Must Watch: The Amazing Journey To Self Esteem! | epic journey to self esteem middle class housewife family chanturang article

Aarti Kadam

A middle-class housewife who is constantly humiliated by her own family, losing confidence, Shashi at one point refuses to surrender to the situation and decides to stand up for herself. Her inquisitive attitude helps her to overcome many obstacles to reach the final goal of learning English. The journey of a simple middle class woman to grow up in the eyes of herself and her family in the Hindi film ‘English Vinglish’ is a must watch as it tells a universal truth.

“I don’t need love, I need a bit of respect” is Shashi’s expectation for himself in the Hindi film ‘English Vinglish’. And the key link to fulfilling that expectation is her learning English, her speaking it, and her finding herself. It should be seen as a film by director Gauri Shinde who easily connects with countless women who die thousands of deaths every day to get this respect for themselves in the eyes of their own families.

The story is not only about the confidence journey of a typical middle-class, middle-aged, cotton saree-wearing, braid-wearing, insult-swallowing simpleton, but also her maturing relationship with her family. Because it is the family members who constantly undermine her confidence, especially her husband Satish and coming-of-age daughter Swapna. Which we also see in many families. We also see many people around us who constantly target a person’s weakness and insult her by saying, ‘What’s wrong with your wife’ or ‘What does your mother know?’ Of course, many people continue to live crying and dying believing what people say to be true, but here Shashi refuses to die and live like that. At home, at her daughter’s school, or when ordering coffee at a cafe when she arrives in America, her inner struggle is intensified by the way she is humiliated for not being able to speak English, and her antidote is the ‘Learn English in Four Weeks’ class. These four weeks are the transformation of a caterpillar named Shashi into a butterfly!

Actually everyone has an energy, but it is often latent. She has to give air, then victory is yours. So is Shashi. She is a housewife. He is an expert in cooking, especially in making Motichura Ladoo. So much so, that she has a small business. But because of that and her not being able to speak English or mispronouncing it, Satish and Swapna keep mocking and insulting her. Such teasing of a girl is encouraged by Satish so there is no one to stop her from doing so. As a result, Shashi loses confidence. ‘Kitnabhi karo kisiko khush nahi rakhi sakit’- this sorrow of countless women also came out of her mouth. Meanwhile, her sister, who is in America, invites her to America for Manu Leki’s, Meera’s wedding, and the thought of going to America alone makes her sleepless. But still she reaches there speaking broken, improvised English. Not only this, but after getting the information about the English class, he takes the metro train alone and reaches New York for the class, looking for the streets with all the numbers. It is her first win. It is from here that Shashi’s journey of swimming against the current rather than drifting into the abyss begins. Realizing ‘Kya Karu Time Come Hain Na’, she quickly understands every English word, sentence. Be it while going to the cinema, watching the news on TV, magnets on the fridge, while other classmates are having fun in the class, while passing the time, her only goal is to learn English. For that, one has to lie to the sister, one has to slap the husband. But with the help of her niece Radha, she manages everything, but as the struggle is never easy, she also has to face many difficulties. She misses class for the final exam, but still passes it with distinction, but at the same time cements her place in the family by scoring a hundred out of a hundred on the life test, conveying what she perceives to be a universal and timeless truth. Her monologue at the end of the film is an eye opener for every family. While ‘toasting’ Meera at her wedding, she says to Meera and her son-in-law Kevin, ‘Marriage is friendship’, telling Meera and her son-in-law Kevin that it is not the lady’s responsibility to please everyone in the family, but everyone else’s. There both are identical. Life is a long journey, sometimes one may feel small, sometimes others. Be there for each other at times like this. Let your family be your small world in this big world, because family is the only place where you are never belittled, family is never judgmental. It doesn’t insult you. Love you, respect you. You build a family like that. Live with love.’ While Shashi is telling all this, we keep on realizing that this is nothing in her life, as well as Satish and Swapna. Shashi conveys his message precisely without any fuss, clash, anger or irritation. And reaches the final victory. Finally, the family on the plane back home, when Shashi asks the air hostess in English what she wants to read, Shashi asks her, ‘Do you have Hindui news paper? No? It’s OK.’ Then Satish keeps looking at her admiringly and she smiles contentedly wrapping the cloth tightly around her shoulders once again. This simple Shashi who doesn’t expect much from life, but when it comes to self-respect, refuses to surrender to it and stands tall with self-effort, her same simple story is common to all.

Throughout the film, director Gauri Shinde has made very good use of Motichur’s ladavas, which are a source of pride for Shashi. In short, these laddus play an important role throughout the film. The film begins with a scene of Ladavs created by Shashi. Those colorful ladoos kept in the box bring a smile of satisfaction on her face. Her love for her work continues to be expressed by pressing currants on the laddus with separate hands, keeping the box properly closed, feeding laddus with love to everyone in the house. Her ladus are so popular that she gets orders everyday, even for weddings. Holding a child in her hand, she delivers the boxes of laddas home. Here too, her husband Satish has no encouragement at all from his small act of not giving her a car. She makes rickshaw deliveries. The money received from it is deposited in a box. Later, this money is useful for her to take an English class. The money she earned on the life of the Ladvas, she travels further on their strength. Even in class when she tells sir, that I have a ‘small business’ of lads. That’s when they call her, you’re an ‘entrepreneur’. Her eyes sparkle. For the first time, she feels happy that someone has given so much respect to her work. But when she tells this to her husband, he says with his usual sneer, ‘I think you’ve fed everyone there too,’ and her confidence is shaken. Even so, Satish always makes fun of her for making laddus, even telling the boy, ‘If you don’t study, you will have to make laddus,’ or tells her, ‘You were born to make laddus,’ but he says, ‘What else does she come up with? ?’ He doesn’t even realize how much this mockery hurts her. It is she who decides to give Motichur’s Ladoo as a ‘return gift’ in her niece Meera’s wedding and does so. After four weeks, giving the English test is all that remains. She wants to go to class for that once, but the wedding ladus she prepared falls on the floor due to a boy’s push and she has to put off the thought of going to the exam. She prepares all the laddus again and again. Because it is her first love. Marriage is necessary. Everyone in her class comes. She feeds everyone Ladoo. ‘Thanks, mujhe apne sandhi pyaar karna sikhane ke liye’, she says, ‘Thanks, mujhe apne sandhi pyaar karna sikhane ke liye’, as she pampers her French friend Lorraine, who is deeply in love with her, ending his feelings for her. Her husband, who is watching all this from a distance, gets very upset. For the first time he feels her independent and separate existence. As the two laddus pile up on his plate, he asks her, “Do you still love me?” She smiles, “Why else would you have given me two laddus!” Here’s the story of the laddus. Standing up, the main thing is to bring the family closer together.

Sridevi with excellent direction and bullet screenplay His acting has taken this film to a much higher level. He has beautifully expressed the struggle of swallowing every insult from husband, daughter and at the same time pure joy of success. While climbing each step of success, wrapping the shashi’s padar tightly from the left shoulder, flying the braid back or raising the right hand and saying ‘Yo’ around oneself, these lakabis are perfectly suited on every occasion. Understanding Lauren’s love, the assertiveness of saying, ‘I don’t want love, I want some respect,’ holding Satish, who says my wife doesn’t speak English, sitting him down by the hand, saying, ‘May I?’ Her confidence in saying, ‘Doesn’t know what PTA is, but knows well what a parent is’, to silence the girl or to ask the girl herself, ‘What are you going to read? If you can read English, right?’ Out of a combined outburst of insult, anger, sadness and helplessness on this sentence, ‘Who gave these children the right to talk to their parents like this? They do not know the meaning of respect. Ye kaisi masumiyat hain babadaki? Who takes advantage of weakness.’ The whole scene with which Shashi speaks makes one think about the parent-child relationship.

As mentioned in the beginning, this film is not only a woman’s journey of self-confidence through Shashi, but the core of this film is the respect and closeness of everyone in the family. The film ‘English Vinglish’ has taught me to love myself, but this much is certain.

arati.kadam@expressindia.com