Director: Saket Chaudhary
Budget: 22 Crores including P&A
Hindi Medium is about a mother's desire to send her child to an A-list school because she thinks that in India, “Angrezi zabaan nahi hai, class hai”. She’s in a constant state of anxiety and always thinks that inability to speak fluent English leads to one being a social outcast which leads to depression which will lead to drugs.
Irrfan Khan as the doting husband who can't see tears in the eyes of his wife is excellent. He has no problem in accepting that, “My life is Hindi but my wife is English”.
Throughout the film he has given such a range of expressions that you can actually feel what is going on in his mind even before he utters his lines.
Saba Qamar has given equal competition to Irrfan in the acting department. Her chemistry with him is so natural that we actually believe that they are a couple who have been together since a long period of time. Though her character is a stereotype of many Indian mothers who are overprotective about their children or of newly rich women who want to be a part of the high society, she plays it with such confidence that all her actions are bound to make you laugh.
If Sanjay Suri and Neha Dhupia expertly portray the rich and snobbish elite section of our society, giving them tough competition are Deepak Dobriyal and Swati Das who are “paidaishi gareeb”.
These supporting artists make it sure that there is never a dull moment in the film.
The thing which sets Hindi Medium apart from all other films is that it doesn't try to change the mindset of anyone or bring any radical change. It doesn't give any lectures on a utopian kind of society. It’s a simple story of a couple who are with each other in thick and thin and have accepted the other with all their shortcomings.
The film was released in around 1100 screens and managed to collect 2.8 Crores on Friday. Because of good word of mouth the collections increased by almost 50% on Saturday and it made 4.25 crores thus proving that a good film always works in the long term.
In a line, there are satires and then there are courageous films which dare to question and judge the same multiplex audiences who have the power to make the film a box office success.
Highly recommended. Good one time watch.
