My family and I watched the Hindi movie English Vinglish a few weeks ago, and I have to say, it was the best Indian movie I had seen in a long time. It featured the return of the actress Sridevi, who hadn't been acting in movies ever since 1997. It's a must watch for anyone, even if you don't know Hindi! My brother and I don't understand Hindi but we still got the full effect with the subtitles, so language shouldn't be a problem at all for watching this movie.
English Vinglish, directed by Gauri Shinde, is about an Indian woman named Sashi. Her English speaking skills are poor, and as a result her husband disrespects her, and her teenage daughter takes advantage of her weakness. For example, her daughter Sapna went out with a few friends for Coffee Day, lying to her mother that they were having a group study. When Sashi asks Sapna why she can't ask her for help, she gives the rude reply, "I don't think you can teach me about English literature".
This problem will only last for a little while, as Sashi will soon find out. She receives the news about her older niece's wedding, that will be taking place in NY. Sashi is called by her sister to come early to help out with wedding preparations, but Sashi finds it very difficult to travel to a foreign country. On top of that, her husband, son, and daughter refuse to come along with her, leaving her with no family company on the ride.
After a long flight and a difficult time answering questions in English (security and passport checks), Sashi finally finds herself in NY. Her younger niece and sister take her to Manhattan, where she is amazed to see the tall buildings and variety of people that reside there. Sashi is enjoying her time in the United States, but she misses her family back home in India too. However, an embarrassing moment happens to Sashi, when her younger niece Radha drops her off for a walk. Sashi goes to a nearby cafe, and attempts to order something. But due to her lack of English speaking skills, she embarrasses herself by infuriating the cashier who takes the orders, the people waiting in line, and also spilling the drink and fries of another man before finally ordering an Americano Coffee. She gets so upset about this she runs away from the cafe as fast as she can, with tears in her eyes. However, a gentleman named Laurent, finds Sashi and gives her the coffee she ordered, explaining that the woman in the coffee shop is a mean lady, and acts like that to everyone. Right when Radha comes to pick Sashi up, she sees an advertisement on a local bus that would change her life forever. An English speaking class, that would help all immigrants to the United States speak better English within a period of four weeks. Sashi dials up the number immediately when she gets home, enrolling herself in the class for an amount of $400 dollars.
The rest of the movie is about Shashi's comical experiences in the class which consists of 7 other people: the teacher, David, a Mexican mother, Eva, a Chinese hairstylist, Yu Son, a Pakistani car driver, Salman, a Tamil software engineer, Rama, Udumke, a short-tempered African American man, and to her surprise, the gentleman that helped her out after the cafe incident; Laurent, a cook from France.
The movie was really enjoyable due to the comical incidents that happened during the English class. Each character had a huge significance on the English class which was enjoyable for us to see. Sashi is faced with many problems throughout the movie, but I'm not going to reveal them to you because I want you to see the movie yourself!! The YouTube version of the movie should be online soon with the English Subtitles and I will notify you as soon as possible!
Sorry for not posting in over a month!!
Vishruti
