PHATA POSTER NIKHLA HERO 2 stars
Beware what might seem a benign family drama, is a crap all the way!
Rajkumar Santoshi and Tips Music Films are synonymous with the critically acclaimed THE LEGEND OF BHAGAT SINGH and the commercially well-turned AJAB PREM KI GHAZAB KAHANI. Concretely, the versatile director is known for his works like GHAYAL & DAMINI, which won him the coveted Filmfare Best Director Award. With ANDAZ APNA APNA, he turned the dice and had given a cult comedy to Indian cinema. He continued his winning streak with family comedy ala AJAB PREM KI GHAZAB KAHANI. But he fell short of the expectations in his latest endeavour. He carries the hangover of Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani and directed a mindless comedy, which, in fact, is a spoof on the low IQ comedies churning out of Bollywood. One wonders if Santoshi has stuck to the same formula seeing this movie lacks surprise, soul & even a STORY to hold the zest of the audiences. Santoshi himself, is the dialogue cum screenplay writer of the movie. He might have run out of his mind this time.
Vishwas Rao (Shahid Kapoor) is a film buff since childhood, son of a single mother cum auto driver Savitri (Padmini Kolhapure) in a small town named Shirgaon, whose sole dream is to see her son grow up into an honest police officer. However, after dodging continuously the police selection exam, he comes to Jogi Bhai (Sanjay Mishra) in the city of dreams. After a photoshoot, he retains his khaki attire on the insistence of his photographer and gets mistaken by a social activist cum reporter Kajal (Ileana D'Cruz) as a police officer. Being an inherently righteous man, he saves the victims and manages to catch the attention of dons as his mavericks were resulting in their losses. Preparing for a giant mission called The White Elephant, the dons gear up to find the mischief maker. However, he is victimised only when his mother comes to Mumbai and gets to know that her son isn’t a cop but an actor. The story from then on moves to juggle between Vishwas’ personal life and how he gets stuck on with don Gundappa (Saurabh Shukla) and then the police (Zakir Hussain) for posing as an imposter. Does he manage to scrape through forms the proceedings & crux of the tale!
The only good thing is Shahid Kapoor. He slips in his role with great ease. Though, neither his acting nor his dance skills have been utilised to the fullest. He's capable of doing much more but ultimately restricted to overacting. He tries too hard to carry the burden of a soulless movie, particulary in scenes with the Director (Tinu Anand) and confronting his mother in the hospital but falls short of the expectations. He's simply brilliant in the aforesaid scenes. He somehow manages an impressionable portrayal through dance, comic timing and raw action (Kanal Kannan & Tinu Verma). Salman Khan scene stealing cameo will keep the audiences rolling with laughter. He's completely natural here.
The movie barely has a script. It is a messy hodgepodge of action, romance, humor & melodrama. Every time the action & songs come out of nowhere & they make no sense. The dialogues are plain ordinary. There are scenes of genuine laughs, provided by the brilliant Sanjay Mishra, but they are few & far between. The love angle is immature. The actors are only limited to over the top acting. Ileana is wasted & remains so plastic throughout the movie. All her scenes are unwanted. Padmini Kolhapure acts with aplomb. No words could compliment her acting. Mukesh Tiwari, Darshan Jariwala, Rana Jung Bahadur, Navin Prabhakar, Ishtiyaq, Vishwanath, Neeraj Vora, Shiva Natarajan, Mithilesh Chaturvedi, Pradeep Choudhary, Viju Khote, Deepak Pandit and Abhay Bhargava are wasted. Zakir Hussain, Saurabh Shukla and Sanjay Mishra are excellent. They are true to what they do best. The direction is ordinary. Pritam has done it again. His songs are already chartbusters but that merely couldn't save the movie.
To sum up, Phata Poster Nikla Hero is an insipid & dull affair. The spectators will be exhausted till the climax & will rip your senses apart. Skip this one for sure and opt for Santoshi's earlier works instead.
Beware what might seem a benign family drama, is a crap all the way!
Rajkumar Santoshi and Tips Music Films are synonymous with the critically acclaimed THE LEGEND OF BHAGAT SINGH and the commercially well-turned AJAB PREM KI GHAZAB KAHANI. Concretely, the versatile director is known for his works like GHAYAL & DAMINI, which won him the coveted Filmfare Best Director Award. With ANDAZ APNA APNA, he turned the dice and had given a cult comedy to Indian cinema. He continued his winning streak with family comedy ala AJAB PREM KI GHAZAB KAHANI. But he fell short of the expectations in his latest endeavour. He carries the hangover of Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani and directed a mindless comedy, which, in fact, is a spoof on the low IQ comedies churning out of Bollywood. One wonders if Santoshi has stuck to the same formula seeing this movie lacks surprise, soul & even a STORY to hold the zest of the audiences. Santoshi himself, is the dialogue cum screenplay writer of the movie. He might have run out of his mind this time.
Vishwas Rao (Shahid Kapoor) is a film buff since childhood, son of a single mother cum auto driver Savitri (Padmini Kolhapure) in a small town named Shirgaon, whose sole dream is to see her son grow up into an honest police officer. However, after dodging continuously the police selection exam, he comes to Jogi Bhai (Sanjay Mishra) in the city of dreams. After a photoshoot, he retains his khaki attire on the insistence of his photographer and gets mistaken by a social activist cum reporter Kajal (Ileana D'Cruz) as a police officer. Being an inherently righteous man, he saves the victims and manages to catch the attention of dons as his mavericks were resulting in their losses. Preparing for a giant mission called The White Elephant, the dons gear up to find the mischief maker. However, he is victimised only when his mother comes to Mumbai and gets to know that her son isn’t a cop but an actor. The story from then on moves to juggle between Vishwas’ personal life and how he gets stuck on with don Gundappa (Saurabh Shukla) and then the police (Zakir Hussain) for posing as an imposter. Does he manage to scrape through forms the proceedings & crux of the tale!
The only good thing is Shahid Kapoor. He slips in his role with great ease. Though, neither his acting nor his dance skills have been utilised to the fullest. He's capable of doing much more but ultimately restricted to overacting. He tries too hard to carry the burden of a soulless movie, particulary in scenes with the Director (Tinu Anand) and confronting his mother in the hospital but falls short of the expectations. He's simply brilliant in the aforesaid scenes. He somehow manages an impressionable portrayal through dance, comic timing and raw action (Kanal Kannan & Tinu Verma). Salman Khan scene stealing cameo will keep the audiences rolling with laughter. He's completely natural here.
The movie barely has a script. It is a messy hodgepodge of action, romance, humor & melodrama. Every time the action & songs come out of nowhere & they make no sense. The dialogues are plain ordinary. There are scenes of genuine laughs, provided by the brilliant Sanjay Mishra, but they are few & far between. The love angle is immature. The actors are only limited to over the top acting. Ileana is wasted & remains so plastic throughout the movie. All her scenes are unwanted. Padmini Kolhapure acts with aplomb. No words could compliment her acting. Mukesh Tiwari, Darshan Jariwala, Rana Jung Bahadur, Navin Prabhakar, Ishtiyaq, Vishwanath, Neeraj Vora, Shiva Natarajan, Mithilesh Chaturvedi, Pradeep Choudhary, Viju Khote, Deepak Pandit and Abhay Bhargava are wasted. Zakir Hussain, Saurabh Shukla and Sanjay Mishra are excellent. They are true to what they do best. The direction is ordinary. Pritam has done it again. His songs are already chartbusters but that merely couldn't save the movie.
To sum up, Phata Poster Nikla Hero is an insipid & dull affair. The spectators will be exhausted till the climax & will rip your senses apart. Skip this one for sure and opt for Santoshi's earlier works instead.
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