“Maybe this is the way to move forward.
Issi ko log development bolte hain.
Apni roots ko agar ukhaad do, toh kya bachega?”
Piku (2015) is a humorous and poignant movie directed by Shoojit Sircar. It explores the complexities and the bliss that comes with growing old, caregiving, and family, through the relationship between an aging father and his independent daughter.
The film centres around the world of Piku Banerjee, a successful architect living in Delhi, who is meticulously juggling her demanding career with the exhausting responsibility of taking care of her hypochondriac and eccentric father, Bhaskor Banerjee. Bhaskor is obsessed with his bowel movements and fiercely attached to his roots, which constantly challenges his daughter’s patience, and sense of liberty.
When Bhaskor insists on travelling to Kolkata via road instead of flying, the duo embarks on a road trip with Bhaskor’s assistant Bhudan and their temporary driver, Rana – an outsider who becomes witness to their chaotic yet deeply loving bond. As they travel from Delhi to Kolkata, the film subtly reveals layers of emotional dependency, generational differences, and the meaning of “home”. Piku is ultimately a heartfelt tale of love, responsibility and the domestic spaces that shape one’s identity across time.
The Kolkata Bungalow: A Living Archive
Time slows down in Kolkata, governed not by clocks but habits – the routinely evening tea, evening power cuts, and the rhythmic passing of trams. The centrepiece of Kolkata architecture remains its huge courtyard bungalows and mansions, which were built by the feudal lords. These structures were erected during the late colonial period (19th – early 20th century). They were products of a hybrid revolution or sensibility which merged British spatial ideals with the indigenous climate needs for ventilation. The architectural identity of these bungalows or the Bonedi Baris, carries within them the echoes of domestic resistance, and empire.
The typical Bengali Bonedi Bari is a great example of a layered architectural vocabulary. High ceilings and large kharkhari windows ensued air circulation to battle Bengal’s humidity, while the wide barandas (verandas) and the uthuns (inner courtyards) acted as spots for private and public recreations. Several elements such as cast-iron railings, wooden staircases, mosaic floors, and shuttered doors recall colonial aesthetics which were further domesticated and innovated by Bengali households.
By the 20th century, a Bonedi Bari had become the symbol for the bhadralok class. These homes were far from palaces, but they acted as the epicentre for cultural activities. In Piku, the ancestral house functions as one’s extension of memory, personality and time. The house embodied Bhaskor’s physiological and psychological landscape – stubbornly unchanging, weakened but persistent, and cluttered with his idiosyncrasies. It symbolises both decay and dignity. The dim kitchen, the neatly arranged bookshelves, and even the stained walls are symbolisations of nostalgia, grief, loss, and routine.
But for Piku, this edifice acts as a site of emotional attachment and burden. As her father’s primary and only caregiver, she travels to Kolkata, not to relax, but to manage her father and the decaying infrastructure of a place that demands as much tending as Bhaskor himself. In Piku, the house refuses to act as a mere backdrop, but is a character itself. It is a space that remembers, and refuses to let go.
Today, these structures stand as relics of abandonment, but also repositories of memory. Time has weakened them and the urbanisation is now encroaching upon their lands. Yet many Bengalis continue to cling onto them as emotional and cultural anchors, presented as ancestral property. The creaky wooden window, the peeling paint, the slow ceiling fans are all testaments of inherited belongings.
The Delhi Apartment Defines Modernity
Opposed to Kolkata, Delhi is a city which pulses with speed and efficiency. The Delhi flat where Piku and Bhaskor resided in embodies the compressed logic of urbanised modernity. It is efficient, compact, and emotionally dislocated. It is a quintessential apartment in a metropolitan city with a standardised layout, beige interiors, modular furniture, and minimalist ornamentations. This place reflects the key characteristics of the big city lifestyle – function over feelings. Unlike the Kolkata house that breathes in memories, the Delhi flat is closed off – without any courtyards or balconies that invites pauses or interactions. This space can represent the emotional claustrophobia of Piku and her entrapment in her routine lifestyle of caregiving, career, and urban survival.
Whereas, for Bhaskor, this flat is deeply unsettling. He detests the elevators, mechanical innovation and the absence of open spaces. This place becomes a symbol of displacement for him – from familiarity to strangeness.
The Road
The road journey from Delhi to Kolkata in Piku is more than just a shift in location. It marks a transition between emotional states, and generational tensions. As a liminal space, the road sits between the rigid modernity of the Delhi apartment and the fading warmth of the Kolkata bungalow, offering a moving, flexible setting where the relationships begin to shift and soften.
Unlike static built structures, the car is a mobile domestic space. Within its cramped interior, the daily routines continue: Bhaskor discusses his bowel movements, Piku manages calls and work, and meals are eaten from home-cooked tiffins. The intimacy of the car becomes a paradox. It forces togetherness but also creates new rhythms of interaction. With no walls to withdraw behind and no household to manage, the characters are suspended in motion, allowing for conversations that rarely occur in the rigidity of their everyday lives.
The presence of Rana, the driver, adds another dimension. He acts as an outsider who observes and intervenes. His calm demeanor, pragmatic wisdom, and unjudging presence diffuse the generational friction between Bhaskor and Piku. The road signifies the absence of permanence. It acts as a place without walls, routines, or inherited burdens. And yet, it is precisely in this absence that new emotional structures are built. The journey thus becomes not just a route from one home to another, but a redefinition of what home and connection can mean.
Intergenerational Spaces
At the heart of Piku lies a quiet but profound exploration of how different generations relate to space, memory, and the idea of “home.” The film carefully maps the contrast between Bhaskor and Piku’s attachments to physical spaces. One rooted in the past, the other navigating the constraints of the present.
For Bhaskor, the Kolkata bungalow is more than a house; it is a vessel of identity. Every creaking door and rusted pipe is linked to memory, habit, and a deeply personal sense of belonging. His resistance to modernization and migration, stems not only from his age but from his belief that comfort lies in the familiar. His worldview is highly shaped by static, emotionally saturated spaces.
Piku, by contrast, represents a generation that has grown up in transitional, often emotionally sterile spaces, like their modern Delhi flat. Though more efficient, these spaces leave little room for rest, reflection, or privacy. Her struggle is not just one of caregiving, but also of existing in spaces that offer her no emotional shelter. The film captures this intergenerational tension through spatial preferences. Bhaskor clings to permanence while Piku is trapped by mobility.
Ultimately, the film asks a subtle but urgent question: What makes a house a home? Is it longevity, memory, familiarity? Or is it flexibility, control, and freedom? In Piku, neither Delhi nor Kolkata offers a perfect answer. Instead, the film suggests that home is a complex emotional geography, one shaped as much by relationships and routine as by walls and windows. In tracing these intergenerational attachments to space, Piku gently reveals how architecture holds emotion, and how the struggle between holding on and letting go is lived out, room by room.
In Piku, architecture acts as an invisible presence and a silent participant in the emotional and generational dynamics of the characters. Through the contrast between the decaying Kolkata bungalow, the sterile Delhi apartment, and the transitional space of the road, the film maps how the spaces shape, and are shaped by memory, care, routine, and resistance. The domestic environments reflect deeper tensions between tradition and modernity, permanence and mobility, individuality and responsibility. In capturing the subtle ways in which physical spaces hold emotional weight, Piku offers a tender demonstration
on what it means to inhabit a home, and how the architecture of our lives is built as much by bricks as by relationships, habits, and unspoken histories.
References:
Gautam, S. (2021, July 7). Wise window of yore. Times of India. Avaiable at: https://www.telegraphindia.com/culture/all-about-calcuttas-louvered-windows/cid/1821642
Nambiar, S. (2024, February 18). A charming Art Deco bungalow in Kolkata gets a contemporary makeover. Architectural Digest India. Available at: https://www.architecturaldigest.in/story/a-charming-art-deco-bungalow-in-kolkata-gets-a-contemporary-makeover-pooja-bihani-spaces-and-design/
Chaudhuri, A. (2020, September 23). Calcutta’s architecture is unique. Its destruction is a disaster for the city. The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jul/02/calcutta-architecture-heritage-destruction-city-campaign-amit-chaudhuri
Image Sources:
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