What would one say of a film that kicks off with an item number in the opening credits? Poster Boys is old fashioned filmmaking that bats it way too straight.
All hell breaks loose in three households in Jangethi village. Army man Jagawar Chowdhury (Sunny Deol) finds his sister’s engagement called off, the forgetful school teacher Vinay Sharma (Bobby Deol) finds his wife walking out on him and recovery agent Arjun (Shreyas Talpade) is shown the door by his prospective in-laws.
All because the three have been featured in a vasectomy poster without their permission. Why so much hullabaloo? Well all for some silliness, quick repartee and gags. A few of these do manage to hit home but the humour remains largely loud and coarse, crass and full of innuendoes.
Not offensive so much as infantile. And every single character is a cartoon. But eventually it becomes all about delivering a half-hearted earnest lecture on family planning, male psyche and masculinity and the girl child.
Bobby Deol delivers his best performance and I mean it. Only he can carry a yellow Hello Kitty nightsuit (along with the rest of his filmi family) with such unquestioning matter-of-factness. Sunny Deol, his obsession with selfies and pouts notwithstanding, towers over all with his sombre ways.
It’s a certain indulgence for old world masculinity that Sunny personified (the kind that is not about taking the shirt off) once upon a time that makes the film coast along with him. But the constant referencing to Deols’ films, songs and dialogues gets stretched beyond a point. After he wrenched out the famous handpump in Gadar getting Sunny to rip out fences and break locks just won’t do.