Zee5’s Helmet Review: Amusing But Weighless

Helmet is a 2021 comedy movie directed by Satram Ramani starring Aparshakti Khurana, Abhishek Banerjee, Pranutan Bahl, Ashish Verma, and Anurita Jha alongside other cast members. The movie is 104 minutes long.

Zee5’s description reads:

Desperate to make some quick money, Lucky and his friends rob an e-commerce company truck. But to their surprise, the looted boxes contain condoms instead of electronic gadgets. What will Lucky do?

– Helmet review does not contain spoilers –

Helmet starts off with how no one wants to buy condoms and people doing condom surveys getting beaten the shit out of. Clearly, this movie is about condoms, it makes it apparent too early. The story is about Lucky who dreams of owning his own wedding band. However, his relationship with Rupali suffers when his low income becomes a hindrance in his path.

Helmet is your typical Bollywood film. It’s not an out-and-out masala film but that’s about it. There are two songs within the first half an hour so, you know. The songs aren’t great – they are melodious but really, they don’t stay with you five minutes after they’re over.

Lucky comes up with an ingenious plan to get some quick money in Helmet and that’s where the problem starts. He gets a truckload of condoms instead of electronics. Shockingly, the movie, in an effort to be funny, dumbs down its characters a lot. Like, no one makes sane, rational or smart decisions.

Maybe the goal of the movie was to make people aware of using contraceptives, which everyone should. Practice safe sex, kids. But somewhere down the line, Helmet feels more like a commercial for KamaSutra than a movie with its own weight. However, it does bring the problem of people too ashamed to buy condoms to the forefront which is a good observation to bring forth.

Even with the comedic elements, I am shocked that there wasn’t even one moment where I was rolling on the floor laughing. Yes, it did bring out a few chuckles especially when Lucky finds his first customer. However, considering this is a comedy film, it doesn’t deliver the right punches.

The message in Helmet is solid and has a good heart behind it. I think the message could’ve benefitted from stronger acting from the supporting cast and better character developments which is severely lacking here. Especially after the second half, the movie becomes even more complicated and becomes too silly to be believable.

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Now, let’s come to Helmet’s ending. Things get solved way too quickly. Out of the blue, Lucky gets the girl, the girl’s father forgives him, the NAAP people sing his accolades and people in his village give him ovations. He then delivers an emotional speech as well. Remember how I’d told you that this is a Bollywood movie – yep, this is where that truly comes to light (if the 3 or 4 songs weren’t enough). The movie then ends with a PSA.

The best part of Helmet is its principal actors though. Aparshakti Khurana, Abhishek Banerjee and Ashish Verma are delightful. Listen, Banerjee was one of the reasons I rolled around laughing watching Stree, an absolute favourite of mine. Khurana, too, is great. He’s our protagonist and we see him a lot and he does a good job at bringing forth Lucky’s desperation and quirks.

Summing up: Helmet

Helmet’s message is loud and clear and is an important one at that. But the story and the characters do not hold enough weight to take the message home. That being said, it’s an amusing movie that has its moments of fun and is overall a light-hearted watch. However, I expect that this is not going to stay with you after the runtime is over.

Helmet is streaming on Zee5.

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