Directed by : Satram Ramani 

Gym aur Diet jaise naye dost banane ki koshish ki, magar unn saalo ki yaari na pakki nahi thi.

Sonakshi Sinha and Huma Qureshi in a still from 'Double XL'

Spoilers ahead...


Two overweight women Saira Khanna (Sonakshi Sinha) and Rajshree Trivedi (Huma Qureshi) got their own dreams just like anyone else. Saira wants to open her own fashion brand, while Rajshree aims to be a successful sports (cricket) presenter. Both fail not because they aren't talented but because their weight means opportunities landing in other people's hands. A chance meeting between Saira and Rajshree one day makes them connect and they both go to London to try a hand at making their dreams come true. 

It's a very taboo topic that initially feels to be going in right track when we see how a guy who comes to see Rajshree taunts her telling that she may have to lose weight if she wants to be a sports presenter which is a harsh truth because the number of plus size female presenters would be very very low. And the fat shaming isn't limited to just the 2 industries that are shown in the film, you could be anywhere and yet be made fun of with all sort of nicknames that are considered 'normal', something we see in most of our regular movies too. 

Sadly this topic isn't explored the way it should have. I can recall only one outburst scene of Rajshree when her audition is cancelled just because the photo she submitted suggested that the viewership for the 'sports presenter' job would give low numbers regardless of how talented Rajshree is. This was the only scene where a comical background music isn't inserted and you could feel the pain of Rajshree, very genuinely. Its a pity that the same talent of Rajshree is cut-off in a short interview she has with Kapil Dev (oh I didn't knew he was a good actor or maybe he was playing himself here worked), where the voice of interview is cut-off and we get to hear nothing at all. 

The love interest of Saira played by Zoravar Rehmani (Zaheer Iqbal) and Rajshree by Srikanth Sreevardhan (Mahat Raghavendra) have some cool funny moments but mostly it derails the movie from its main topic. Some of the scenes feel cringe-worthy too, and also as much as I liked the fact that they wanted to show its totally fine to be overweight, it shouldn't have come at the price of suggesting eating unhealthy food all the time is cool too. Just consider that scene where both Saira and Rajshree feel angry and decide to over-eat all sort of junk food to feel better, had this been shot without the un-necessary comical tone thats prevailing in the whole film then it would have made the same impact as similar scene in The Whale did. Also, the whole fashion side of Saira with the designs she makes didn't look flattering enough to me making that final act even more hard to like. 

Both Sonakshi Sinha and Huma Qureshi for obvious reasons are suited for this role, just needed a more serious script and better execution of the topic that rather feels lost in major part of the 2nd half.

Among the supporting cast, the talented Shobha Khote and Kanwaljeet Singh are there just for the sake, not a single meaningful scene. Jimmy Shergill's cameo is good one, and also one of rare moments that the writing team got right. 

Overall, Double XL is among those long list of movies that fails to deliver on a subject that could had done wonders with right exceution.

My Rating : 4.5/10