{"id":36356,"date":"2021-09-03T15:30:21","date_gmt":"2021-09-03T06:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/film\/2021\/sep\/03\/helmet-review-satramm-ramani-comedy"},"modified":"2021-09-03T15:30:21","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T06:30:21","slug":"helmet-review-flaccid-condom-awareness-comedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=36356","title":{"rendered":"Helmet review \u2013 flaccid condom-awareness comedy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Grown adults behave like horny kids in this ill-judged comedy, meant to start discussion about contraception in India<\/p>\n<p>The eyebrow-raising title is intentional: Satramm Ramani\u2019s comedy has been fashioned after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/film\/2017\/aug\/20\/love-songs-to-loo-rolls-bollywood-social-awareness-toilet\">2017\u2019s Toilet: A Love Story and 2018\u2019s Pad Man<\/a>, Hindi films designed to initiate conversations around subjects deemed taboo in 21st-century India. The national reticence addressed in this case is condom use: an urgent matter, given the country\u2019s explosive population growth and STD rates. Ramani\u2019s cheerfully flimsy farce means to be to the India of 2021 what Madness\u2019s House of Fun video was to 1980s Britain, with its nudging innuendo and nervy approaches to the pharmacist. Yet the film\u2019s leads aren\u2019t red-faced teens, but 30-plus. The problem being dramatised is clear, but one of Helmet\u2019s weaknesses is that it demands we watch grown adults behaving like dumb, horny kids.<\/p>\n<p>The national conversation is summarised by a prologue, in which latter-day Kinseys sent to doorstep Indian citizens about contraception are brusquely repelled by an outraged mob. This is as close as the film comes to reality. For Aparshakti Khurana\u2019s jobbing musician Lucky \u2013 a name that sounds ironic as we go on \u2013 the issue is taking the next step with his beloved Rupali (Pranutan Bahl), determined as she is that the pair\u2019s long-deferred tryst should be safe. As Lucky and pals channel their frustrations into plotting a truck heist, Ramani and screenwriter Rohan Shankar appear distracted \u2013 until the revelation that this crew\u2019s big steal isn\u2019t the telecommunications payload they were expecting, but a job lot of johnnies, thoughtfully provided by one of Helmet\u2019s tie-in branding partners.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/film\/2021\/sep\/03\/helmet-review-satramm-ramani-comedy\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Grown adults behave like horny kids in this ill-judged comedy, meant to start discussion about contraception in IndiaThe eyebrow-raising title is intentional: Satramm Ramani\u2019s comedy has been fashioned after 2017\u2019s Toilet: A Love Story and 2018\u2019s Pad M&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[505,1802,1801,2162,71,69,346,62,79,61,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bollywood","category-comedy","category-comedy-films","category-contraception-and-family-planning","category-culture","category-film","category-health","category-india","category-society","category-south-and-central-asia","category-world-news"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36356"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36384,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36356\/revisions\/36384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}