Indian films, for the most part,
portray a very male dominated lifestyle and heavily focus on having men as the
protagonists and heroes. Females usually have supporting roles, and this
usually entails being eye candy or having a stereotypical female casting, such
as maid or stay-at-home mom. In recent times, especially the last two decades,
the emergence of more gender equal films have come into place, usually in
romantic movies. These films show a mutual struggle between male and female
characters. These are great, but don’t go far enough, that is where English
Vinglish comes in. English Vinglish is a refreshingly liberal and progressive
movie to come out of Bollywood. The centralized female role and triumph of Sridevi
over her familial complications really shines a good light on women in India
and around the world. English Vinglish does an amazing job highlighting and
fighting societies expectations of Indian women, but, unfortunately, does this
at the expense at different minority groups presented in the movie.
The great thing about English
Vinglish is that it is one of the most female-centric films to come out of
Bollywood in decades. English Vinglish not only has a female lead, but also has
a female lead that is in her late 40’s. This means wonders for Indian women
sitting at home watching this movie. The audience doesn’t have to be a 20-year-old
size two super model without any kids to feel connected to the actress and the
character. Most women in a male dominated home can relate to this movie. The
progressiveness of the film really starts to show in the latter part, when
Sridevi starts to have feeling for her French classmate. The idea of a married
woman having romantic feelings for someone outside of her marriage is crazy,
not just for India, but for most countries. Sridevi was not getting the
comfort, love, and respect that she wanted and deserved from her husband so she sought it elsewhere. This only
ended up strengthening her existing relationship with her husband and kids, no
harm no foul. Even the best marriages have problems, but that doesn’t mean they
come to an end when things get bumpy. Having this as a central conflict of the
film speaks wonders about what the goal of the director and writer was. This is
a huge
step for Indian cinema.
Unfortunately, the positives of
this movie are slightly overshadowed by the inappropriate, stereotypical, and
misinformed portrayal of some of the characters.
One of the first minority groups
shown in the movie is the American-Indian family that Sridevi has come to
visit. This family has seems to have all but completely rejected their Indian
culture, an extent which most American-Indian families have not done. Although
they are holding a fairly traditional wedding, the family speaks mostly
English, exclusively eats American food (Mexican), and marries the daughter off
to a Caucasian boy. This boy also makes ignorant comments such as “I’m going to
get a dowry right?” Yes, these types of families exist, but they are rare. Many
immigrant families still have very strong cultural ties to India, and showing
that type of family would have been more accurate and representative.
Other stereotypes exists, most
notably in the English class. There is a gay man, a Chinese girl, a black and
white man, an Indian, a Pakistani and a Hispanic woman. The Pakistani fulfills
the role of creepy middle-eastern man who thinks about sex all the time. The
Asian girl is the weak student who puts up with everything. The Indian is the
nerdy IT person who eats samber idli all the time. And finally, the Hispanic
woman is the lazy Mexican worker who is probably a maid. On top of all of this,
the jokes directed toward the gay English teacher are disrespectful. The
African American is just treated as a big intimidating man who sits in the
corner of the class, a way most Indian adults see black people. It seems the
classroom was designed to insult different groups of people and cause
controversy. It would have been completely fine to have all of these
characters, but less extreme and the point would have come across. Instead,
there has to be a degradation of different types of people and a grouping of
cultures into stereotypes.
English Vinglish, even with the
wrongful portrayal of minorities, delivers a progressive and eye opening view
on women. This movie is important for Indian cinema and for changing the way
women and housewives are looked at in society. Sridevi delivers a masterful
performance that really brings out the best in the whole film.
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