English Vinglish Movie Review

English Vinglish Rating: 3.60/5
Total Reviews 18
From all reviews from the web
Director: Gauri Shinde
Genre:  Comedy, Drama,  Social
Cast & Crew: Sridevi, Amitabh Bachchan , Priya Anand
Duration: 2 hour 16 minutes 

Showing 18 Reviews
English Vinglish Movie Review

Ratings:3.5/5  English Vinglish Review by Rajeev Masand Site:CNN IBN (IBNLive)
Making an assured debut with a light, frothy film that still has something important to say, Gauri Shinde delivers one the year’s most pleasing films, and Amit Trivedi lends some of his best compositions to the soundtrack. I’m going with three-and-a-half out of five for English Vinglish. It’s warm and fuzzy, and leaves you with a big smile on your face.
Visit Site for more Ratings:4/5  English Vinglish Review by Taran Adarsh Site:Bollywood Hungama
ENGLISH VINGLISH is the story of a woman who struggles with English and is made to feel insecure by her family and society at large. The film depicts the touching and transformational journey of a housewife, Shashi [Sridevi]. Circumstances make her resolute to prevail over this lack of confidence, master the language, teach the world a lesson or two on the way to becoming a self-assured and confident woman. Sure, masala movies are great fun, but a film like ENGLISH VINGLISH breaks the monotony, shatters the unwritten rules of the game and scores brownie points. Cinema is rapidly changing and one can connect with viewers across the globe even without making the usual mainstream Hindi movie. ENGLISH VINGLISH proves it! On the whole, ENGLISH VINGLISH is a remarkable motion picture. It's amusing, emotional, heartrending and also insightful. An inspiring film with an overwhelming message. A must-watch for every parent, every child. Strongly recommended!
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Ratings:3.5/5  Review by Anupama Chopra Site:Hindustan Times (Star World)
English Vinglish falters in the second half. The pace drops and Shashi’s English class seems to be like an outtake of Mind Your Language, the successful television series about a motely group of people learning English. There’s also a clumsy sub-track about Shashi’s English teacher being gay, complete with a sermon on equality. But even when the film feels shaky and stretched, Sridevi doesn’t miss a beat. Her performance is a triumph. She’s vulnerable and sad and yet selfless and strong, in the way we all know our mothers to be. It’s hard to imagine that this is an actor who hasn’t worked in fifteen years. Sridevi makes English Vinglish an absolute delight. I’m going with three and a half stars and strongly recommending that you watch it.
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Ratings:4/5   Review by Meena Iyer Site:Times of India (TOI) 
The film drives home the point that those who speak English fluently usually adapt a condescending attitude towards those who don't.Easily one of the best films on 2012; is tale of women empowerment (actually it is bound to empower every viewer) because it strikes a chord, right from the start to the end titles.The result is a sweet, sensitive and superlative film that makes you laugh, cry and smile. Every emotion is identifiable, every nuance is balanced. The characters are real, the performances effortless English Vinglish has the feel-good factor. It's the movie to which you must take your grandmother, mother, sister, wife, sweetheart and saas.
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Ratings:4/5  English Vinglish Review by Raja Sen Site:Rediff
Go watch English Vinglish, and take your mothers along. As shown by one great scene which has Shashi speaking furiously in Hindi to her chef friend Laurent, who replies back in thoughtful-sounding French, it isn't about language. It's about one of the biggest stars of her era transformed into the plainest Jane, a delightful heroine who saves all her grace for hoisting her son onto her pillow. It's about how vital the smallest-seeming dreams can prove to be. Ah, spell it English Win-glish, I say.
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Ratings:----   Review by Komal Nahta Site:ETC
On the whole, English Vinglish is a simple tale sensitively told and extraordinarily enacted. It may have taken a slow start but it has immense power to grow greatly because of positive word of mouth and ultimately prove a hit! No doubt, it will work more in the cities and the multiplexes but business from there will be big. Ladies will give a huge boost to the film. It also has tremendous repeat value be­cause it is a very uplifting and feel-good film.
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Ratings:2.5/5   Review by Saibal Chatterjee Site:NDTV
This film hinges on an idea that only reinforces the phony notion that a woman, no matter how gifted, must speak fluent English in order to truly assert herself.Tame superficiality is indeed the biggest bane of English Vinglish, which, for the most part, is otherwise reasonably watchable, especially owing to a charming performance by Sridevi.Her hesitant but heartfelt climactic speech, delivered undemonstratively, is the high point.But it takes two hours too long in coming. Chances are that by then you might cease to really care about her newly acquired spoken English skills.If you don’t, you might actually feel a little lump in your throat. That is the kind of film English Vinglish is. It would work strictly for those who can discount the film’s oversimplified worldview.
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Ratings:3.5/5   Review by Shubhra Gupta Site:Indian Express
‘English Vinglish’, Gauri Shinde’s first feature is a likeable film, which gives us a silky- smooth first half, a slowed-down second, broad-brushstroke-y characters, and an actress who makes it all work.What I liked about Shinde’s feel-good debut is that it stays away from stridency, even if it stays equally safely away from surprises, sidestepping those difficult questions by focusing on Shashi’s innate abilities to make other people happy, and Sridevi’s display of her skills. Hers is a fully-rounded role, so rare in Bollywood, and Sridevi delivers a beautifully-calibrated performance.Dekho vekho.
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Ratings:4/5   Review by Aniruddha Guha Site:DNA
It tells a story that revels in its simplicity, with aid from some witty writing and honest moments that elicit a smile here, a laugh there, and which leave you touched. Without Sridevi, English Vinglish would have still worked, but the actress makes the film what it is. You may find cliches along the way, yet English Vinglish is among the most refreshingly novel films made in recent times. Gauri Shinde makes an assured debut with a film that seems to have been made with more honesty than calculation, and with more heart than mind. If you're a Sridevi fan, you can't miss it. If you aren't, you still can't miss it.
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Ratings:5/5  English Vinglish Review by Rubina A Khan Site:First Post
This is the first time in her legendary career that Sridevi has worked with a female director and to that, I can only say, Gauri Shinde was the right choice! That Sridevi chose to step out after 15 long years from her cocoon of marital bliss for English Vinglish is definitely something audiences won’t forget for a long time simply because they have been spoiled by her incredible acting skills all over again! That too, sans the song and dance numbers and her body writhing in studio rain to a Kaate nahin kat te track ala Mr India! It’s like leave the acting to Sridevi and the “shacting” is best left to the rest of her ilk.
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Ratings:3/5  English Vinglish Review by Roshni Devi Site:Koimoi
The first half of the movie could have been a bit faster. Considering how meek Shashi is shown to be, her going out to find the English class across town all on her own is far-fetched. Once she has been established as the disregarded housewife, adding further to it just seems like trying to milk the audience’s tears. Shashi’s husband and children have not been characterized well (heartless mostly).
Forget comebacks and special appearances, watch this movie for a woman who steps out of her family’s shadow and learns to love herself.
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Ratings:4/5  English Vinglish Review by Puri Site:One India

Overall the movie is a must watch. It's a compete family entertainer. It has some excellent performances, especially Sridevi's! When compared to Madhuri Dixit (Aaja Nachle) and Karisma Kapoor's comeback (Dangerous Ishhq), Sridevi definitely has the best comeback in Bollywood with a beautiful story and strong role. One of the best movies of the year English Vinglish deserves a Hats Off!

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Ratings:3/5  English Vinglish Review by Shweta Parande Site:Bollywood Life

Nevertheless, in the end, Shashi chooses to ask for a Hindi newspaper in her flight back to India, almost as if she is dying to go back to her pre-New York life with her family. But her hubby (played naturally by Adil Hussain) looks on knowingly. So will Shashi embrace English and balance her old life with her new experiences? Or will she be content with the fact that she has been able to communicate her feelings to her loved ones – to tell them that she needs respect and not just love? That’s for you to interpret, but the film’s messages stay with you when you leave the theatre. And that’s a winner for Gauri Shinde and Sridevi!

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Ratings:3.5/5  English Vinglish Review by Anjum Shabbir Site:Bolly Spice

Overall an extremely praiseworthy film. Excellent performances, especially from Sridevi. A beautifully crafted film. One for the entire family and universal audiences. Easily one of the best films of the year! To the team of English Vinglish: encore, encore!

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Ratings:----   Review by Vivek Bhatia Site:Filmfare
English Vinglish is almost a masterstroke of a debut for director Gauri Shinde. There is a strong director at work here. The characters are underplayed and so are the emotions. Despite having a few lump-in-your-throat moments, the film doesn’t hold your collar and compel you to shed tears. Instead, it lets you enjoy the feel-good moments at an adequate pace. Well-shot and crisply edited, this film has a fresh feel to it. Also, Amit Trivedi with his hip tunes and modern sound gives a distinct vibe to the film.
If one had to necessarily pick out a flaw in the film then it has to be the second half which seemed a tad bit long for its liking. But that’s just nitpicking in a film which is near perfect. Go for English Vinglish with your family vamily. You’ll be charmed varmed, rest assured.

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Ratings:----   Review by Sanjukta Sharma Site:Live Mint
Sridevi works on the details, like her gait and her accent. A natural discomfort with English possibly makes her so convincing and utterly endearing. Ultimately, her imprint on screen is that of a star—this is one of the most persuasive comebacks of a Bollywood star.English Vinglish is breezy, light-hearted cinema with a woman’s big journey at its core, and the abiding reason to watch it is the lead actor.
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Ratings:----   Review by Joe Lydon Site:Variety
Popular Indian thesp Sridevi returns to the screen after a 15-year hiatus with "English Vinglish," a sprightly star vehicle that finds her perfectly cast as an attractive yet old-fashioned homebody who elevates her sense of worth by becoming bilingual. Pic occasionally resembles a broadly played U.S. sitcom, as Shashi amusingly interacts with a multiethnic cross-section of fellow students.Far more often, though, "English Vinglish" is traditional Bollywood escapism, a lightly enjoyable trifle featuring exuberant musical interludes, an extremely chaste approach to conjugal relations and extramarital temptation, and a crowdpleasing wrap-up that allows the lead character to be all she can be while still respecting family values.
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Ratings:3/5   Review by Peter Bradshaw Site:Guardian
Here is a likable family comedy from India with its own air of innocence, and a boisterous cameo from Amitabh Bachchan. It's very amiable, feelgood entertainment, featuring some broad comedy and stereotypes, yet with a notably bold repudiation of homophobia. An undemanding picture that goes down as well as the heroine's tasty ladoos.
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