Thursday 13 February 2014

Phata Poster Nikla Hero

This movie turned out to be surprisingly entertaining. I watched it more than half expecting to cringe or, at best, feel meh towards it like the last few Shahid movies I've seen. Maybe it was the low expectation that helped. Plus I'm in an easily amused sort of mood lately, so that probably helped as well. Also, I haven't seen the director, Rajkumar Santhoshi's older film Andaz Apna Apna, to which this seemed to be compared unfavourably a lot. Net result, I laughed a fair bit and enjoyed myself quite.

I did almost give up when the post interval ma sentiment section hit, but I'm glad I stuck with it. In retrospect, I can see what the director was going for with that. I do wish, however, that they'd toned down the same sentiment bit at the very end. It didn't hurt my grin too much. Turned it into a slight grimace that turned back into a grin with the last line of Vishwas to guruji.

I was also going to complain about the gratuitous muscle man shot in the climax, but on second thoughts, maybe that too fits in with the overall idea of the film.

One other false note was the romance angle. There were places where it was a little too earnest and none of the romantic songs worked for me (not counting Agal Bagal, which of course isn't a romantic song really). Thankfully, the romance went back to lighthearted territory again before too long. The look on Vishwas's face in the climax action sequence when he sees Kajal chasing the gunda was adorable. It was actually refreshing to see a heroine (even if she was a little hare brained at times) who was being active and driving the story forward rather than standing around crying and/or being pretty much pointless.

Overall, this movie is definitely worth a watch for the laughs and gags, even though post interval these are admittedly a little forced. I wouldn't call this a comedy classic by any means, but it is certainly far better than at least one other recent comedy bollywood film I've seen - Chennai Express. That movie shifted gears to turn all serious as well but it did it in earnest and was intolerable. The performances here are much better as well. I guess the only reason that film did way better than this one was because of the blind devotion to Shah Rukh Khan that even a few of my friends are guilty of. Pity really.

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