Dharmendra, Sony Pictures Networks Productions, Sunny Sounds Pvt. Ltd. and Affluence Movies Pvt. Ltd.’s Poster Boys (UA) is the story of three men who find themselves as the faces of the government’s nasbandi campaign although none of them has undergone the vasectomy surgery as claimed in the posters.
Jagawar Chaudhary (Sunny Deol) is in seventh heaven as his younger sister, Anjali (Lovely Singh), is to be engaged today. However, the to-be groom’s father calls off the marriage at the last moment as, according to him, Jagawar has brought disrepute to his own (Jagawar’s) family and, therefore, to the groom’s family too.
On the same day, school teacher Vinay Sharma’s (Bobby Deol) wife, Soorajmukhi (Samiksha Bhatnagar), reaches his school and tells him that she wants to divorce him. Saying this, she leaves their two little daughters with him and walks out.
On the same day, Arjun Singh (Shreyas Talpade) and his parents go to his girlfriend, Riya’s (Tripti Dimri), house to finalise his marriage with her, but Riya’s father (Ravi Jhankal) insults Arjun and refuses to marry his daughter to a man like Arjun.
Soon, Jagawar, Vinay and Arjun realise that they had had to face the wrath of their near ones because posters of the three of them exhorting people to go in for sterilisation, as they themselves had done, had come up all over their town. The sterilisation posters, with their photographs on them, had made the trio the butt end of jokes in the town and had led to the severing of relations as above. Since none of them had actually undergone the operation, they are perplexed and take up the matter with the health department officials. They soon learn that their photographs had been randomly used, without their permission. They now want the health department to clear their names in society so that they would not be the butt end of jokes and also so that the people (the to-be in-laws of Jagawar’s sister, Vinay’s wife, and Arjun’s to-be father-in-law) who had taken hasty decisions because of the family planning posters, would reverse their decisions.
The film traces the joint journey of the three innocent men dragged into a controversy for no fault of theirs. When the authorites fail to correct the situation, the trio goes to court and finally seeks public support to their fight with the government.
The film is a remake of Marathi film Poster Boyz. Shreyas Talpade’s story is interesting as it is replete with humour and comedy right from the start till the end. The screenplay, written by Shreyas Talpade, Paritosh Painter and Bunty Rathore, is both, entertaining and engaging. The humour quotient in the screenplay is so high that it keeps the audience laughing throughout. While many scenes are funny, there are some which will bring the house down with laughter. There are several comedy scenes/sequences which are simply hilarious: for instance, the scene in which the gynaecologist (Ashwini Kalsekar) is all set to examine Riya; the scene in which television viewers react to the three men taking off their clothes on the dais in a public place, one by one; the scenes in which Vinay keeps forgetting something or the other and has to refer to his book; the scene in which Jagawar rejoices over his Sheela delivering a baby; the one in which the trio meets the photographer and his assistant; the scenes in which an unstoppable Soorajmukhi fights with her docile husband, Vinay; etc. A minus point about the screenplay is that a single point has been stretched so much that it looks a bit far-fetched at times. Another weak point is that the screenplay sometimes gives the feeling of a stage-play rather than a film. Bunty Rathore and Paritosh Painter’s dialogues are extraordinary and contribute a great deal to the humour, fun, frolic and comedy. The duo has made intelligent use of popular dialogues from Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol’s past films and equally intelligent references to the two actors’ past films (eg. Soldier song ring tone, Border).
Sunny Deol is endearing as Jagawar Chaudhary. He delivers a fine performance and is good in comedy. The scenes in which he loses his temper are extremely enjoyable. His selfie sceneas are also entertaining. Bobby Deol is very nice as the simpleton teacher, Vinay Sharma. Shreyas Talpade’s comic sense of timing is superb. His acting is terrific. Sonali Kulkarni is effective as Jagawar’s wife, Sunita Chaudhary. Samiksha Bhatnagar is wonderful as Vinay’s wife, Soorajmukhi. Tripti Dimri makes quite a nice debut in the role of Riya. Ajit Palawat (as Arjun’s friend, Murari) and Tasha Bhamra (as Arjun’s friend, Kishan) are truly terrific. Ashwini Kalsekar is outstanding as the gynaecologist. Sachin Khedekar lends dignity to his character of the chief minister. Bharti Achrekar leaves a mark in a brief role. Murali Sharma makes his presence felt as the health minister. Lovely Singh (as Anjali) and Randhir Rai (as Jagawar’s younger brother) provide good support. Ravi Jhankal is natural to the core as Riya’s father. Jitendra Joshi (as the photographer) and Meghna Irande (as the photographer’s assistant) are terrific in the single scene in which they appear. Brij Shukla is first-rate as Mongia. Rohini Somkumar (as Mongia’s assistant) is also lovely. Farhana Fatema leaves her mark as Rekha. Raashul Tandon is effective as reporter Aniket. Jiten Mukhi (as Balwant Chokan) and Jayesh Thakkar (as Balwant Chokan’s assistant, Ravi) are fantastic. Rajesh Khatri (as Arjun’s father), Shabnam Vadhera (as Arjun’s mother), Kamal Adib (as the judge), Aparna Ghoshal (as Riya’s mother), Tanya Babbar (as Riya’s friend), Sunita Shirole (as Riya’s grandmother), Ramshekhar Pathak (as Soorajmukhi’s father), Aditi Bahl (as Soorajmukhi’s mother), Bunty Rathod (as Subhash Offsetwala), Vikram Dahiya (as the chaiwala at Subhash Offset), Rama Ahuja (as Anjali’s to-be husband, Sunil), Jaywant Raval (as Sunil’s father) and Urmila Sharma (as Sunil’s mother) lend excellent support. Ajay Devgan, Parineeti Chopra, Tusshar Kapoor, Arshad Warsi, Kunal Khemu, Rohit Shetty and Ganesh Acharya (all from the unit of Golmaal Again) make exciting special appearances.
Shreyas Talpade’s direction is very nice. He has kept the entertainment quotient high consistently. Music (Tanishk Bagchi, Rishi Rich, Sunai Marathe & Shreyas Iyengar, and Sonny Ravan) is okay and doesn’t add much to the film. Hit songs could’ve made a big difference. Lyrics (Shabbir Ahmed, Kumaar, Saurabh Pandey and Sonny Ravan) are okay. Ganesh Acharya’s choreography is fair. Amar Mohile’s background music is alright and although it sounds dated, it goes with the mood of the film. Nigam Bamzan’s camerawork is good. Somenath Pakre’s production designing is fair. Devendra Murdeshwar’s editing is suitably sharp.
On the whole, Poster Boys is a thoroughly engaging entertainer and has the potential to do well at the box-office. But lack of promotion will come in the way of realisation of its full potential.