English Vinglish

The least rating you can give to Gauri Shinde’s “English Vinglish” is good. If you ask me, I would say that the movie deserves almost all the pleasant words in the dictionary. Story of a typical Indian house wife and a slice of her life which gave her back the respect she deserved. A screenplay that never goes over the top and still manages to keep the audience engaged to it with a pleasant smile is the backbone of this sweet Laddu movie.

The movie is about this India house wife Shashi Godbole who is not fluent in English. She is brilliant in cooking and her Laddu is really special. Her Laddus have good demand and she is doing it as a small scale business. But her problem with English causes a lot of issues in her personal life literally demoralizing Shashi. Her children hate to take her to school. Husband sees her as a cooking machine and many more. Shashi happens to get a chance to go to New York alone for attending her sister’s daughter’s marriage. Her quest for self request finds a new level there and out of some humiliating incidences Shashi decides to conquer the language that took her pride and privilege.

The plot has a cliché feel good entertainer’s flavors in it. But still the simplicity and the way each scene connects to the audience makes this movie a joyful watch. Movie goes through all sorts of possible and practical humiliation people can face in this world because of their lack of knowledge in English. Through the characters that Shashi meets at the English tuition class, Gauri shows us the various issues faced by people because of the same problem. The romance portion is also fitted nicely so that it won’t be kept undigested for the audience.

Performance wise it’s a glorious comeback of Sridevi and she deserves a loud round of applauds for the performance. Priya Anand used her space nicely to make a good screen presence. Mehdi Nebbou was impressive in his role. Rest of the cast also did complete justice to their characters. A sweet and special mention for Shivansh Kotia. The small wonder’s chemistry with Sridevi was really sweet. The cameo of Amitab Bachchan was really cool and it wasn’t a totally unwanted one.

Gauri Shinde is flawless in direction and script is also gentle, humble and connecting. Her tribute to her mom is really worth all the money. Cinematography is also really impressive. I loved the portion which captured the inner conflicts of Shashi in visually communicating way. Editing was cool. Adequate use of BGM and really catchy music by Amit.

Overall, English Vinglish is a movie that will surely make you feel happy. As someone who studied in a language medium other than English (Malayalam) , watching this movie was a really amazing experience for me. With a cheerful smile I am giving this movie a 4/5. Don’t miss this sweet Laddu!!