Actress: Ileana DCruz, Padmini Kolhapure
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Release Date: 20th September, 2013
Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Ileana D’Cruz, Padmini Kolhapure
Director: Rajkumar Santoshi
Producer/s: Ramesh Taurani, Ronnie Screwvala, Siddharth Roy Kapur
Plot: Phata Poster Nikhla Hero follows the story of Vishwas Rao, an aspiring actor mistaken as a super cop.
Rating: /5 stars (Two and Half Stars)
Star cast: Shahid Kapoor, Ileana D’Cruz, Padmini Kolhapure
Director: Rajkumar Santoshi
What’s Good: It is an out and out masala flick that will have crack you up in its hilarious moments and Shahid will entice you with his action!
What’s Bad: Ileana D’Cruz is shamelessly plastic and the film’s melodramatic moments are let downs.
Loo break:Â Depends on the cinema you prefer.
Watch or Not?:Â Rajkumar Santoshi has stuffed his vast knowledge of commercial cinema well in Phata Poster Nikhla Hero. It is another formulaic film with a rather simple story at its core. If entertainment is all you expect from films, this one won’t hurt much in its first half. It has a hero who smashes, thrashes and makes you laugh all with equal ease! I won’t call it a must watch since the film becomes a drab post-interval with its dwindling laughter and story going haywire but nevertheless you can give this one a shot. It won’t be entirely regrettable!
User Rating:
Vishwas Rao is a film buff, son of a single mother whose only dream in life is to see her son grow up into a police officer. However, after dodging continuously the police selection exam, the city of dreams comes calling to him. After a photoshoot, he retains his khaki attire and gets mistaken by a social activist Kajal as a police officer.
Being an inherently righteous man, he saves the victims and manages to catch the fancy of dons as his mavericks were resulting in their losses. Preparing for a giant mission, the dons gear up to find the mischief maker. However, he falls prey only when his mother comes to Mumbai and finds out 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 entrapped with the don and then the police for posing as an imposter. Does he manage to scrape through is what is laid out in film!
Phata Poster Nikhla Hero Review: Script Analysis
There is barely a script and more of a melodrama mishmash which is poured in a comic broth. An aspiring actor’s mother wants him to become a police officer…oops an honest police officer because his father was an evil man who abandoned his family ruthlessly! The film evolves into a comedy of errors initially where everyone keeps mistaking the fake cop for a real one! A particular scene where Shahid follows Salman Khan and Dabangg Khan gets scared because of his unfortunate relationship with Police is funny. Somehow he is never perceived as a man who could make fun of himself, but that one scene is chucklesome. The action in the first half is visceral and enjoyable. The aspiring hero dupes his mother that he is a cop, while he was still struggling to be an actor.
The good thing about the script is it doesn’t plagarize without giving the needed credit – be it Munnabhai or Don, the film acknowledges the source they have borrowed the concept from. This is enough to indicate that this is an unintelligent , unoriginal work that is is shocking because of Rajkumar Santoshi’s name being associated with it.
The clap-traps are packed in multitudes. The story reeks of semblance and even the film’s execution is very uninspiring. The climax was predictable and the dialogues are such that you can mouth them way before Shahid can. The lead man is a feeble caricature with nothing new to offer. He is appealing in parts but in the emotional scenes he falls whereas he wastes his comic sense in overacting.
It is a mawkishly written story with empty characters. Had the script maintained the tempo of its first half, it could have been quite bearable. There was mirth and excitement which falls flat gradually after the interval. A bimaar maa takes over the chagrin of the story and alas, the dutiful son doesn’t impress much henceforth. The climax is funny exactly when it should have stayed grim. Playing with a biochemical bomb was outrageously silly.
Among the better bits, Padmini Kolhapure manages to flourish a great performance. Her character’s sternness is wonderful and she manages to command gravity in her role while the others kept withering over the run time.
Phata Poster Nikhla Hero Review: Star Performances
Shahid Kapoor is clearly trying his hand in a genre that isn’t his forte. But he isn’t terrible. Despite the efforted stammering and overacting, sometime the actor manages to rise above his and the film’s flaws to manage an impressionable portrayal.
A large part of why Shahid cannot bloom out his best is possibly because Ileana is insanely superficial and so plastic that you won’t recognize her as the woman who put up a spirited act in Barfi. Incessantly high and so sweet that might risk diabetes, Ileana doesn’t show a swell in a single frame.
Actors like Saurabh Shukla and Sanjay Mishra have essayed mockery roles and have been left unused all through with characters who are easily forgettable.
It is only Padmini Kolhapure who does her job to perfection. As the loving mother and woman of principles, she is near marvelous but her co-actors defy her novel intention of making the film entertaining.
Phata Poster Nikhla Hero Review: Direction, Editing and Music
Rajkumar Santoshi is easily a director whom most film critics must have idolized for years! With genius films like Lajja or even The Legend of Bhagat Singh, there is a sense of familiarity movie buffs have for the cinematic persona of this man – who stands tall by virtue of his works. But this film comes across as sheer betrayal to his fans and I will take a while to recuperate from this hefty blow. I don’t say this was as much of an ordeal as Family but this is definitely beneath his standard. Even in comedies, Santoshi has given Bollywood a laugh riot like Andaaz Apna Apna. In the first part, the film remains concrete but his vision is disrupted only when the film moves towards a more emotional side. With quite an over the top melodrama infused, the claps and the laughter will shush soon after the break. The screenplay is absolutely goofed up and the dialogues lose their fizz over time.
Though the music is perceived to be well-liked; for me most songs were duds. Atif doesn’t do anything as well as painful romantic numbers or just romantic numbers, beyond that his limitations begin to surface. Item Number Dhating Naach is a bore on screen and Nargis Fakhri is not a favorable choice for item songs!
Phata Poster Nikhla Hero Review: The Last Word
I haven’t really enjoyed the film after a certain point, yet I will try to be benevolent enough to mark it judiciously. PPNH has a mangled up, messily fabricated screenplay with actors who remain overtly ordinary. I found the story converging into an insipid and dull affair. Honestly Shahid could have been more suited had he found more compatible co-actors but with his limited versatility this is all he could manage. The film snail paced its way towards a less magnanimous and more exhausting climax than one would have expected. For the laborious work in the first half I am giving the film 2.5/5. If you are leading a very monotonous life and cinema is your only respite, then this would be recommended to you!
Phata Poster Nikhla Hero Trailer
Phata Poster Nikhla Hero releases on 20th September, 2013.
Share with us your experience of watching Phata Poster Nikhla Hero .
Now, enjoy reading koimoi.com on your Android Smartphone. Download the FREE App right here.
