Renowned Australian fast bowler Brett Lee’s good looks were never in doubt. But his ease and confidence in front of the camera has come as a pleasant surprise to all of us. Lee, or rather Will Henderson as he is called through the course of the film, spends his time trying to teach Aussie English to a group of migrants. Kindhearted, adorable and totally smitten by our own dusky Indian beauty Meera played by Tannishtha Chatterjee, their love story forms the core of UnIndian.
Brett Lee undoubtedly will generate the maximum interest as he steps onto a new pitch but Thushy Sathi’s script regurgitates a lot of old stereotypes and motifs related to desi culture. Be it the exotic festival of colours Holi when Will and Meera meet for the first time, or the pesky relatives and intrusive parents who want to find a nice “Doctor type boy” for Meera to settle down. Nevertheless Director Anupam Sharma does well by toning down the drama and so in spite of nothing earth-shatteringly different, the simple flow of the narrative keeps us engaged.
In Meera we see the clash of cultures as she explains her predicament at one point in the film, “Not Australian enough for Australia yet and not Indian enough for India anymore”. Her parents (Supriya Pathak and Akash Khurana) might chide her for coming home late fearing “log kya kahenge” or worry about how their divorced daughter would look after her only child all alone without a husband, but Meera manages to hold her own. Tannishtha Chatterjee does a fine job of beautifully negotiating her way through these opposing cultural forces.
At points it is hilarious how Will’s friends try to teach him the desi ways of wooing Meera, which entails watching a Salman Khan film! The closely knit Indian diaspora in Australia and their idiosyncrasies are all showcased complete with the spicy hot curries and satsangi babas.
With a run time of 110 mins, the contrived plot twists bring us to a rather “Bollywood-like” climax but it is the smooth and sincere storytelling coupled with Brett Lee’s on-screen charm that will help you enjoy UnIndian a great deal.
I’ll go with 3 Quints out of 5.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)