Movie Review: Angrezi Medium

Producers- Dinesh Vijan

Director- Homi Adajaniya

Star Cast- Irrfan Khan, Deepak Dobriyal, Radhika Madan, Dimple Kapadia, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Tilottama Ghosh, Meghna Malik, Ranvir Shorey, Kiku Sharda, Manu Rishi Chaddha, Pankaj Tripathi

Genre- Social

Rating- ***

IMPLAUSIBLE THOUGH EMOTIONALLY GRIPPING

Jyothi Venkatesh

This film , which is a so called sequel but an entirely different film apart, revolves around Champak Bansal (Irrfan) a simple, small-town businessman – one of the owner's of Ghasitaram sweet shop chain – who’s leading a comfortable life with his teenage daughter, Tarika (Radhika Madan). The hitch is that Tarika has big dreams – of graduating from a recognized university in London. With little means to fulfill his daughter’s ambition, as a father, Irrfan sets out to ensure that Tarika realises her lofty 'videshi aspirations'.
Though the premise of the film is worth gloating of touching upon the pulse of the young generation's obsession with pursuing further studies in foreign countries, and the family's determination to embrace every hurdle to satisfy their loved ones, the way Irrfan sets out to go about it does not at all sound very logical or even plausible. For example, when he and Deepak are denied entry to London by the immigration guys, they both come back to India and in a few days time they are back in London through illegal means, no questions asked.
Though Irrfan is indeed a treat to watch, there are outlandish situations which make you squirm as you watch them, which are also out of place. The film at times slips into melodrama and is also farfetched but what keeps you glued is the chemistry between not only Irrfan and Deepak bit also the father-daughter chemistry. The characters of Dimple Kapadia as Kareerna Kapoor Khan’s single mom the Vodka gulping Mrs Kohli and Kareena as the feisty female cop Naina are half baked and actually not at all needed for the plot which becomes messy because there are not just one or two but four different story, screenplay cum dialogue writers-Bhavesh Mandalia, Gaurav Shukla, Vinay Chhawal and Sra Bodinar.

Ranvir Shorey gives a decent performance while Meghna Malik impresses in a brief role as the headmistress of the school. By the time you blink you can blink, Tilottama Ghosh has been wasted in an inane role. The live wire of the film, besides Irrfan is undoubtedly Radhika Madan, as the mildly rebellious and often clueless teenager, who pulls off a fine performance and brings tears to your eyes. Music by Sachin and Jigar is good enough but unfortunately you do not even remember a single song when you walk out of the theatre while Anil Mehta has captured the locales in London breathtakingly.

However, the biggest problem with the otherwise engaging film is that though the first half of the screenplay is more engaging then the second, while trying to fit in too many subplots, the mundane plot goes quite haywire, making you wistfully remember Hindi Medium directed by Saket Chaudhary which had sprung a pleasant surprise on the viewers with its gripping emotional content and characteristic humor which often was etched out of the coherent screenplay.

Undoubtedly Angrezi Medium, though implausible is an emotionally gripping film for the critics but its sailing at the box office has further been limited by the government orders to cinema houses in several places including Kerala, Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir to shut down to combat the menace of the dreaded epidemic Covid 19