CAST: Bobby Deol, Sunny Deol, Shreyas Talpade, Sonali Kulkarni
DIRECTION: Shreyas Talpade
GENRE: Drama
DURATION: 2 hours 11 minutes
STORY
Set in a North Indian village, three distinct men – local goon Arjun (Shreyas), retired army officer Jagawar Chaudhry (Sunny) and school teacher Vinay (Bobby) are shocked to find themselves becoming the ‘poster boys’ of male sterilisation after their pictures randomly appear on a public service ad promoting vasectomy. They are soon subjected to public shaming.
The three embark on a mission to fight the system that wrongly pronounced them ‘sterile’ without their consent or knowledge. The film is a Hindi remake of Sameer Patil’s 2014 Marathi film Poshter Boyz.
REVIEW
The best part about Shreyas Talpade’s unsuspecting debut film as a director is the fact that he doesn’t try too hard to make his characters look or sound funny. They are just common people stuck in an uncommon situation and must deal with it. Their ways to prove their innocence are as ineffective but that makes you identify with their trauma. What’s also refreshing is Shreyas’ decision to not follow the ‘Bollywood comedy’ template by making his sensitive subject seem frivolous. Of course there are enough silly metaphors that refer to the male reproductive tract but those can be overlooked, given the significance and sensitivity he lends to the topic otherwise.
Credit also goes to the writers for localising the Hindi adaptation and comic punches well. But what pleasantly surprises you the most is the hilarious Deol brothers jugalbandi in a never-seen-before comic avatar. Shreyas extracts the best out of them and it is their comic timing and odd tributes to each other’s previous hit films that amuse you the most. Ashwini Kalsekar and Talpade’s sidekicks too deserve a special mention for cracking some quirky one liners.
This dramedy that revolves around men who unknowingly promote ‘Bina taka nasbandi operation’ is a light-hearted and clever take on the population problem that plagues our nation.