Film Review:English Vinglish

Although, I don't hear it often but sometimes it comes my ear that Bollywood movies are labelled as to much colour with little substance. I don't totally disagree with them. I often thought that why the Bollywood film industry don't take this perspective up and do a self criticism of the quality of films, especially their story lines. Why does scriptwriters take absurdity to such extremes and still keep the absurdity very much apparent. Star Wars series, Harry Potter Series is absurd too but packaged well.Anyways, I completed seeing this film called "English Vinglish".

I don't get time to see the entire film at a stretch.Hence, I saw it in parts downloaded in my brother-in-law's PC and after completing seeing this film, I thought it would be a great idea to share it with people around the world. I don't get much response from my wife. She doesn't see things so critically as I do. The story-line of this is very simple and straight but presented excellently.

The story is about a middle-class Indian Housewife (role played by Sridevi, her first film after her 2 decade break from film industry) who is often made to feel incomplete sometimes by her daughter, son and more often than not her "corporate" husband due to her lack of knowledge of English  Although  she manages a joint family with an aged  and widowed mother-in-law, a small home based catering business of making snacks.(i.e., "Laddoo", her specialty).She is invited to USA by her widowed sister to help her in her daughters marriage there.

She goes and faces her lack of English knowledge putting her in a very odd, laughable, humiliating situation for no actual fault of hers.She manages till the time of landing in US soil by help from fellow Indians, inside the aircraft,on the ticket counter at the time of departure to USA. After she is being humiliated by the female Afro-American counter clerk in an US restaurant for failing to comprehend  and place order, she decides to go for a 4 week English speaking crash course.

The class changed her life.Possibly, at least I thought so. She found the the respect she was looking for among her class mates.Especially, the actor who played the role of a french cook in USA helped her understand and value her capabilities as a student and as a cook. She saw that there were people who felt the same incompleteness as she did because of their lack of English prowess.

Although, the film circles around the housewife but every actor and actress played their parts well enough to make the film look very natural. Many housewife or even men suffering due to their lack of English prowess can identify themselves with the different characters of the film. I will not make any special mention about the special appearance of Amitabh Bachchan and the natural acting of Sridevi in this film. Doing this will be showing disrespect for the film.

I would also like to make a special mention about the small details that the film took care of in the film which subtly added value and enriched the viewing experience. For example - French classmate was represented as a soft spoken which is very correct as French people are soft speaking people. The Pakistani taxi driver - Salman Khan is represented as blunt and yet humorous. His short speech in class where he starts labeling male classmates as 'Bhai' and female classmates as sister. The harmony between Indian and Pakistani classmates is actually a reality in a foreign land outside India and Pakistan. The interactive teaching method in the class is very much USA, it gives the feel that the class is really happening in USA. The nationality, profession and image of the classmates of Sridevi has been very thoughtfully matched.

So, "Am Ende" I would like to tell anyone who is reading to get the copy of this film and see it with your family and enjoy every bit of it.Its one of the very rare incident in Bollywood to see a family film of such high quality in terms of unique and offbeat story line,good acting by all actors. The film have a different essence possibly because its not a one man show like most Bollywood movies.