The performances are pitch perfect, with A-lister Khan proving yet again that he's the most versatile and intelligent Indian actor of his generation. The result is probably the best mainstream Hindi film of 2014.

The focus... gets diluted by a wholly superfluous romance (and songs, tuneful as a couple are), and a face-off between the guy awash in goodness who asks all the right questions and the bad godman who has all the wrong answers.

The film deftly pokes fun at the foibles of earthlings -- especially their warring religions -- with warmth and compassion, and shines a light on the contradictions of India's strict but unwritten social rules.

Directed and co-written by Rajkumar Hirani, PK is at once hilarious, romantic, and heartbreaking, while still affording itself room to critique institutionalized religion.