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Helmet Review: Aparshakti Khurana's social drama is bogged down by cliches and yawn worthy treatment
Helmet has a start, a middle and an end. As soon as you hit play, you know where the story of Lucky, Rupali, Sultan and Minus is headed.
Helmet
Director: Satramm Ramani
Cast: Aparshakti Khurana, Pranutan Bahl, Abhishek Banerjee
Streaming Platform: ZEE5
Rating: 2/5
With the Indian film industry churning out films with strong content, there have been several in the last decade or so that have made a mark, won hearts of the audiences and even managed to take the box office by storm. Directed by Satramm Ramani, Helmet is a social comedy drama based on a solid content idea but its execution simply falls flat.
Director Ramani opens the film with a group of social activists/researchers/surveyors discussing India's population explosion problem and why the sales of condoms have failed to rise. Despite their social awareness programmes, the situation on ground remains unchanged. Tier-2 and tier-3 cities continue to contribute to increasing rates of abortion, no sale of condoms and an increase in population.
In the past, several films have tackled such social issues with a dose of small town humour and Ramani takes the same route. Set in Uttar Pradesh's fictional town Rajnagar, Helmet stars Aparshakti Khurana and Pranutan Bahl in the lead role. As Lucky and Rupali, the duo are both in the wedding business. While Lucky is part of a band, Rupali is a flower decorator. However, it is their social strata that separates them and poses as a hindrance when they want to get married. Goes without saying, Rupali's father (played by Ashish Vidyarthi) disapproves of Lucky the singer while she has no say in the matter.
Now, Lucky has no option but to make money in lakhs to start his own band so that he can marry the girl of his dreams. He then hatches a plan with Sultan (Abhishek Banerjee) to make easy money. No points for guessing, the plan falls apart when they discover that they have looted boxes of condoms instead of electronics.
Helmet has a start, a middle and an end. As soon as you hit play, you know where the story of Lucky, Rupali, Sultan and Minus (Lucky's less amusing, more annoying friend) is headed. The film fails to offer anything fresh and is almost monotonous in terms of what we've come to expect of small town social comedies. Be it the dialogues, the setting or even characters, Helmet gets a yawn-worthy treatment and is bogged down by cliche. Like, 'I'm a girl, so the colour of my helmet will be pink'.
At 1 hour and 40 minutes, the film is crisp and keeps it interesting with Lucky and Sultan setting up the whole condom business scheme. From enlisting a barber to a local gangster, these are the only bits that may keep you hooked but also offer what you most likely expect. And that's the only respite.
Social comedies with sex as a subject have been massively successful in India. Take Vicky Donor and Badhaai Ho for example, both helmed by Ayushmaan Khurrana, who has made an envious career based on such dramas. However, his brother's first solo outing with Helmet could have been rescued with newer elements, a fresh approach to a serious problem in India and probably a better casting.
In the acting department, the Helmet cast hits the average mark. Satramm Ramani's film could have been a game changer like Vicky Donor but a tedious storyline with an unexciting and predictable climax can only do so much as to kill your time. However, full marks for the film's attempt at highlighting a social issue that is pertinent in India even in 2021.
