Movie Review: Phata Poster Nikla Hero

• Direction
• Acting
• Story
• Music

Plonked in my seat, I kept juggling with genres – is it a comedy, a thriller, a masala film, comic caper – where do I slot “Phata Poster Nikla Hero?” Neither did the film make me laugh my guts out, cry my eyes out or shut my mouth up. I honestly watched it unfazed, and a little disappointed because coming from filmmaker Raj Kumar Santoshi, I expected the same effect as his previous films, the iconic “Andaz Apna Apna” and “Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani.” I’m going to agree with film critic Shubhra Gupta here – it is a one-line plot that Santoshi has stretched to a two-and-a-half hour big yawn. A conscientious mother (Padmini Kolhapuri) who wants her son to be this “imaandaar” police officer. Her son (Shahid Kapur) dreams of being a hero. Somehow, he reaches Mumbai, and lands himself in a film, but through a series of very boring misunderstandings, manages to make his mother believe he is an honest goon-bashing-justice-delivering cop. In steps “running to the cops with every kind of complaint Kajal” (Ileana D’Cruz), guruji Sanjay Mishra and his “actors ki tolli,” real goons – funny man Saurabh Shukla as Gundapa and a mysterious character called Napolean - who are working on some project “White Elephant.” The film starts on a peppy note and sets a pace, but it loses all steam post Kapur’s naach gaana and dishum dishum. It’s only towards the end that Santoshi’s real hold on comedy is seen, but in flashes. If only more time as given to the concept, witty story writing and edgier scenes, the film would’ve actually been the real hero.

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