When brothers Budhia and Natha go to a local politician for help to prevent the bank from auctioning off their farm, they are told that perhaps they should take advantage of a governmental program that gives money to the family of farmers who kill themselves because they can't repay their debt. It was said to belittle them, but they begin talking about the possibility and which of them should do it.

As they consider this, they are overheard by a journalist who writes an article about the plan. Before long the story goes viral—TV news trucks fill the rural village. A death watch begins. Will Natha kill himself? Will it be captured live on television? It becomes a national issue. Soon the expert commentators are talking about what the government should do. The politicians begin posturing for a place in the story. Soon the little village of Peepli has turned into a true media circus.

Peepli Live is a satirical look at life in India today, but it is just as valuable as a social commentary on our own culture. We watch as the media turns this story that starts as a heartrending situation into an event. The twenty-four hour news cycle must be fed. Natha and his family become the focus of every network. Each reporter is looking to get his or her own little bit of the story. They all want to spin Natha's plight for their own ends. This search for an exclusive angle leads to a ludicrous scene of a report on people living without toilet facilities and focusing on the last evidence of Natha's presence.

And then there are the politicians. All the local, state, and federal politicians try to look better than their counterparts, but it's all for show. No one is willing to step up with any solutions—just platitudes, crocodile tears, and study commissions. Some bring gifts—a television or flowers. (These will help... how?) Most of the political preening done for the cameras is really designed to pass the political buck to someone else.

Does any of this seem familiar to you? Ever watch celebrity news? Or the posturing on Sunday morning news shows? As I said, this can be seen as commentary on our own society as will as India's.

The recent stories about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico pitted local, state, and federal governments (to say nothing about the political parties) against each other to see who could look like they cared the most. Each faction or news channel is trying to put its own imprint on the story. It seems like it's been covered from every angle, but then someone thinks of something new, and everyone else has to follow. Through it all, there are people suffering and feeling as if no one really cares.

As this media and political circus plays out in Peepli, the one thing no one thinks of is how to help the brothers save their farm without such a drastic action. No one even asks how it is they got in this position. Is it bad luck? Are they terrible farmers? Are the banks greedy villains? And no one really talks to Natha. No one seems to want to see the person behind the story—only the story he has become.

It is not a pretty picture of what society has become. The view of society here is one that treats people as objects to be used rather than a resource to be cared for.