Poster Boys is an interesting take on the Marathi film Poshter Boyz which was undertaken by Shreyas himself as he made his directorial debut with this. The Deol brothers return to the big screen after a long time and they have Shreyas Talpade along as well. The characters live intertwined and super complicated when they find themselves becoming the 'poster boys' of male sterilization after their pictures randomly appear on a public service ad promoting vasectomy. The star of the film is definitely Shreyas Talpade for executing the entire film so well. Sunny Deol looks unbelievably good at an age of 60 and proved his versatility as an actor by offering us a slightly emotional side of his. Bobby Deol finally made a comeback on screen after so many years and it is a good one. And then there are the writers who were definitely on point, be it with the localization of the language or addressing the ‘gents problem’. The film reaches its inevitable dip in the second half like most of the Bollywood films do. The basic theme of the film, which was vasectomy was not given the seriousness that it deserved. Although the climax does seem to shape up in a decent way, it’s too late as the audience disconnects at a very early stage in the second half.

Prem Chopra has a candid catchphrase in Dulhe Raja: Nanga nahayega kya, nichodega kya. This literally translates to ‘a poor guy doesn’t have the luxury of bathing and rinsing his clothes.’ Metaphorically, it means a person without clothes has nothing to hide. To begin with, it’s a sensible theme that arrests our attention and focuses it on the problem of population explosion and how the desire of having a son is leading us nowhere. Talpade sets a particular mood which may remind you of Rohit Shetty brand of cinema. You know dialogues like, ‘Abe isne toh meter ka connection hi katwa diya’, or, ‘Ye chemical dhamki hai, formula toh sahi se dekhna padega na.’ It’s occasionally funny, but never actually engrosses the audiences. You keep waiting for another joke, but they tell you the same joke five times before coming up with a new one. It’s silly humour, but there’s no pretension. The two Deols and Talpade resort to crass comedy at times, but I am willing to give them this much leverage. I think Poster Boys can make you laugh with its stupid puns. Ah, the guilty pleasure of laughing on Sunny Deol’s pouty selfies! With 131-minute duration, Poster Boys shouldn’t be watched with a preoccupied mind.

This Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol starrer is a sorry mess of a film. In the hands of a skilled director, this could turn into a running joke in a flavoursome comedy of manners, just like last week’s Shubh Mangal Saavdhan, and it’s ‘gents problem’. Except Poster Boys turns the joke on the audience: we are the ones who feel like fleeing. Whenever the plot feels like it, it picks up on Sunny Deol’s punchy dialogues from his past films. This really tired device only serves to remind us of a time when Sunny made watchable films. To create comedy out of a supposed impairment of the male nether regions requires skills of a high degree, and the ability to bung in just the right degree of crassness and jokey-ness into the film: despite Sunny ‘paa ji’ daring to bare, hawwji, Poster Boys is a poster for a film which does nothing. ‘Na ji’.

The best part about Shreyas Talpade's unsuspecting debut film as a director is the fact that he doesn't try too hard to make his characters look or sound funny. They are just common people stuck in an uncommon situation and must deal with it. Their ways to prove their innocence are as ineffective but that makes you identify with their trauma. What's also refreshing is Shreyas' decision to not follow the 'Bollywood comedy' template by making his sensitive subject seem frivolous. Of course there are enough silly metaphors that refer to the male reproductive tract but those can be overlooked, given the significance and sensitivity he lends to the topic otherwise. Credit also goes to the writers for localising the Hindi adaptation and comic punches well. But what pleasantly surprises you the most is the hilarious Deol brothers jugalbandi in a never-seen-before comic avatar. Shreyas extracts the best out of them and it is their comic timing and odd tributes to each other's previous hit films that amuse you the most. Ashwini Kalsekar and Talpade's sidekicks too deserve a special mention for cracking some quirky one liners. This dramedy that revolves around men who unknowingly promote 'Bina taka nasbandi operation' is a light-hearted and clever take on the population problem that plagues our nation.