'Single Salma' Movie Review: Huma Qureshi-Shreyas Talpade-Sunny Singh starrer is outdated and tepid

Star cast: Huma Qureshi, Sunny Singh, Shreyas Talpade, Kal Sabir, Sammy Jonas Heaney, Sachin Kavetham, John Harpley, Kanwaljit Singh

Director: Nachiket Samant

Some films are bad, some are good, and some fall somewhere in between. However, Huma Qureshi starrer Single Salma belongs to a different category because of its outdated story.

The movie narrates the story of Salma Rizvi (Huma Qureshi), a 33-year-old single woman who runs her entire family, comprising her parents and siblings, by working in the Works Department in Lucknow. Known for her sacrificial nature, Salma’s siblings are dependent on her and sometimes manipulate her to get their work done.

Since she has completely pushed herself into family duties, she is unmarried. After her mother’s continuous efforts, she gets convinced to get married, and while hunting for a groom, they find a suitable person in Sikandar ( Shreyas Talpade ) (a green-flag character in today’s world).

As they get engaged, Salma gets an opportunity to go to London for training along with her team, which will help them improve the infrastructure of Lucknow and transform it into a ‘Smart City’. Sikandar convinces Salma and his parents to send her to London and postpones their wedding.

In London, she comes across Meet (Sunny Singh), who works closely with Salma and his team. As the day passes, Salma gets attracted to her only to find reciprocation from him later. However, with Meet’s British mindset and ideologies of life, Salma is confused whether he is the right guy or not. So, out of Sikandar and Meet, who will Salma marry?

Talking about the film, the story, which pretends to be progressive and follows the ideas of feminism and living life on your own terms, looks very outdated, at least for today’s generation. The main problem lies in the perception of the lead protagonist, whose ideologies easily and conveniently change during her transition in London and right at that moment, her character becomes unrelatable. As an audience, you will not agree with Salma’s decision and the reason behind that decision and that turns out to be the biggest flaw in the film.

Talking about Samant’s direction, it lacked pace, and the shoddy writing of the characters took it to another level. The film not only fails to serve its purpose, but also makes its lead character questionable and unlikable.

Talking about the performances, unfortunately, none of the cast members stood out with their acts, and it looked very disappointing to see an actor like Shreyas Talpade, who was wasted with such a weak character.

Touted to be a family-entertainer, Single Salma turns out to be a colossal disappointment.

Rating: 1.5 (out of 5 stars)

‘Single Salma’ is playing in cinemas