Monday, September 11, 2017
Poster Boys
The Dreaded Cut
The Marathi original of this film was out in 2014, but the Hindi Poster Boys comes out at a time when Bollywood is discovering a tone of frankness about matters sexual. And it has the Deol brothers lending it their muscle; probably for the first time they are doing a film like this. Unfortunately that also means that the film is peppered with references to their old hits.
So, what happens is that a retired armyman Jagaavar (Sunny Deol), a timid teacher Vinay (Bobby Deol) and a recovery agent Arjun (Sheyas Talpade, also the director) find themselves in a poster about the benefit of vasectomy. They are understandably appalled, because in an Indian village (or a city for that matter) ‘nasbandi’ means loss of manhood.
Actually, such a thing should not be cause of laughter for more than half an hour—dragging it over a full length feature means padding with tasteless gags, shriek women and generally ear-splitting decibel levels.
Last week’s Shubh Mangal Saavdhan had dealt with erectile dysfunction with sympathy and a lot of gentle comedy The problem of miscommunication that these three villagers face could do with some deft humour, even if some of it was crass. But Talpade perhaps believed that our audiences would not be able to appreciate subtlety and never allows for a moment of quiet introspection. Before taking their fight to the indifferent bureaucrats who caused them this embarrassment, they would, for instance, stop to think why their loved ones won’t believe them when they have they haven’t had that dreaded snip. And if they have, it’s hardly the end of the world, the way people around them behave.
Some gags do raise laughs, but on the whole it is much ado about nothing. If anything Poster Boys might just resurrect Bobby Deol’s dormant career, as a comic actor this time.
Labels: Cinemaah
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