What you find in Piku is an appealing portrait of a father-daughter relationship. We see Deepika Padukone playing Piku, an architect and an entrepreneur, who has co-founded a design firm. Her father takes pride in the fact that his daughter is financially independent and, even subscribes to a theory that women shouldn’t get married as they end up losing their freedom and individuality!
If you look at her, she personifies an ideal entrepreneur, who is shown struggling to strike a balance between her work life and social life while taking care of her father’s imaginary health problems.
What is interesting is that Piku is a 2015 film of the Indian comedy-drama genre and, Deepika Padukone’s role found a reflection in real life, when she was felicitated at the ‘Outlook Business – Women of Worth’ event which saw her ranked among the 22 super women achievers! Deepika was honored for her contribution to the Indian cinema; the recent movie (at that time) being the portrayal of a strong female character in Piku and for setting up ‘The Live Love Laugh Foundation’ that supports people battling depression.
As the women achievers shared their journey and stories, Deepika’s presence was like a déjà vu. Every young woman wants to be a success both in her personal and professional life. But the path to success can be tricky and maneuvering through it requires you to be proactive in many ways. One sure-shot way to hit success (personal and professional) is – if you have dedication and faith in yourself. We can observe that Piku is a fiercely independent architect running her own architecture firm with her business partner Sayeed, who is also her partner in love. But, as the theme of the movie goes, she is totally preoccupied with her 70 year old father, Bhaskor Banerjee who is, constantly obsessed with stomach ailments.
A true entrepreneur, has to have confidence and a strong belief – to be successful. Two characteristics of a successful person is that they not only have confidence in themselves, but also that they believe in their ability to succeed. By cultivating and projecting confidence in yourself, you set out on the path to success. Here we see this quality in Piku, but she is constantly pulled back by her radical father. But, he too admits her qualities, as he is seen proudly introducing his daughter as ‘financially, emotionally and sexually independent’.
Be passionate about what you do – that’s what an entrepreneur clearly exhibits. You can’t be truly successful unless you are passionate about your profession. If you don’t love your job, you’re less likely to raise the bar and strike success.
We all know that the normal Bollywood movie revolves round romance, shaking a leg and what have you. But none of these clichés make an appearance here and that’s where Piku raises above in telling the ‘woman’ story. Piku doesn’t have a problem to be solved nor is she a woman to be rescued. It is a simple journey of a woman who is overburdened with the daunting task of mothering a 70 year old man but secretly loves being who she is, loves her father and wouldn’t change a thing about him.
Your job will feel like chore if you don’t love it. This will make you more lackadaisical and not serious to take any initiative that would help you succeed. We see Pike sufficiently charged up about her job, which she enjoys, But of course her father’s hypochondria comes in the way quite often.
Women can be completely Independent. Piku is a picture of this – an ambitious architect who not only runs a successful business but, also handles all the domestic chores. This movie exactly shows why women are termed as multi-taskers .
Then a man does enter her life – Rana Chaudhary, a ‘non-bengali Chaudhary’, a civil engineer with a past in Dubai, now the owner of a taxi service, played impeccably by Irfaan Khan. We hear Rana quite casually speaking of how women in Saudi Arabia are fighting for their driving rights. “Driving liberates a woman,” he tells Piku. Well, what have here is – a self-driven woman.
Avtar Madan
Himanshu
Shree Lahiri
