But she has to struggle with one major insecurity: she knows little English. She is a lively, capable woman, a good cook who runs her own catering business, her specialty the ladoos, sweet golden balls of dainty delights. The legendary Bollywood star Sridevi comes back to the big screen after a 15 years hiatus to play Shashi, a devoted wife and mother in a modern, middle-class family in Pune, India. The film is one of the Gala Presentations at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. Writer-director Gauri Shinde gleaned from her real life experiences to craft this delightful dramedy that is rooted in human miscommunication, but speaks much more.
I can see why most people liked this one.įor myself, I would judge it as a fairly good movie but I cannot really see what the hype is all about.If The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is from the outside looking in, then English Vinglish is the reverse shot, bringing us a point of view from the inside looking out. Simple elegant storytelling with her real sounding daily anxieties and her priorities make this a very enjoyable movie. The story revolves around how she struggles to keep her secret and how unexpected turns of events make her abandon the final piece of the course – oral exam on her English – and how she redeems herself in the eyes of the family with not only her sudden display of her English skills but also the fact that she has formed deep bonds with her classmates, which makes her husband (presumably) look at her with a fresh perspective. After being humiliated in a coffee shop (where the rudeness of an American shop employee is shown to great effect) she enrolls in an English class secretly and tries to learn English on the sly. The story itself is simple, Shashi Godbole supports a family with a husband (who hardly seems to notice that she exists except when he needs something from her) and children (who mock her at every turn for her lack of English) is traumatized when she has to go alone to America to help plan the wedding of her sister’s daughter. Standing ovation in Toronto International Film Festival? Almost chosen as the indian entry for Oscar? I am surprised at the overlooking of serious insensitivities to other cultures. It is uniformly lauded – and I agree there is a lot to like in that movie and the story is told with sympathy (apparently only for Shashi) and verve. Highly stereotyped and preachy – the Madrasi salivating for Idlis, the Chinese woman being openly stereotyped (and seems not to mind a bit), the Pakistani Indian bhai bhai, the explanation of why the gay people (the teacher) would feel every bit as hurt at a breakup as “normal” couple – this is a lot over the top. In this movie, it is South Indian, Pakistani and Shshi (Maharashtrian) with a French, Chinese and a black person thrown in. In the original series, it is stereotyped Italian, Sicilian, Bangladeshi, Indian (Sikh) and Chinese students. So it is ironic how the movie itself seems to promote racist behaviour in an English class – the theme is borrowed from the old British sitcom ‘Mind Your Language’ of a gentle (and, in this movie, explicitly gay) English teacher coping with a very stereotyped class of varied backgrounds. Sorry one moment and chin up to face the next adversity the next. The story has casual depiction of Indian life, which can be cutting and cruel from a Western viewpoint and you feel sorry for the plight that Shshi (Sridevi’s role) finds herself in and how she copes with it as a matter of fact. Her histrionic skills are as lovely as ever, even after the long gap and she could have made a comeback career in mature roles a la Amitabh if she had not met with a premature end in a relatively young age. Sridevi does appear older but no less charming for all that.
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The movie is full of everyday small cruelties where she is mocked by her entire family – husband, daughter and son – for not having even the ‘basic’ English skills, the only solace being her mother in law, who staunchly supports her and encourages her at every turn.īefore we go on too far, let us talk about the movie itself. As is appropriate for her years, she is not the cutesy comical sexy siren of her yesteryears (with Jeetu and other heroes) but a demure housewife from Maharashtra (the Godbole family) who is trying to lead an ordinary life, supporting her working husband, and using her only talent – of making amazing Indian dishes – as a small time entrepreneur, selling laddoos to make some extra cash, not for her private self but for her family. This is the late Sridevi comeback vehicle and as a comeback movie, she does full justice.
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