Starring cricketer Brett Lee and set in Sydney, UnIndian is another of those films that documents cultural stereotypes, writes Deepa Gauri

You could check out UnIndian for two reasons: One is the curiosity value of watching Brett Lee, the cricketer who turns actor. He delivers it straight and clean, with very little bouncers , and drives home a few quick singles that befits his earlier lower-order batsman status.
The other is the seamless performance of Tannishtha Chatterjee, who plays the role of a single mother in Sydney, who crosses the path of Will (Brett), and in the process gives her mother (Supriya Pathak) a few rude shocks.
But then, performances don't make a movie; Brett Lee might appear cute and breezy but he is not an actor who can elevate the screen-space into a larger-than-life canvas.  Tannishtha likewise might breathe life into an otherwise clichéd character but when the narrative abounds in stereotypes, novelty wears thin and you give up pretty soon.
Perhaps it is the bane of the larger Indian Diaspora. What directors such as Mira Nair and Gurindher Chadha have been doing with their earlier films gets another offshoot under director Anupam Sharma, who gets the characters in UnIndian to talk way too much than let the camera let the story.
That could be the Indian thing, maybe. They talk. And talk. And talk. And they talk the same things wherever they are - be it in London, New York, Dubai or Sydney. That seems to be the underlining narrative of UnIndian - that of a large, diverse community defined by a set of caricatures.
So we have a mom who worries unduly about her daughter's marriage and does all the usual smoke-alarm inducing pujas; a father who is more progressive but obsequious to his wife; and supporting characters - who act as if on cue - including the south Indian 'Krishnamoorthy' who just can't stop gushing. Of the lot, Arka Das as Will's friend stands out; he has the best lines too.
UnIndian could have been set in Dubai, for all it matters, and we would not have known the difference.  From the community 'holi' celebration to the usual suspects - including the matchmaker auntie - everything that has been tried and tested in cross-over films is repeated.
What salvages UnIndian then is its breeziness. The characters might be plastic, uni-dimensional and conforming to all accepted norms, but the film has a rhythm that is light hearted. And that includes Brett Lee trying a Salman Khan (from Kick) in his efforts to woo Meera (the name, yet again, a regular).
Anupam Sharma brings in a few twists but those are more for the sake of building the narrative intrigue than in delivering anything fresh or insightful for a cross-over movie. 
How Will discovers and learns about India to woo her too does not hold too many surprises - although aspects such as the gossiping Indian Community Network have quirk value.
On final count, UnIndian is another of those films that underlines the 'we are like this' representation of Indians. But as long as it is harmless fun, who is complaining? After all, we are like this only.

UnIndian

Directed by Anupam Sharma
Starring: Brett Lee, Tannishtha Chatterjee
Now playing at theatres in the UAE
Rating: 2.5/5