Review: This will make you think straight

Film: I can’t think straight
Cast: Lisa Ray, Sheetal Sheth, Antonia Frering, Dalip Tahil, Nina Wadia, Ernest Ignatius, Siddiqua Akhtar, Amber Rose Revah, Anya Lahiri, Kimberly Jarai
Director: Shamim Sharif
Rating: **

A gay love story, I Can’t Think Straight is novelist/filmmaker Shamim Sharif’s effort to bring the issue ‘out’ into the mainstream. The story is about newly engaged Tala (Lisa Ray), a London-based Jordanian of Palestinian origin, and Leyla (Sheetal Sheth), a young British Indian woman, who is dating her best friend Ali.

Tala, a Christian, and Leyla, a Muslim, are attracted to each other and end up together. That’s what romantic films peddle anyway — the happily ever after fantasy!

The film is supposedly based on Shamim’s own life, a story of her own sexual awakening. The narrative focuses on getting the lovers together, missing out on the possible drama of religious and cultural clashes.

The few references to them appear as lip-service. The characters also appear to be sketchy and uninteresting. The performances are short on intensity. The narrative, though, flows along quite smoothly, aided by some engrossing camerawork, smooth editing, and gorgeous women in the leads.

This may not be the typical tentative, unsophisticated gay movie that we are used to seeing in India, but it’s also not the definitive one we have been looking forward to.