It’s really a noteworthy coincidence that last week we had SHUBH MANGAL SAAVDHAN, remake of a Tamil film talking about ‘Erectile Dysfunction or ‘Temporary Impotence’. And this week we have POSTER BOYS, remake of a Marathi film revolving around the subject of Vasectomy (Nasbandi) by men in particular. Now if this clearly doesn’t prove the fact that the Indian regional language cinema is miles ahead than our Hindi cinema at the present, then I cannot say what else will!
Anyway moving on to the film, POSTER BOYS is a fine remake of Shreyas Talpade’s home production in Marathi titled POSHTER BOYZ revolving around three men who mistakenly get featured on a State sponsored poster publicizing Vasectomy (Nasbandi) in men. Reportedly based on a true incident, Shreyas directs the Hindi version himself making a fine debut besides playing the most entertaining lead role along with the Deol brothers. Religiously following the original film, he more or less makes a fine adaptation that might not be a continuous laugh riot, but does have its entertaining sequences and cracking dialogues coming at short intervals.
Stating its downers, a few supporting characters turn out to be crude and forcibly inserted to bring in the timely laughter (like Bharti Achrekar and loud Ashwini Kalsekar). Dialogues of Sunny Deol’s hit films and references of his physical strength are once again used for the obvious sounding highly repetitive (stop doing that please!). The common man angle with video-clips of supporting celebrities also seems to be used numerous times before. And the film is deliberately stretched having a novel but very thin plot line ending on an exaggerated note.
Yet why it is still not a dud? That’s because of its three lead actors giving entertaining and likable performances as three innocent victims. Though the most hilarious act expectedly comes from the director Shreyas Talpade himself, it’s the presence of Sunny Deol that undoubtedly gives the film its much required boost both in terms of commercial value as well as entertainment. Sunny remains adorable throughout (especially with his pouts) playing the elderly figure caught in an embarrassing situation and Bobby supports them both well with his funny facial expressions and weird night-suits. Sonali Kulkarni, Murli Sharma, Sachin Khedekar and other supporting actors are just okay in their given roles.
With nothing exclusive in its cinematography or background scrore, POSTER BOYS also loses marks in its music department (most of the films do nowadays) and remakes a track “Kudiyan Shehar Diyan” that was already a part of an old Sunny Deol film titled ARJUN PANDIT released in 1999. So here we have a rare example when the same song is used again in a different film of the same actor after two decades.
In all, POSTER BOYS has occasional funny moments and a courageous novel plot resulting in a fair one time watch entertainer led by Sunny Deol. But it has one appreciable feature which forces me to rate it above average supporting the noble thought. And it is the reminder given in the end about our alarming rise in population becoming the basic cause all major problems faced by the country.
So where no political party or visionary leader is willing to talk about this crucial issue of population, here is an Indian film that thankfully does the same showing us the mirror.
Rating : 3 / 5
-----------
Making an intelligent change in the Hindi remake of his Marathi movie (as an actor-producer), the debutant director Shreyas Talpade replaces the character of a 60+ old man with a middle aged person in POSTER BOYS played by Sunny Deol, which positively works for the movie (in commercial terms too) made on an unconventional subject of Vasectomy (Nasbandi in men).
Though not a hilarious script throughout, the film becomes a fine one time watch entertainer due to its three lead performances with the best coming from the director himself, which is nothing short of a worth applauding achievement by Shreyas.
So do watch it with low expectations giving POSTER BOYS its deserving brownie points for an unusual, novel subject and the important social message about our alarming rise in population given in in the end.
