Doesn't think straight

What's It About: Let's get one thing....er, straight. Homosex-uality is finally out of the closet in our films. Well, sort of. Last year's Dostana had the leading men pretending to be gay. Now Straight has Pinu Patel (Vinay Pathak), a 30-plus virgin who starts believing he is gay, after a brief encounter with a man.

He runs a restaurant called Gaylord in London and the fact that he's more attracted to the charming stand-up comedian Kamlesh (Anuj Choudhry) rather than the pretty new accountant Renu (Gul Panag) in his eatery, doesn't really help Pinu's sexual confusion.

What's Good: Confusion of sexuality is a theme yet in its infancy in our films. Director Parvati Balagopalan keeps the going light-hearted and frothy. Seriously, being funny about sexual preferences doesn't come easily to our cinema. Straight just about manages it with dignity and charm.

The triangular relationship among Pinu, Renu and Kamlesh is punctuated by bouts of laughter. The camaraderie that grows between the male characters is specially likeable. Not just Pinu and Kamlesh, but Pinu and his London-born brother Rajat (Sid Makkar) who finally turns out to be what Pinu suspected himself of being.

While Vinay Pathak brings a characteristic candour and confusion to his character's personality. Gul Panag is camera-friendly.

What's Bad: Straight was an interesting concept that somehow didn't quite work on screen. Beyond a point, the plot reads like a one-liner stretched to a full-length feature film.The comments on confused sexuality would look amusing on a 20-year old actor.

But a 40-year- old virgin who doesn't know whether he's straight or gay? Yeh baat kuch hazam nahi hui. Also the incidental characters are quite unnecessarily caricatural , like Ketaki Dave as the brassy Gujju kaaki and Achala Sachdev as the man-eating shrew just needed to chill.

Vinay Pathak seems to be stuck in the rut, doing the same kind of soppy characters over and over again. The film drags on pointlessly, the songs should've been done away with.

What To Do: Misses the straight road and finds itself spiralling out of control. You can miss this one and not feel bad about it.

Straight

A; comedy
Dir: Parvati Balagopalan
Cast: Vinay Pathak, Gul Panag, Anuj Choudhry, Sid Makkar
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At a cinema...

ANDHERI Fun (3.30 pm, 4 pm, 10.45 pm), Cinemax Versova (8.45 pm, 10.30 pm, 12.15 pm, 6.45 pm, 8.45 pm, 10.45 pm)

JUHU PVR (11.10 am, 1.30 pm, 6.30 pm, 11 pm)u00a0u00a0

MULUND PVR (10:45 am, 3:30 pm, 8:15 pm, 11:15 pm)

GOREGAON PVR (11.50 am, 1.20 pm, 5.55 pm, 10.30 pm)

LOWER PAREL PVR (10.35 am, 3.40 pm, 8.45 pm, 10.40 pm)u00a0u00a0

CHURCHGATE Inox (10.15 am,u00a0 2.20 pm, 6.35 pm, 11 pm)