October 10, 2012

English Vinglish movie review

What a movie!
Yes, what a movie…

A movie that draws your attention makes you feel and get you thinking.
A simple story narrated in a beautifully effective way. Kudos to the Director.


   The issue of ‘spoken English’ might seem insufficient for a screenplay of two and half hours but, the writer – director Gauri utilizes the 135 minutes comfortably to tell us the story of Shashi, a typical Indian housewife, whose efforts, passion and amazing personality goes unnoticed by the family. The movie takes us through all those unspoken feelings Shashi faces time and again. Its not just about being unable to speak English, but also about all those sacrifices she makes of her little delights.



   The very opening scene depicts the lives of many such women who prioritize themselves well below their family. And alas, the families never appreciate that. This is presented very subtly interwoven with the main theme of the movie.


   This woman after all those years of sacrifices and loosing herself, gets some time for herself and she sets out to accomplish her goal of speaking English and in the process re-discovers her self. And along side she meets people of different nations and completely different backgrounds all of them with a single goal of being able to speak better English. As the intro of all the students of ‘the’ English class goes on, we realize that there are so many regions where people do not speak English, after all it is not “The Language”.

   Most of the movie goes in a lighter vein but with loads of emotions, sensitivities and concerns going hand in hand. The director manages well and strikes a balance of all the emotions. In the theatre you can see the audience going ooh and clapping and giggling and falling quite too. Director is successful in getting their full attention. This kind of experience makes English vinglish a movie worth watching in a theatre.

   The climax is what makes the film even more worthy. It is when Shashi says, “learn to love yourself to love your life as it is” and also defines marriage as a friendship between two equals, no one is less and no one is more. A nice message to end with isn’t it? With this the movie ends leaving you with a happy satisfied feeling.

   Sridevi as Shashi does a wonderful job. She is as amazing as she always was, even after 15 years! She effortlessly gets into the character and what we see on screen is Shashi and not Sridevi. Though at places she seemed to be a bit uncomfortable with her hindi diction.


   Songs go along with the story and are well written. The music doesn’t disturb the lyrics and thus the feel of the songs.  And Amitabh’s special appearance adds to the glitter. He has a very brief role but an effective one.
Though advertised as Sridevi Vs. Angrezi, the film is actually about Language Vs. Communication and Love Vs. Respect.

P.S: You cannot Love someone without respecting him or her but you still can communicate without language ☺

1 comments:

  1. great review..now I definitely have to watch this movie :)

    ReplyDelete