Ok, before we go into the review, here’s a mini questionnaire to decide your eligibility to watch ‘Phata Poster Nikla Hero’.
#1 Do you get tickled when a comic background score starts playing in a movie? Yes/No
#2 Do you start laughing when the hero sneezes? Yes/No
#3 Do you burst out into laughter when a character steps on banana peel and slips? Yes/No
If your answer for any of them is YES, watch ‘Phata Poster Nikla Hero’ right away. This movie perfectly matches your awesome standards of humour.
Yes! That’s what ‘Phata Poster..’ offers and expects us to roll on the floor and laugh for the awful humour. Written and directed by Raj Kumar Santoshi (yes, the same person who gave Andaaz Apna Apna, Lajja, Pukar and Khakee), this movie is a rotten comedy, which tries too hard to make the audience laugh, but all in futile.
The hero of the phata poster is Vishwas Rao (Shahid Kapoor), who aspires to be an actor right from his childhood. Vishwas’s ‘maa’ (Padmini Kolhapure) is a single mother, who wishes her son to become a ‘good’ cop. Under some supposedly funny circumstances, Vishwas is mistaken as a cop and the story gives rise to ‘comical’ twists and turns. As a bonus, the audience gets to witness some supposedly heart-wrenching sentimental scenes between the ‘maa’ and the ‘beta’, too.
Except for a couple of sequences, ‘Phata Poster..’ is a failed attempt at humour. Raj Kumar Santoshi seems to be under the illusion that his writing shall definitely make the audience laugh, because he has given a cult comedy like Andaaz Apna Apna, 19 years ago (Sorry Sir, two decades is a very long time to base your confidence upon). Not to forget, the weak writing goes hand in hand with the annoying antics of Shahid Kapoor. His comic timing works partly, but most of the times, he is either doing an Aamir or making some funny faces frustrating the viewer even more. Saurabh Shukla, Zakhir Hussain have donned some ridiculous roles, despite being actors with great calibre.
‘Phata Poster..’ might get on to your nerves, and so much that you really want to tear the poster onthe multiplex hoarding as soon as you exit the hall.
Reviewed by Rag Mayur
