Many actresses tried to stage a comeback this year but none succeeded more than Sridevi. From directors like Ram Gopal Varma who declared their love for the actress and film critics who carried images of the Chandni girl from their youthful years, English Vinglish was destined to be a hit.

To her credit, debutante director Gauri Shinde also managed to weave an important and heart-warming story into the mix in English Vinglish. The film tells the story of a simple Indian housewife and the way she is looked down upon in her family and social circle for not knowing how to speak English, until she decides to do something about it. The movie prompted many youngsters adding to the box-office collections of the film as well as its buzz on social media where this generation hangs out.

The home video of the film released by Eros International contains two discs that would suggest a lot of excess material from the film in it. However, while the first DVD contains the entire feature film, the second DVD is a short half-hour mélange of the film’s making and a few deleted scenes. This is disappointing because there was definitely much more scope to do detailed interviews with the cast, especially Sridevi and Shinde, on the film and its relevance today.

A word about the casting would also have been handy. Instead, you get a lot of laughing moments from the sets and a few lines from the actors thrown in between in the making of the film. French actor Mehdi Nabbou’s impromptu jigs deserve a special mention though.

As an added bonus though, you can also view Shinde’s six-minute black and white no dialogue short film she made as a student of the NYFA, incidentally also the place where much of English Vinglish has been shot.

For lovers of Sridevi, nothing should deter them from picking this one up. For others, catch the film at the end of the month on TV and you’ll be just fine.

Guylife Rating: **

english vinglish, sridevi, gauri shinde, mehdi nabbou, new york

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