Review of English Vinglish (2012) by Rameshwar N — 30 Dec 2012

Sridevi just made me realize why the entire nation was mesmerized with her in the 80s-90s. Now she is back with a bang after a 15 year hiatus delivering another masterful performance carrying the entire movie on her shoulders with such grace, charisma and a terrific sense of humor. What the movie suffers from bloated runtime, occasional indulgences to mainstream comedy, some stereotypical characters and an undying resolute to repeatedly show the protagonists misgivings more than makes up with many subtle heartfelt moments.

Shashi (Sridevi) is a simple Indian housewife happily married with 2 children in an upper-middle class family. She is loving and caring but she does not seem to get the respect she deserves primarily due to her inability to converse in English. When her sister invites Shashi to New York to help with her daughter's wedding, she gets nervous about traveling alone ahead of her family. With a little inspiration she receives from her fellow passenger, she secretly enrolls in a English speaking class.

Though Sridevi hogs all the limelight, rest of the cast apart from a few forced in for stereotypes delivers a brilliant performance. The writer-director has done what is rare in Hindi film industry, art of being subtle (well mostly when mattered). Also she seem to have a talent in extracting those delicate masterful nuances from Sridevi which uplifts the movie entirely. The background score though does not feature the song and dance routine is mainstream and decent.

Little overdone but delicious nevertheless.