I must say, I felt a little strange laughing at the movie, Peepli Live. The subject matter is quite morbid – a farmer in India agrees to take his own life, so the country will reward his family with cash after his death.

Creepy, huh?

Well, apparently India went through a 10-year period where men were in fact taking their own lives so their families could profit from the government. The number of suicides were upwards of 180,000 people offing themselves for a big payday.

Not too funny.

However, the movie is filled with wonderful, satirical moments that weave together nicely, beginning with the evening before the national elections. Two poor farmers, brothers Natha and Budhia (Omkar Das and Raghuvir Yadav) are close to losing their land because of an unpaid government debt. And after a quick debate, Natha ends up agreeing to kill himself.

It doesn’t take long for the politicians to use the situation to their advantage – for henchmen to trail Natha with homicidal motives, reporters angling to cover the suicide and family members actually counting the minutes to Natha’s demise. And that is precisely what makes Peepli Live humorous.

Co-Directors Anusha Rizvi and Mahmood Farooqui have taken a downright miserable situation and made it funny while actually drawing attention to what was a horrible historical event.

All that taken into consideration, I still feel a bit odd about finding the film so amusing – just not enough to dislike myself for laughing.

Posted by Mari Cartel