PK: Watch Aamir Khan's Wide-Eyed Wonder In First Trailer

3 Idiots was a universally acclaimed comedy placing the 40-something Khan as a mercurial spectre of three friends' college past. In the five years since, Khan has gone on to make one critically acclaimed thriller in Talaash, and Bollywood's biggest grosser ever, Dhoom:3, in which he supplants the series' regulars with his villainous turn. Hirani, meanwhile, appears to have waited to get Khan back, and the result is PK.

PK appears to be a film about a childlike, one might even say elfin, man who approaches the world with a sense of wonder. He finds a friend, and maybe more, in the always bubbly and enjoyable Anushka Sharma. Both Khan and Sharma are almost always a joy to see on screen, even in films that don't match their particular talents well, so the idea of a combination of the two is quite enticing.

I must say, though, that the trailer looks quite like India's 2012 Oscar submission, Barfi, in which a deaf mute Ranbir Kapoor delights and enthralls as a Buster Keaton-ish imp. The parallels are hard to miss, however, based upon Hirani and Khan's track record, I'm willing to give this one a shot. It looks really fun, and I can't ask for much more than that

PK opens worldwide on December 19.