DOUBLE XL JUST DOES NOT LAND WHERE IT WAS SUPPOSED TO

Cast: Sonakshi Sinha, Huma Qureshi, Zaheer Iqbal and Mahat Raghavendra

Director: Satramm Ramani

Directed by Satramm Ramani, presents a one size fits all approach to the story of two victims of body-shaming who learn to take all swipes on the chin and fight on to prove to the world that the clothes that fit them do not define who they are.

In its 120 minutes, the film does not get its punches right despite the actors screaming their lungs out at the slightest provocation and still failing to make their point.

Written by Mudassar Aziz and Sasha Singh, the movie does not offer a linear sorted story, does not do justice to the arcs of its two characters and reduces the important message it is supposedly tackling into a gaffe.

 Two talented young women grapple with obstacles as they chase their professional dreams in London. Their aspirations are thwarted because they do not conform to standards of beauty prevalent in their respective industries. They battle to find their place in the sun. It does not yield an engaging spectacle.

Double XL is focused on a vexatious theme, it takes recourse to facetiousness to liven things up. Much of the humour, especially in the film’s first half, does not hit home because the characters on the screen are not able to present a nuanced picture of their lives.

Enterprising fashion designer Saira Khanna (Sinha) from Delhi hopes to launch her own label one day. Her introduction scene catches her in the middle of a tempestuous showdown with a man in an apparel store over the supposedly wrong size tag on a dress that she wants to buy for an upcoming party at her boyfriend’s place.

Rajshree Trivedi (Qureshi) is a Meerut girl who has her sights set on a career as a television sports presenter. She dreams of cricketer Shikhar Dhawan requesting her for “the pleasure of a dance”. Her waking hours aren’t as happy. She has to deal with a mother (Alka Badola Kaushal) who frets and fumes over her reluctance to get married and settle down.

The paths of Saira and Rajshree cross by chance when the two are at the lowest ebbs of their lives – one has lost the chance to helm a fashion travelogue, the other has been told to her face that she has no chance of landing the job she craves. When all seems lost, Saira talks Rajshree into accompanying her to London for a shoot.

Two men join them in their endeavour. Srikanth Sreevardhan (debutant Mahat Raghavendra), a Tamil cameraman who speaks just enough Hindi to get by, completes a three-member crew. In London, they are met by a garrulous line producer, Zorawar Rahmani (Zaheer Iqbal). With the quintessential pairing complete, here comes the London seqs.

Its two principal characters, played by Sonakshi Sinha and Huma Qureshi, reduced to perpetuating steamrolling stereotypes rather than being allowed to create real, empathetic portraits of women of substance.

The movie presents them in caricaturish colors of people whose only weapon of rebellion is eating fast food to protest against the cruel world that picks on them because of how they look. Food is an escape – not a protest but the writers just don’t seem to get the psychology of ABCDs ( Adiposity-Based Chronic Disease)

The movie does not even attempt to talk about avoidance of emotions, low self-worth, poor self body image, self-criticism and negative core beliefs that determines the psychology of people who suffer from obesity. Instead it reinforces the very tropes it is supposed to be speaking up for.

Sonakshi and Huma seem restricted to the roles written for them and are not allowed to rise above the framework as artists.

As a film that addresses the issue of body image and its repercussions it somehow comes across to believe that opinion of men is important. For that matter, opinion of others is important.

Overall a very mediocre attempt at a very important topic.

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