‘Helmet’ film review: A social satire that could have been more funny
Helmet film
Fighting off a social stigma, influencing one person at a time in a small town of India is what ‘Helmet’ is all about. Starring Aparshakti Khurana. Pranutan Bahl, Abhishek Banerjee, and Ashish Verma in leading roles as they play a gang of friends, ‘Helmet’ looks objectively at the guilt or shame attached to buying/ selling a birth-control device, a condom.
Director Satramm Ramani establishes the ground for need of change when people from an NGO that works on AIDS/ STDs are thrashed by the locals for questioning about the practice of safe sex in the town. The film enforces the idea of ‘chahiye sabko, par koi mangega nahi’ pretty early in the film shedding light on the need for a psychological overhaul.Pranutan Bahl to WION: I come from a family of staunch feminists
It’s a fun, light hearted film with more misses than hits as it drags because of lazy dialogues, loose scripting and comedy that looks off in most places even though it has the trio of boys who we have seen performing with on-point comedy in a similar semi-urban setting before. The only female character in the film, Pranutan Bahl is good in her role but there is a lot of room for improvement.
Watch the Helmet trailer here:
The film’s music is pretty average and offers almost no song that will stick with the audience.
What works is the film has its heart in the right place as it talks of important subjects like safe sex, using birth-control, saving oneself from STDs and AIDS without being preachy for a moment. There are no lengthy speeches and that’s a sigh of relief.
What doesn’t work is the lacklustre storytelling that makes the film indistinguishable from any other recent social objective films we’ve seen. It promises to be funny but doesn’t live up to it.
Produced: Sony Pictures Networks Productions and actor Dino Morea’s DM Movies, ‘Helmet’ will stream on Zee5 from September 3, 2021.
