English Vinglish by
Gauri Shinde is poignant film that marks the return of Sridevi to the big
screen in a very different role to what she has been accustomed to (mainstream
flicks). The movie revolves around the challenges and tribulations faced by the
modern Indian woman in her various roles in society, in this case, being
subject to disrespectful behavior and social handicap because of her inability
to converse in English. English Vinglish (the
title in itself is a sardonic play on the importance of English) depicted two key
themes through excellent and critically-acclaimed cinematography, plot and
acting:
·
The Undervalued Position of the Homemaker
·
English/The Occident as a Post-Colonial
Status Symbol
The
Undervalued Position of the Homemaker
The Indian woman – portrayed through her roles as a
mother, wife and daughter, through different lenses (including Mother India and
Deewar) – continues to play an important role in Bollywood and Indian cinema.
However, as her resources, particularly in the urban and semi-urban landscape
have evolved, so has her role. Sridevi represents the homemaker who plays all
of the roles mentioned above – mother, daughter and wife – but not necessarily
without any resource constraints that the earlier generation had faced. She has
a stable home, which is largely safe and secure. However, she now faces a
different problem – she’s stuck in a generational gap with her children
(represented by the daughter’s habits of Café Coffee Day and her iPod) where
she is unable to gain stature in their world. Similarly, the disparity between
the wage-earner (Shashi’s husband) and the homemaker is revealed, where respect
is apparently endowed one-way. The common thread appears to not be something
institutional or fundamental with Shashi – for she is dutiful, respectful and
perfect in every other way – but her inability to be conversant in English,
driven in all likelihood by her conservative upbringing, where education,
particularly English education wasn’t very important. As a result, even though
she adds tremendous value to the home, and even generates a self-sustaining
income for herself, she is unable to command respect from individuals
(including her family members). The director, Gauri Shinde, depicts this
primarily through abrupt dialogues and uses Sridevi’s facial expressions very
well – the disdain, the fear, the pain are shown not through metaphorical
references, but are very bold and direct.
English/the
Occident as a Post-Colonial Status Symbol
It is interesting to see that the English Language – a
bastardized Anglo-Saxon language without logical origins, is portrayed as a
post-colonial status symbol in India. The obsession with English, and to a
larger extend, the Occident (represented more by America than the United
Kingdom), is represented through small vignettes – the excitement of the
children when they learn that they will be traveling to the United States, the
need for Shashi’s daughter and for Shashi to be ranked first in English in her
school classes, the pride with which her husband talks of America, and finally,
the intimidation of Shashi in the US, even at the hands of a rude barista. The
introduction of the Frenchman, Laurent, serves to counteract and counterbalance
the perception of the West – where it shown very clearly that the bias is
clearly generated from an inexplicable inferiority complex that the Indian
community seems to have generated, and one that is lacking in their European
counterparts – who are not as intimidated, and not as impressed. The director,
Shinde, uses the film to not just reflect how transactional a thread language
could be in deep relationships, but also how domestic languages have suffered
as casualties to the obsession of Indians for gentrification through the
English Language.
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