English Vinglish

There is a soft feeling in your heart when you see someone who you have been, are and will always be completely in love with whether the world says anything else or not. It is a feeling of weakness and utter submission that totally disappears when the person is not in front of you or you are not thinking about him/her. With Sridevi, I can associate those feelings and much more :-p.

And for those who grew up with me in the period between the 1980s-90s, one would understand the passion with which we would follow a Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit. One could not be a fan of both these stars even if someone had a gun to their head. Their loyalties have to be aligned towards only one and no one else but that one. I chose the former – and coincidentally, have stuck to her all this while.

So my review may be biased towards her, but I will try and be as neutral as I can in the overall scheme of things. It is going to be really tough but I will do my damdest best. Sashi Godbole (Sridevi) is married to a successful executive (Adil Hussain) and has 2 kids – a girl in class 7 (Navika Kota) and a boy of 4 years (Shivansh Kotia) who hasn’t started school yet. She is an expert in making laddoos.

She doesn’t know English and is the butt of embarrassment for her husband and family on many an occasion. All this while, she hasn’t done much about it. When Sashi’s niece’s wedding is announced in New York, she makes her way there earlier than the family to help out with the wedding preparations. An ad on a bus to learn English in 4 weeks catches her fancy and she begins the journey to regain her lost self respect.

While English Vinglish has its high points namely the lead performance from Sridevi – and I am not kidding you on this point. Once a star – always a star. If anything, her acting capabilities have dramatically improved over the past few years. There are also instances of some fantastic camera work in bits and pieces.

But the rest of the cast falls really flat. Whether it is the younger of 2 nieces – Priya Anand – whose American accent and forced attempt @ speaking Hindi falls really flat OR the daughter – Navika Kota – who is extremely over the top in most scenes. Ditto for the screenplay and music which is average at best. The scenes between Sridevi and Mehdi Nebbou where she speaks in Hindi and he in French and apparently understand each other just don’t seem to be real enough to be believed.

However, the bottom line – is it worth watching? Definitely once. Worth watching on the big screen? Not really unless you are a fan of Sridevi. Reasonably entertaining but not meant for the seasoned movie goer. Can wait for the DVD. 6 o 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dWir9Q_Vek