Review of “Double XL”: Sonakshi Sinha and Huma Qureshi’s movie is more than just double trouble
Double XL, directed by Satramm Ramani, has plus-sized goals but isn’t equipped to meet the demands of its important subject. With the performers screaming their lungs out at the least provocation and still failing to convey their point, the movie is all fluff and bloat and not much fun.
With its one-size-fits-all philosophy, Double XL causes more problems than just that. The narrative of two body-shaming victims who learn to take criticism in stride and persevere in their fight to show the world that who they are is not determined by the clothes they can wear is horribly mishandled.
It seeks to convey a grand message. It only succeeds in being a thin, 130-minute movie that conveys what it needs to say in the first ten minutes. The rest is just filler.
Mudassar Aziz and Sasha Singh’s book Double XL wades through a lot of tedium. Sonakshi Sinha and Huma Qureshi’s two main characters, who are written incoherently, are forced to perpetuate frogmarching tropes rather than being given the freedom to paint realistic, sympathetic pictures of strong women.
The stubborn pair eats junk food in excess and complains nonstop about being picked on. Their emblems of resistance against a world that wants them to fit in are hamburgers and ice cream scoops. However, it is never fully made plain why they must stuff themselves in order to be assertive. The movie makes them into caricatures that support the idea that they are out to fight by portraying them as two girls who enjoy bingeing when the going gets tough.
Sonakshi and Huma are stuck in roles that don’t give them much opportunity to grow beyond their characters’ appearances and the treatment they get as a result. These two women possess qualities that can bring men to them.everything their heart wishes. They take a very long time to show their hands. They complain far too much to pass for realistic.
The duo must deal with the lack of complexity in the screenplay. The movie alternates between being stolid and being just about serviceable, with the former tendency to predominately overshadow the latter.
What is the real purpose of Double XL? In London, two bright young ladies struggle to overcome challenges as they pursue their careers. They are prevented from achieving their goals because they do not meet the accepted standards of attractiveness in their respective fields. They struggle to locate a spot in the sun. It doesn’t produce a captivating spectacle.
Double XL uses humour to lighten the mood despite focusing on a difficult subject. As a result of the characters on screen succumbing to a build-up that is not just half-hearted but also uneven, most of the humour, especially in the first half of the movie, fails to connect with the audience.
Saira Khanna (Sinha), a feisty fashion designer from Delhi, aspires to open her own line in the future. In the opening scene, she is engaged in a heated argument with a customer about a garment that she wants to purchase for a party at her boyfriend’s house that allegedly has the wrong size tag.
A Meerut native named Rajshree Trivedi (Qureshi) is pursuing a career as a sports presenter on television. She is in the midst of a dream when we first meet her, in which cricketer Shikhar Dhawan asks her to dance for “the pleasure of it.” Her time awake isn’t as joyful. She must deal with her mother’s (Alka Badola Kaushal) worry and rage about her refusal to get hitched and start a family.
When both Saira and Rajshree are at their lowest points in their life, fate brings them together. One has lost the opportunity to direct a fashion travelogue, while the other has been told directly that she has little hope of getting the job she wants. WhenWhen all appears lost, Saira experiences a brainwave. She persuades Rajshree to travel with her to London for a photoshoot.
They are joined in their endeavour by two males. A three-person crew is completed by Srikanth Sreevardhan (debutant Mahat Raghavendra), a Tamil cameraman who knows just enough Hindi to get by. When they arrive in London, a chatty line producer named Zorawar Rahmani greets them (Zaheer Iqbal). He indulges in all kinds of excess that is neither amusing nor beneficial.
