‘Phullu’ movie review: A sweet love story on the backdrop of sanitary napkins

Directed By: Abhishek Saxena
Produced By: Kshitij Chaudhary, Pushpa Chaudhary, Anmol Kapoor, Raman Kapoor
Cast: Sharib Hashmi, Jyoti Sethi
Duration: 1 hour 36 minutes
Bollywood Bubble Rating: 3/5

‘Periods’ – as children, we just used this word for the lectures in school. “One period is over, now other will start.” Like this, we had some eight to nine periods every day in school. As children, we even wondered what those ads of sanitary napkins were about. But, as we grew up, we eventually knew what periods were. Today, we saw a film titled ‘Phullu’, a movie that revolves around periods. The first time we saw the trailer, one thing that came to our mind was, is it made on the same subject as Akshay Kumar’s ‘PadMan’. However, that’s not the case here.

Phullu (Sharib Hashmi) is a guy who goes to small cities and gets things for the ladies of his village. But, he doesn’t take a single penny from them. His mother and sister are always worried about him because he earns nothing. Someone tells his mother to get him married, he will change. He gets married, but apart from romancing his wife, he does nothing. One day, his wife complains of some itching near her vagina. Next day Phullu goes to a city to buy sanitary napkin for a lady of his village, and that’s where he meets a doctor who explains that if a woman doesn’t use sanitary napkin, she might get an infection. Now Phullu’s only aim is that ladies in his village start using sanitary napkins. He even tries making low cost sanitary napkins for them. But, will he be successful in it?

Having read the story of ‘PadMan’ in the book ‘The Legend Of Lakshmi Prasad’, we can clearly say that ‘Phullu’ written by Shaheen Iqbal is not about Arunachalam Muruganantham. But, there are a few points that we can say that are inspired from his story. Though ‘Phullu’ gives out a message about sanitary napkins to be used and how low cost sanitary napkins should be made, its basic plot is a love story. While watching the film, you might feel that the makers have stretched the film a bit in the first half. However, believe us, the love story is important. The screenplay could have easily been better, but it’s not a bad one either.

Abhishek Saxena successfully gives out the message he wanted to. His narration is very simple, and because of that the commercial value of the film goes down. There are sequences that should have been more engaging and nail biting, but they just fall flat. For example, the sequences when Phullu first time tries to make a pad, is strictly average there’s no drama in it. There’s also one thing that bothered us a lot. While Phullu was searching for a lady to try out the pad he made, no woman was ready to use it. So, why didn’t he go to the lady who had asked him to get the pad from the city? One more negative point about the film is the cinematography. The shaky camera and the not so good camera angles really spoil the film.

Talking about the performances, Sharib Hashmi is top notch. He has done the character of Phullu to T. Jyoti Sethi as Phullu’s wife is excellent, a talent to watch out for. This might come as a surprise, but the chemistry between Sharib and Jyoti is really good. Inaamulhaq’s cameo is the best part of the film. Actresses who play the role of Phullu’s mother and sister are irritating. They tried to be realistic, but then after a point their loud voices were just difficult to tolerate.

On the whole, ‘Phullu’ is a love story based on the backdrop of sanitary napkins. While Shah Jahan made Taj Mahal for his wife, Phullu made a pad.

By the way, it’s high time our CBFC gets matured. This movie has been given an ‘A’ certificate. For what? Mr Pahlaj Nihalani, we hope you know the meaning of ‘periods’.

Watch the trailer here: