Body-shaming is such a widespread problem, especially when it comes to young women, that a film willing to address the issue should become an automatic draw.
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Double XL wants to tell us that size or shape doesn’t matter, it is who you are on the inside that does. Such a refreshing premise, backed by two leading ladies who appear confident in their skin, and their flesh. More so, given how size zero has been celebrated by Bollywood, and how the possession of washboard abs has been made to stand in for talent. But sadly, what a badly done movie.
Meerut-based Rajshri Trivedi (Huma Qureshi) has a dream. She is so desperate to become a TV sports presenter that she is willing to go against her family’s (screechy mum, resigned dad, and supportive grandma) desire to see her married and ‘settled’. Delhi girl Saira Khanna (Sonakshi Sinha) is dating a muscle-bound gym rat, but her heart is set on creating her own designer label.
Of course, everything is stacked against independent-minded young women, whether it is the small-town Rajshri who has no idea how to deal with females in short sheaths, or the citified-but-confused Saira who thinks that she ought to be grateful for male attention, even if the man in question is a disaster.
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Watch Double XL movie trailer here:
Next thing you know, our plus-sized lasses are swanning around London, in search of themselves. Two men are conjured up by the harebrained plot: Zorawar (Zaheer Iqbal), and Srikanth (Raghvendra), the former a London-based gofer in distressed jeans, the latter a Tamilian fellow with a penchant for weed and breaking into song. Can’t have two women doing stuff on their own, right, so yeah, assign them random ‘partners’, and who cares if they don’t have anything going between themselves.
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This foursome hangs out in bars, streets, buses, and sundry other locations. There are songs and dances. There are jokes, mostly lame, wrapped in cliches. There are realisations. One of them is Saira figuring out that she wants to create a fashion line for all ‘attitudes’. Err, what?
And there is Rajshri’s starry-eyed encounter with a great cricketing star, in which she fangirls so much that all her vaunted sporting knowledge goes out of the window. Then what’s the difference between her and the thin ‘bimbos’ she, and the movie, wants to call out? And are all slim girls dodos? Zero nuance, major stereotyping.
Double XL is a massive opportunity wasted. Crashing pity.
Double XL movie cast: Sonakshi Sinha, Huma Qureshi, Zahir Iqbal, Mahat Raghvendra
Double XL movie director: Satram Ramani
Double XL movie rating: 1.5 stars
