PK is a 2014 Indian Hindi satirical comedy-drama film produced by Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra, and directed by Rajkumar Hirani. In this paper, an attempt has been made to look at a film like PK as a cultural text, having multiple cultural values. In this paper a comparison to another Hindi film OMG-Oh My God! (2012) is made and various social and religious values are highlighted. PK is a film which aims to critique the social, economic, political, and religious practices of the societies in India. In this regard, the alien, and the protagonist, PK becomes a powerful tool. The societies projected here are of Mandava, a rural village of Rajasthan, and Delhi, a Metropolitan city, and the capital of India. It may be noted that these two cities represent the whole of India. The various values discussed and various prevailing practices described in the film can be classified in the following three different broad categories: social practices and values, religious practices and values, and other aspects of cultural significance.
The two societies discussed here are that of Mandava village of Rajasthan representing the rural Indian cultural setup, and the Metropolitan city of Delhi, representing the urban Indian cultural setup, both representing the two binary opposites of Indian societies. PK arrives in the spaceship at Mandava, and is sent to research about the planet earth where people like him live. Thus earth also becomes an alien or the 'other' to the people of the planet from which PK arrives. PK has various themes, and several values imbibed in it. They include the theme of man and woman, friendship, love and romance, sex, prostitution, and and social hypocrisy. The theme of man and woman has a special significance in the movie. The name associated with Jagat Janani, Jaggu itself is a male name in Indian cultural context. When we examine the depiction of women in Mandava, it is that of a typical rural setup where women have to be in "pardahs" and are with no voice of their own.
