Film review: English Vinglish
English Vinglish will provide many Hong Kong cinemagoers with their introduction to its beautiful sari-clad star, Sridevi. But long-time fans of Indian cinema will already be familiar with the luminous actress who graced more than 200 Indian films before going into what looked like permanent retirement in 1997.
Starring: Sridevi, Adil Hussain, Mehdi Nebbou
Director: Gauri Shinde
Category: I (Hindi, English and French)
English Vinglish will provide many Hong Kong cinemagoers with their introduction to its beautiful sari-clad star, Sridevi. But long-time fans of Indian cinema will already be familiar with the luminous actress who graced more than 200 Indian films before going into what looked like permanent retirement in 1997.
One and a half decades on, however, Sridevi has made a high-profile return in debutant director Gauri Shinde's endearing comedy-drama about a middle-aged Indian woman whose life is transformed by a fateful decision she makes while on a one-month visit to the US.
The faithful wife of business executive Satish Godbole (Adil Hussain) and loving mother of two, sweet Shashi Godbole (Sridevi) leads a typical upper-middle class housewife existence bar two things. On the positive side, she has an talent for making ladoos and channels that ability into selling the snack. Less happily for her, she also stands out within her social strata and nuclear family for being less than a fluent English speaker.
Shashi's lack of English-language proficiency sometimes exposes her to ridicule and scorn from her teen daughter (Navika Kotia) and condescension from Satish. Still, she doesn't truly feel undone by her English-language deficiencies until she experiences problems such as ordering at a New York cafe.
Resolving to remedy the situation, Shashi enrols in a crash course in English and finds herself in a class with a motley, multi-cultural crew and a flamboyant gay teacher (Cory Gibbs) who prove to be uncommonly friendly and supportive despite their hailing from diverse - at times even divergent - backgrounds. She also attracts the romantic admiration of French classmate Laurent (Mehdi Nebbou) - a development that prompts her to take a good look at her life and think about whether she's truly happy with it.