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Straight – movie review

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straight movie review

Straight is is a hilarious take on confused sexuality of the central character Pinu Patel (Vinay Pathak). It weaves a light hearted comic tale around a motley group of Gujarati NRIs in London played by Ketki Dave, Rasik Dave and others.

Last year it was Dostana, now it is Straight. The subject of homosexuality is finally out of the closet in our films.
Now “Straight” has Vinay Pathak believing he is gay.

In the midst of central London, a successful Indian restaurant called ‘Gaylord’ is run by Pinu Patel, a Londoner of Indian origin. Pinu suffers from much insecurity, his chief qualm in life is that he is a virgin and has never experienced intimacy with a woman as he is very shy and introverted.

His closest friend and ally is his foster brother Rajat (Siddhartha Makkar), whose personality is stark opposite to his own. Rajat has an air of casual, confidence about him and is a lead singer of rock band. Rajat is very fond of Pinu, though is often a source of annoyance to him as he finds Pinu really funny.
One day, a young Indian fellow called Kamlesh (Anuj Chaudari) comes to his restaurant and asks for a job as a stand-up comedian. On the same day, he hires a new cashier – Renu (Gul Panag) a young artist from India. Renu has a passion for creating caricatures and aspires to be a professional cartoonist some day.

Life changes dramatically for Pinu as Gaylord begins to transform… Renu works on the look of the place, makes cheerful caricatures for customers, while Kamlesh, a fabulous cook, has all the customers in splits with his hilarious standup act. Soon things change for the better, as the business peaks with the new comedy routine, the delectable food and the chic look.

All seems to be going well, when suddenly a string of unexpected events leave Pinu in a tizzy. He walks away from the restaurant enveloped in a daze, suddenly he has a new fear – he might be gay!

Pinu seeks refuge in Rajat’s advice which is quite simple – have a physical relationship with a woman!
On a mission now, Pinu goes on rampage seeking available women for a sexual rendezvous. However, it leads to him suffering another string of comic situations, with each act resulting in a goof up scenario.

Straight is a funny tale about Pinu, who looks for love amongst all the confusion in his life to ‘come out’ as straight and find himself a love story. It is a fine effort by Parvati Balagopalan, whose film just about manages to being funny about sexual preferences with dignity and charm.
Vinay Pathak’s character brings frankness and confusion to his personality, Anuj Chaudhri as the endearing intruder Kamlesh plays the character sincerely and it is the charms and talent of Gul Panag what really works for this film. Achla Sachdev has still managed to keep herself beautiful and sexy. Ketaki Dave is amusing. It is a straightforward film with crisp narrative.

Cast of Straight:
Pinu Patel – Vinay Pathak
Renu – Gul Panag
Rajat – Siddharth Makkar
Kamlesh – Anuj Choudhary
Achla Sachdev
Daman Baggan
Ketaki Dave
Rasik Dave
Parth Kanani
Mian

Credits & Crew of Straight:
Director – Parvati Balagopalan
Producer – Charlotte Wontner, Shripal Morakhia
Executive Producers – Ashish Bhatnagar, Rohit Sharma
Additional Screenplay & Dialogues – Anahata Menon
Based on Original Story & Screenplay – Uttam Gada
Cinematography: Dev Verma
Editor – Nishant Radhakrishnan
Sound Designers – Parikshit Lalvani, Kunal Mehta
Original Background Score – Louiz Banks, Gino Banks
Music – Sagar Desai
Lyrics – Subrat Sinha
Line Producer – Rakesh Mehra
Production Designer – Meenal Agrawal
Costume Designers – Anuja Joshi, Priyadarshini Mujumdar
DI – Prasad EFX
Straight, movie review