Straight – Ek Tedhi Medhi Love Story is about the twisted love life of Pinu Patel, played by Vinay Pathak, a man who owns a restaurant in London and drives a Mercedes but can’t seem to land a girl.

Of course it doesn’t help that Pinu is sweet but seriously uncool and that he’s also a virgin. Pinu’s life gets complicated when he starts to think that he may be gay and needs to hop into bed with a woman, only to prove to himself that he isn’t.

Unfortunately this sounds like way more fun than it actually is. Director Parvati Balagopalan had the material and the actors to create a witty comedy of love and sexual identity. But Straight is a staggeringly tedious film.

Pinu’s confusions take the whole first half to surface and his attempts at bedding women are so silly and unfunny that you almost want to suggest that he hire an escort and put us all out of our misery.

The writing is clunky and the dialogue, unintentionally funny. At one point, Gul Panag, playing a cartoonist cum accountant whom Pinu falls in love with, says, “artists are fascinated by imperfection, that’s what make us all real.” To which Pinu replies, “You’re so deep Renu.”

Parvati has a nice eye for visuals. Her plea for love, straight or gay is heart-felt. She creates some nice seamless transitions between scenes and a few poignant moments when you genuinely feel sorry for Pinu and his loveless state. But these are too few and far between.

Vinay Pathak, who is in almost every frame, works hard to flesh out Pinu’s complicated affairs of the heart – his insecurities, his loneliness, his feeble and nerdy attempts at mastering modern mating rituals. But Pathak is saddled with a thankless and predictable script, which goes on and on.

In the climax, Pinu’s cousin and confidante Rajat paraphrases Shylock’s classic speech from Merchant of Venice to declare that gays also have feelings. “When you prick us, he asks, do we not bleed.” Actually viewers have feelings too.

Skip this one and if you want to enjoy a superbly funny sexual comedy, pick up Judd Apatow’s The 40 year old Virgin instead.