English Vinglish

Sridevi as Sashi

English Vinglish (2012) is celebration of women, cosmopolitanism, and compassion, and is a great film to watch during Women's History Month! Few films have made me as happy as English Vinglish. There is so much joy and wonder in the story. The music is disposable, but the acting by Sridevi is flawless. 

Sashi is a mother and wife who runs a business out of her home making ladoos. Her husband and daughter tease and exclude her for not speaking English, still the language of status and upward mobility in India. Her husband tells company, “My wife was born to make ladoos!” and cannot understand why she does not see this reductive assessment of her worth as a compliment.

New Coat!

When Sashi's niece in New York decides to get married, Sashi is sent ahead of her family to help make preparations. She is reluctant to travel alone, and struggles in New York without English. Then she decides to take her money (her own money, earned from her business) and enroll in a four-week language class in Manhattan. Her classmates come from around the world and are ultimately united in their affection for their teacher and one another. Unlike in Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), also set in NYC, gay New Yorkers are not the butt of discriminatory jokes. English Vinglish celebrates the diversity of NYC, and the city is busy and bustling but ultimately also a place of reinvention and rediscovery. New York looks beautiful, and it was good for me to be reminded that although things feel bleak, there are still places in the United States where diversity  is celebrated.

The joy of the film for me came from watching Sashi grow in confidence as she learned to navigate New York, made friends, and her English improved. The subtle changes in her posture and interactions with the people around her were beautifully acted. I cheered when she bought a trench coat like the one she considered buying in India- until her daughter teased her about it. Her purchase was in part inspired by the film within the film The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954), starring Elizabeth Taylor. Sashi slays in her trench coat.

By the end of the film Sashi declares, “I don’t need love. I need respect.” Bold words at a wedding, and bold words from a woman in any film, in any genre. To point out, as some reviewers did, that not everything will be perfect when Sashi returns home is missing the point- Sashi has reminded herself that she is worth more than she believed, and reminded her family of her worth as well. What happens next is up to her.

The star of the film Sridevi passed away in February of this year. The circumstances surrounding her death caused a great deal of unsavory speculation, and sparked headlines like this from the BBC: "Sridevi Kapoor death: Tragedy shines light on Bollywood pressures". In case we were worried that being an actress was only difficult in Hollywood. 

Women's March 2017 Baltimore 

Which brings us back to misogyny and Women's History Month. We received several emails this women's history month at work, and they all felt incredibly hollow. Our President is a sexual predator! But women are super cool! Look how far we've come!  But Women's History Month is also fraught as a result of the ongoing schisms within the feminist movement, as exemplified by conflict within the Women's March. I am not sure anyone believed that a single large protest was going to make mainstream feminism intersectional once and for all- or maybe we did- but I at least hoped that we could all get on the same on at least some of the things. We couldn't. 

Suffragettes released from a Washington workhouse
Their original arrest was also for protesting

This is not a new problem. For an introduction to the politics of (white) First Wave Feminism in the early years of the 20th century, The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore is a place to start. It is illuminating as much because of what is left out as by what is included: women of color are almost entirely absent, a reminder that feminism has a long and ongoing problem with exclusion. I do not believe for a moment that POC didnt read comic books and missed the First Wave, but the subjects of the book- WW creator  William Moulton Marston and his family- either didnt notice or didnt care. However, the book does provide an overview of the tensions between different political agendas and personal beliefs within first-wave and pre-second wave white feminism. The women in long skirts seem so static in old photographs that I sometimes forget that the first wave also had militant and free-love fringes, and that the question, "What does equality look like?" has always elicited passionate and opposing answers. That the answers have so often excluded huge numbers of women helps answer the question, "How did we get here?"  

Film: English Vinglish (2012)
Director/Writer: Gauri Shinde
Runtime: 122 minutes
Language: Hindi, English
Country: India

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