Friday, February 01, 2013

"The" English Vinglish

After waiting for it for months I finally got to watch English Vinglish. And now I know why Raksha aunty kept on pestering mom to watch it. What an amazing movie! It's not just the acting and the storyline that making it an amazing watch, but the moral of the story too. To learn to love yourself and respect yourself. It all starts within. As usual.

My most favorite scenes of the film:

When Laurent answers why he loves coming to the class. Shashi! That was the sweetest. I honestly kept wondering where the movie is going after seeing him show his affection towards Shashi.

Every single scene where Shashi does the "yoo-hoo!" and lifts up her hand and cheers and almost jumps with joy.

After much struggle Shashi finally orders a sandwich and coffee, runs into another customer at the restaurant and gets super flustered and runs out of the restaurant. She is really good at these scenes, isn't it? There were traces of abused Anju of Chaalbaaz, and young angry-scared Mehndi of Khuda Gawah and furiously upset Pooja of Lamhe. That's when that little voice in my mind said, wow! The Sridevi is really back!!

How Shashi asks in class why it's THE United States of America but not THE India.

I simply adored the last scene. The way Gauri Shinde has made is so realistic with the clear slow speech where every word is said after thinking, after translating and our underdog has made it seem so real, so amazing! It truly deserves a standing ovation. Not to forget the "chullu bhar paani mein doob maro" acting by the family members. They were also quite convincing. For a moment, I did wonder however, if Ms. Shinde was bold enough, like our other Bollywood directors *wink* *wink* to make Shashi leave her family and go live a happier life with Laurent. But when I heard the dialog, "main apne favorite subject mein fail ho jau aur doosre subject mein pass ho jaau.. yeh kaise ho sakta hai?" I knew she had her brain and heart in the right place. ;) It was time to make laddus again, so what if she can't go attend the final exam or the last class session. And indeed, at the end, as I guessed it, thanks to her lovely niece, the school comes to her and she passes her class with flying colors. After all, her classmates had to have laddus somehow, so then two plus two is four.

And when Shashi tells the class to not make fun of others. Others who remain quiet in the class, or others who are different than you. Wow man! that's some BIG lesson of life and you just show it so simply. Hats off, Gauri Shinde.

It was funny to see Radha ask/say to Mausi (wait, that almost sounds like I'm talking about Sholay, doesn't it!), at the end of the remote class session over a cellphone: "wow! he really likes you. Do you like him too? It's okay, hota hai..." or something like that. It was hilarious in a *chuckle chuckle* sort of way.

Was anyone else rooting for Amitabh to be on that return flight to India? I know I was. :D

Oh and my favorite song would have to be "gustaakh dil..."

If you still haven't seen it, please, do take time to watch this one.