Double XL movie review: Has Ideas but falls short of the execution

Language: Hindi

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

Director: Satram Ramani

In a scene from Double XL, Rajshri played by Huma Qureshi exclaims “Inhone humare sapno ka size nai dekha, bas humara dekha“. Rajshri is referring to the world of sports broadcasting but her message is for the rest of the world as well. It registers but is quickly overcome by the corniness of a film that while it intends to pose as sensitive can’t help but he undone by its clunkiness. Double XL is cast right, but beyond that on-paper merit it rarely elevates itself to anything more than a tiresome woke skit.

The story begins with Rajshri, a Meerut residing overweight woman in her 30s. Rajshri is intelligent but also weighed down by the pressure to settle for a groom while she can. Her feisty nature is eked out well in a scene where she confronts a man who is on the opposite end of the weighing scale. “Iss chatt pe healthy toh koi nahi hai“, she says. Rajshri’s family is delightfully conflicted, the way most small-town families are imagined in our films these days. The father and grandmother are supportive, the mother critical – and for good reason. A scene where she emotionally harks back to her own struggle with weight resonates well above anything else the otherwise tepid film manages. Rajshri gets an interview in the city but is rejected without a word. Here she meets Saira, played by serviceable Sonakshi Sinha, a heavy fashion designer.

The two hit it off both as a matter of relatability and purpose. This relationship is far too conveniently sped up for the purpose of a labouring narrative. Saira needs a director for a shoot in London, and Rajshri’s modest social media profile makes the cut. It’s far too frivolous to be believable. Not all is lost here though. The two have chemistry and even though the class difference is never quite examined, it is neatly papered over by the tendency for self-doubt.

There is a lot to like about Double XL‘s structural choices but almost all of it has to do with Qureshi‘s far more rooted and fleshed character, including the man she ultimately falls for. The two men playing the love interests in this film are for that matter refreshing if ultimately underwhelming creations. These are after all men happy to play second fiddle to women and their aspirations, but their desire to seek love in a relationship built on transactionality feels insincere, maybe even needless in a film that wants to give women agency, but also make them the subject of a benign male gaze. Why even summon it?

Sonakshi’s character feels undercooked, her entitlement procured rather than unpeeled for depth in this film about agency and privilege. She goes far too conveniently from the have-it-all to know-it-all, without the kind of conflict in between that would have justified the sermon at the end. That is precisely the problem with most social issue films, that they want to carry placards holding up the message rather than subliminally delivering it through prudent writing and direction. Why did the film have to go to London at all, how seamlessly is the class gap overlooked here and just why does one of the men have to overcompensate for the camp, otherwise missing in this film are annoying choices. It veers towards men and insincere leap to recapture the lost glory of rom-coms that a movie trying to liberate its women ought not to have done. Sometimes the best decision is to let things be.

That said, Double XL is not a complete bust. It has its moments. In Qureshi it has a more than decent semi-lead and in Sri, a Tamil speaking stoner as a character, it has the making of an inspired casting choice. If only the film could have conspired to hold down a plot that amounted to something other than a patronising lecture and excavated the class conflict so conveniently looked over, there would have been much to write home about. Instead this is middling fare, heading predictably towards middling, obvious climaxes. It’s not all bad but it could definitely have been resoundingly better.

Rating: 2.5 (out of 5 stars) 

Double XL is playing in cinemas

Manik Sharma writes on art and culture, cinema, books, and everything in between.

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