Have you ever heard of the word digressing? Well, you're privy with it considering how the Indian politics (or politics in general) is an explicit example of digressing off a subject. Turns out there's a new fish in town. Nargis Fakhri and Rajkummar Rao's supposed romcom, 5 Weddings is the perfect blend of banal and disconnection and digression. Not to mention the unconvincing performance by supporting cast along with Nargis "spearheading" that department.

Shania Dhaliwal (Nargis Fakhri), a half-Indian half-American from Los Angeles, is arachnophobic and running for the position of Editor-In-Chief for the Sterling magazine. To make the job hers, all she has to do is attend Indian weddings and write about it because turns out, to this date, the world is still unaware of a big fat Indian wedding that has various rituals and lots of fun. Anyway, she gets a liaison officer, a Mr Harbhajan (Rajkummar Rao) who is not allowed to take up serious and dangerous cases because of his mother's wishes.

Together, they travel across Chandigarh to cover five rituals of five weddings (out of the dozens as stated by her editor). After stereotyping India throughout the first 20 minutes of the film, they finally get to the main topic, or so it seems. The idea behind the whole script supposedly is to talk about transgenders and to propagate a positive image of them.

In her directorial debut, Namrata Singh Gujral seems to have cashed in on the stereotypical nature of the world's perception of India and its weddings and its mentality. During the course of the film, Rao schools Fakhri about the change in India while she schools him on breaking more social taboo such as choosing love over an arranged marriage, love over religion and accepting transgenders as the third gender instead of shooing them away.

Sorry to be all judgemental regarding this point but for a fashion journalist who is in the running for the Editor-In-Chief position, Nargis' fashion sense is a total dud. If the film's script penned down by Denise Cruz-Castino, Andy Glickman and Namrata Singh Gujral is a sloppy and banal work, Fakhri's fashion sense takes the cake! Their writing makes every character in the film annoying. The cop-driver Donald (Ravi Aneja) is supposed to be a funny dude trying his hand in English as he plans to marry an American and woo her with his English speaking skills but he's just as irritating as the rest of the script.

Yays

- Just Rajkummar Rao, I guess...

Nays

- Whoever wrote the script had too much on mind.

- The romcom has a public message about the transgender community... but why?

- Is it a serious romcom or a lighthearted drama or plain off track?

- Nargis Fakhri. She tries to be Katrina Kaif from Namaste London but is simply overtly annoying AF.

- Too many loopholes in the plot and lack of continuity.

- Only Nargis' onscreen best friend can see a chemistry between her and Rajkummar Rao.

- Rajkummar Rao's talents wasted in a banal and boring script.

- Xenophilia at it's worst, I guess?

- Uninteresting music.

- The atrocious fashion sense of Fakhri, who is supposedly going to spearhead a fashion magazine based on her story of India.

Final Word

Not worth your money, time, brain, common sense or emotional health. Everything about the film is just a reminder of how India is still perceived as by the NRIs who were born outside the country.

Rating:1.5out of 5

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 26, 2018 02:28 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).