Helmet Movie Review: The Khurrana brothers seems to have made it a mission to expose our society for its narrow-minded outlook towards what are perceived to be taboo subjects. Bade bhaiyya Ayushmann Khurrana had endeared himself to fans and critics by having his films explore themes like semen donation, homosexuality, erectile dysfunction, geriatric pregnancy et al. Now young bro Aparshakti Khurana plays the lead in Helmet, that propagates the importance of contraceptives in a country that is bursting on the seams with its uncontrollable population explosion. Helmet: Abhishek Banerjee Feels There Shouldn’t Be Any Shame Attached to the Word ‘Condom’ in Daily Life.

Helmet is directed by Satramm Ramani, who has also co-written the script along with Gopal Mudhane, and Rohan Shankar. Releasing directly on Zee5, the trailer of Helmet has already caught the attention of viewers with its interesting premise and comic nature.

Aparshakti plays Lucky, a singer in a wedding band in a town in Uttar Pradesh. He is in love with Rupali, a spunky girl of a rich father (Ashish Vidyarthi), who of course, is against this relationship. He challenges Lucky to make enough money to start his own band, and then ask for his daughter's hand. Rupali is played Pranutan Bahl, actor Mohnish Bahl's daughter, one of the rare finds of Salman Khan who can act (see the underrated, and much better, Notebook for reference). Here too, Pranutan lights up the screen every time she appears, and makes us wish that other big banners would notice her soon enough.

Watch the Trailer:

Returning to the plot, to earn a quick buck, Lucky decides to steal a consignment from a delivery company where his acquaintance is working. He believes the consignment has mobile phones, which he can sell on black market and earn lakhs. He recruits two of his friends for the task.

One of the friends is Sultan, played by Abhishek Banerjee, an actor who can do no wrong in any role he is in, be it the meek Jaana in Stree or the ruthless Hathoda Tyagi of Pataal Lok. He can easily do better than Helmet, but he is good in every scene he is in here. The other friend is Minus, played by Ashish Verma, and he is little hard of hearing. You know what that means. Yes, a lot of jokes about him mishearing things, that aren't as funny as they should have been. Helmet: Pranutan Bahl Shares Her Experience of Working With the Team, Says ‘It Was Full on Entertainment’.

So with these two, Lucky manages to steal a consignment, only that it turns out to be boxes of condoms. Now I have a problem with this sequence. First of all, I do not know who is more naive here - the heroes or the scriptwriters - that no one bothered to find out what consignment the company transports. Secondly, why no red flags were raised when they picked up the boxes and found them to, of course, light-weighted. Sure, Minus makes a remark that they are phones without SIMs, which we are supposed to take as a joke, but he was damn serious when he said it.

And thirdly, the truckloads of condoms being ferried to a town actually goes against the dilemma of Helmet. We have been shown again and again how inhabitants of the town detest even talking about condoms. The local chemist later tells our boys that the sales of condoms are low, so if there is such low demand why are so much supplies being sent on weekly basis?

Okay, let me blame that on the film's cinematic freedom to go beyond basic economics, and return myself to the plot. Now burdened with boxes of condoms that medical shop owners are uninterested to buy, our unlucky trio realises that even if no one wants to buy condoms from chemists, the men around them want to have it. So these three start a delivery system where they sell boxes of condoms from barbers to porn-theatre owners, wearing helmets so that no one can recognise them.

Their business strategy becomes so popular that people begins to ask any riders wearing helmets to buy condoms, allowing producer Dino Morea to make a sneaky cameo here, which puts another troubling aspect of bike riders not wearing helmets. Guess, that's the issue for another movie.

Now the reason I mentioned Ayushmann Khurrana in the first para of this review is not only because of Aparshakti, but Helmet is also influenced by the kind of movies Ayushmann is known to do. Except that Helmet ranges more in the territory of Bala and Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhaan than a Vicky Donor or Shubh Mangal Saavdhaan. Like bhaiyya, Aparshakti easily pulls off the leading man act with immaculate ease and likeable charm, with natural comic timing. But Helmet replicates the appeal of Ayushmann's weaker movies.

Like with the films mentioned above, Helmet uses humour to spread its message across to the viewer, a nice tactic indeed. There are some portions I liked, like how Lucky tries to steal the consignment wearing a Commissioner's uniform. But most of the humour keeps falling flat, and only feels barely funny more for the situation and the persistent efforts of the talented actors involved.

Helmet's tackling of society's aversion towards birth-control measures is laudable. Years back, in the film Satte Pe Satta, when Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini's characters get married, their wedding registrar presents the groom with a packet of Nirodh. I am curious as to how the audience would have taken that scene then. Just a decade back, there were a slew of public awareness ads on television featuring Vrajesh Hirjee and an animated parrot who keep throwing the word 'condom' and trying to break the awkwardness around even the word.

Helmet expands on those satirical elements, but makes an entire town behave so comically averse to condoms that it feels less a satire and more a caricature. Occasionally it does get into educational monologuing, like when a character tells how he got STDs by having unprotected sex, or when Lucky convinces a sex worker to insist on her clients to wear condoms, for the sake of their health and their children's futures too. I would have lauded his effort, if I hadn't forgotten the fact that till that scene arrived, he was only selling condoms to make money for his marriage. Also, the ease with the heroes and the heroine manage to convince to people to be more open about using condoms, makes me wonder why UP wants to introduce the controversial Population control bill. They should have started selling condoms through Swiggy.

Okay, I get the idea that this is a comedy, and unlike Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron that satirised the corrupt society we live in and yet tucked in a bleak ending, Helmet aims for a more hopeful conclusion. We all are waiting for those achche din, na?

The news headlines and PM Modi's speech delineating alarming population rise seen during the end-credits paints a darker picture. But let's not question why politicians themselves have so many kids. Instead let's have the heroine's mother chastise her maid saying she cannot use her poverty as an excuse to have more kids than needed. Let's have the heroine tell the maid that her mother, a woman from upper strata, uses birth control. Yes, let's not delve into how the stigma on discussions on sex and birth control is a perception actually created by upper classes. If you don't believe me, just check out how many parents and politicians have resisted the idea of imparting sex education in schools.

Look, as I may have mentioned in some of my earlier reviews, I really don't like to dissect social commentaries of any movie. But some movies ask for it - some in a positive way, like The Great Indian Kitchen, or Thappad or Sara's, and some in a more shallow and problematic manner, like Helmet or Mimi. Good message isn't enough, it's how that message is imparted that also matters.

Yay!

- Intended Messaging and Shorter Runtime

- The Cast

Nay!

- The Writing Leaves a Lot to Desired

- Weak Climax and Humour Doesn't Always Work

Final Thoughts

Notwithstanding the silly plot and weak writing, Helmet can still pass itself off as an easy watch more so for the actors. The movie's failing is that it aims to be Aparshakti's Vicky Donor, but couldn't even be in the same league as Bala. Helmet is streaming on Zee5.

 

Rating:2.0

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 03, 2021 12:01 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).