Miss India America

The film is flawed from the start. Lily is extremely intelligent but doesn't grasp the fact that her boyfriend didn't leave her for Miss India America because of the title, he is shown from the opening scene to not care about accomplishments or titles. This fact on its own renders the rest of the film to be superfluous.

Despite this, I stayed thinking that Lily will explore the depths of her humanity via the constant setups that indicated a strong likelihood of her mother playing a huge role in helping Lily understand the world, but this miss(ed) the mark too. Although the film does eventually draw on her mother, it does so in a rushed and superficial way.

On top of all these disappointments, many of the secondary actors/actresses were atrocious (due in small part to the script).

Lily (Tiya Sircar) is a very smart, driven young lady. She succeeds at pretty much everything she has tried--winning the national spelling bee, graduating at the top of her class and having a seemingly perfect life ahead of her. Despite this, she has a new plan...to win the Miss India USA pageant...even though she hates pageants and thinks they are stupid. So why would she do this? Because her long-time boyfriend was caught with a lady who won this competition...and she wants to prove she is just as good, or better, than these other young ladies. Plus, she just doesn't like losing to anyone!

There is one big problem with this film...Lily is a self-absorbed and incredibly selfish person. She only thinks of herself and is impossible to like...and this seriously impacts the viewing experience. After all, you aren't pulling for her to win...and you actually want her to lose badly! In contrast, when I watched a far better beauty pageant comedy, "Drop Dead Gorgeous", I was pulling for sweet Amber Atkinson to win...and it felt terrible when she didn't.

So, despite this, is the film worth seeing? Not for me. When Lily comes up with some epiphany, it's just too late and rather unconvincing. Overall, an interesting miss...but a miss nonetheless. It's a shame, as Tiya was good in the lead--her acting was really nice.