Dear Mr Hirani,
Congratulations on making another excellent movie and continuing your tradition of putting across a very deep point for our society. I simply loved watching PK, just as I have loved watching all your other movies. I laughed and laughed and laughed as I watched the alien PK trying to understand the different nuances of our customs, traditions, religion, faith etc. It is certainly funny to watch it from another’s perspective.

Even my 8 year old daughter, who has grown up in US and has not really been exposed to all our culture, was laughing away. She enjoyed the movie thoroughly just like she had enjoyed 3 Idiots – another one of your extremely well directed movies with a very relevant message.

I truly do not want you to stop here. Please continue making such movies. Can I suggest the subjects for your next ventures? It would be great to see such a satire on the Indian Christian culture – how the missionaries are making fools out of innocent Indians and making them give up their roots, the totally “behind the veil” sexual (mis)conduct of the so called Fathers or priests, and so on.

How about a satire on the Indian Muslim culture, after all it is the second largest followed religion in India. It would be really funny to watch how the culture of “fear” and “brain washing” and “blind following” exists in that culture. I am sure both these will make a very funny subject.

I am sure these communities are as largehearted as the Hindus and will surely laugh along.

There are flaws in every society, every culture, every religion. The strength of a society, culture and human being lies in their capacity to see these flaws, laugh at them, and perhaps see how they can be improved upon. By laughing at the flaws in my culture, traditions etc does not make me any less “Hindu” or “Indian”.

Having said that, I would like to point out that the Indian society is not made up of just one culture. A number of cultures, religions exist there. Hence, Mr Hirani, I would sincerely request that you take the lead to expose the flaws in the other cultures too. Make them the prime subject of your movie and not just make a passing reference to them, while totally degrading the culture which belongs to the majority of Indian population. In doing so you are not only down playing the faith of a majority of Indians in India and abroad, but also making them feel almost ashamed of their roots.

For any community to survive and thrive, the first step is to feel proud of their identity. They should not be made to feel like rejecting their roots. I agree that we need to face reality, which is why I already mentioned that I truly appreciate your efforts. However, we need to see that there are flaws in other cultures too, that will give us the “assurance” that it is a collective problem and not something that exists only in one religion or culture. We don’t have to reject one and embrace another because of some flaws – we have to be able to see the flaws in the other too.

Bollywood has seriously been lacking in doing this. In fact, it only makes heroes out of the other cultures.

I truly hope you can take lead on this and give us something different to chew on. Only you can make a serious subject digestible with such wonderful easy going comedy.

Your fan,

Sanjana