, Village Voice

  It's an unusual taste of mainstream Indian cinema, unexpectedly irreverent with an earthier, folkier soundtrack than the typical Bollywood electro-bounce.

• John Esther, UR Chicago Magazine

  A better writer than director, the strength of Rizvi's 'Peepli Live' is the film's unsentimental portrayal of the poor

• Derek Malcolm, This is London

  Thousands of poor farmers kill themselves every year in India and it was audacious of writer-director Anusha Rizvi to make a comedy out of the fact with her first film.

• Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph

  You can't fault the crusading spirit of this controversial Bollywood satire, just the blunt, one-note, entirely obvious execution.

• Cath Clarke, Guardian [UK]

  There is a deadly serious message about India's rural/urban divide in first-timer director Anusha Rizvi's satirical gem, but it also happens to have a juicily vulgar streak.

• Tom Dawson, Total Film

  Drawing on India's rural-versus-urban divide, Rizvi spins a dynamic, enjoyably-acted yarn that balances farcical humour with a satisfying seriousness.

• Anna Smith, Empire Magazine

  While the tone may shift from satire to farce at times, this is a highly assured debut by Rizvi.

• Nigel Andrews, Financial Times

  It's a worthy film. A little less worthiness and a little more sharply weaponised wit would have helped.

• Tim Evans, Sky Movies

  Rizvi keeps the humour broad (this doesn't have the metropolitan sharp sophistication of Chris Morris) but the premise is so strong that pithy satirical points are neatly scored.

• Noel Murray, AV Club

  This is a movie that opens with the hero puking, and spends the rest of its running time showing why that may be the only sane response to the state of the world.

• Tim Cogshell, Boxoffice Magazine

  The juxtaposition of the tragedy and the lunacy of the circumstances are not completely disparate; satire is an appropriate weapon here, but it's the drama in Peepi Live that truly resonates.

• Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

  A poignant soaicl satire, with some elements of a funny screwball comedy about contemporary life in India, its greedy media, complex politics, and diverse populace.

• Nora Lee Mandel, Film-Forward.com

  Broad, entertaining satire, with heartfelt pleas, on the difficulties for the farmers and those who try to help them.

• Jay Antani, Moving Pictures Magazine

  Its comical, sharply observant caricatures of India's political and media jackals offers a much-needed reality check in a country where celluloid escapism is too often the rule.

• Michelle Orange, Movieline

  I just wish what [Rizvi] had to tell us about the India of today might have taken a form less distractingly reminiscent of the American classics of yesteryear.

Read all 22 critic reviews