Rating: 4/5
The world collectively strives for the best educational opportunities provided in the most populous and reputed of schools, seldom hesitating to think if other schools could serve them better than the popular ones.
Directed by Saket Chaudhary, ‘Hindi Medium’, starring Irrfan Khan and Saba Qamar in the lead roles, is a hyperbolic representation of current society’s overbearing addiction to English-medium schools and its prejudice against the learned but Hindi-speaking majority. The tale told may seem fancy and exaggerated, but it is the future that awaits us, given the fanatics presently inhabiting the world.
Daughter of humble parents who have traversed the mazes of Chandni Chowk all their life, Pia, played by Dishita Sehgal, is yet to be corrupted by the hierarchy of the Indian society. Her mother, Saba Qamar as Mita Batra, however, who had oft been deprived of all the luxuries and glamour that the more elite possessed due to her lack of proficiency in the language which is now considered a mark of literacy and status, English, is needlessly protective of her child’s life. Her husband, Irrfan Khan as Raj Batra, is a comical businessman running a successful garments’ store in Chandni Chowk. He has no issues with spending his entire life in Chandni Chowk, and resembles a bride leaving her maternal home when he has to sacrifice his house and be dissevered from his friends so that he can live in a richer society and embark on the tumultuous journey towards being accepted by the prosperous.
From here the spectators can sense conspicuous examples of overstatement as the animated characters train to appear civil and well-mannered for school admission interviews, shift houses, and commit errs simply to admit their daughter in a good school. All this seems very hilarious but it is an allegory of the modern society.
The director also explores another vital aspect of modern education: Right to Education (a fundamental right that can be invoked by the destitute to access education, which is usually beyond their financial reach and convenience). Owing to their desperation to get a seat in the city’s most famous school, the Batras’ file documents illegally and transform from obsessive parents into culprits of the law.
The guilt of stabbing the opportunities of those who required it more than them trumps, leading to the revelation of the corruption in school systems. The movie portrays how it is not the language of communication or the schools in which one has been enlightened that matters, but the inherent talent and alacrity that we naturally possess for learning.
Main actors Irrfan Khan, Saba Qamar, Tillotama Shome, Deepak Dobriyal, and Amrita Singh, together with the supporting cast, fare excellently in conveying the film’s message and draw out their characters’ traits well. The movie, a must-watch, thoroughly entertains us with moments causing stifles of laughter and gasps of awe as well as integral moments of introspection.
- Adya Singh, Kothari International School
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