This presentation was presented in Class presentation in Semester 3 of M.A. (English) at Department of English, M.K. Bhavnagar University. This presentation is based on Contemporary Western Theories and Film Studies which deals on the reading of Gauri Shinde's film English Vinglish (2012). this presentation tries to read some movie stales and talks about its major theme feminism and minor look on homosexuality and nationalism.

1. Reading of Gauri
Shinde's Film
'English Vinglish'
Prepared by: Jheel Barad
Department of English, MKBU
Paper no.:204 Contemporary Western Theories and Film Studies

2. I am Jheel Barad
Roll No.: 12
Enrollment no.: 4069206420210003
Sem.: 3 (M.A.)
Paper no.: 204 Paper code: 22409
Paper name: contemporary western theories and film studies
Topic: reading of Gauri Shinde’s film ‘English Vinglish’
Submitted to: Smt S.B. Gardi, Department of English, M.K.B.U
E-mail: jheelbarad@gmail.com

3. INTRODUCTION
01
STUDY OF
SLATES
02
FEMINIST
PRESPECTIVE
03
LANGUAGE
04
NATIONALISM
05
HOMOSEXUALITY
06
TABLE OF CONTENTS

4. INTRODUCTION
English Vinglish is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language
Comedy-drama; film written and directed by Gauri Shinde.
The film stars Sridevi as Shashi Godbole,
a small entrepreneur who makes snacks.
Shashi enrolls in an English-speaking course to stop her husband and daughter
mocking her lack of English skills and gains self-respect in the process.
Shashi was written by Shinde, inspired by her
mother.

5. Study of Slates (Lenos and Ryan #)
Comparing and reading repeated frames

6. Camera angles:
Superiority and inferiority
Adapting a new
culture

7. Asymmetry
High angle long shot

8. Montage Scene

9. Feminist Perspective
Situations created by man determines woman’s character and that man’s self- interest, duplicity and
dominating tendencies are responsible for her faults and follies.
Lack of technical training like men and do not deal with practical
matters; exposure and experience which is reinforced by women’s
household activities. (de Beauvoir)
Satishand Shashi conform to society’s expected gender roles.
The husband is violent is various emotional and psychological ways;
The ideal Indian woman does not stray.
"A feminist perspective recognizes that the hierarchical organising of the world around gender is key
to maintaining social order; that to live lives marked 'male' and 'female' is to live different realities"
(Menon)
Sashi has the ‘right’ traditional approach to modernity and it never eclipses her Indianness under a
western morale- mangalsutra and saree
Shashi is finally breaking free from her limited existence as the wife/mother- New India women?

10. In ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’, Spivak offers the
sentence ‘White men are saving brown women
from brown men’(spivak)
Both her and her husband have this common
language (Hindi),
but somehow, they don’t communicate which begs
the question is their marriage a mere
household arrangement?
They share a friendship because Laurent
“appreciates her tries to understand her- a good
talk without understanding

11. Language
Language for communication instead used for interpreting others.
Colonial mindset- worth being judged based on English proficiency
Every white doesnt know English.
Shashi’s classroom- people from various countries
Importance of English Language- connects the world
Complexity of English Language
Learning vowels scene
Pun of English Language
As movie producer R Balki has put it, "English Vinglish is not just about learning English. It's about the
determination that the lack of a familiarity will not stop people's aspirations and dreams from
growing."(Rajan)
movie to go full circle, which began with a woman who could not pronounce “jazz” to a woman who
moved a wedding party to tears with her memorable and heartfelt speech.
Coffee-voffee, sugar-vugar,
paper-vaper,
News-vews, clock-vock, time-
vime, run-vun
Train-vain, pass-vass, late-
vate, class-vass
Friendship-vendship, bonding-
vonding, fun-vun..(Trivedi)
‘Man.. Hat.. Tan.. (Cerejo)
Man = aadmi, hat = topi, ..what’s
tan in Hindi – uh uh tan matlab
woh uh dhoop ki chhap’

12. A sense of patriotism arises as you want to fight for the nation state by raising important questions as Sashi
does.
Feeling of unity is diversity
Mostly all belonged to colonies
The class comprises the instructor David Fischer, a Mexican nanny Eva, a Pakistani cab driver Salman
Khan, a Chinese hairstylist Yu Song, a Tamil software engineer Ramamurthy, a African-Caribbean man
Udumbke, and Laurent, whom she had met earlier.
Nationalism
“Why not The India and The USA?”
-Shashi

13. Homosexuality
Homosexuality has also been handled very
sensibly for a change.
“हम सब अलग है। तम्हारे ललयौ डेलिड सर नॉममल नह ीं
है। शयाद डेलिड सर क
े ललए तुम नॉममल नह ीं हो। मगर
लदल तो लदल है ना। ददम तो ददम ह है ।”
Gives power to African-Caribbean man
Udumbke to accept his homosexuality

14. English vinglish has brought a glimpse of new Indian woman. It has
a heart touching story, seems to be our own. Its life a slice of life. It
has layers and layers of emotions and message. It's a part of
progressive bollywood movie.
Involving concepts of nationalism and homosexulity in a feminist
movement is really a great sttempt done by Gauri Shinde.
CONCLUSION

15. Works Cited
Bhatia, Vivek. “Movie Review: English Vinglish.” Filmfare.com, 4 October 2012,
https://www.filmfare.com/reviews/movie-review-english-vinglish-1379.html. Accessed 6 October 2022.
Cerejo, Clinton, and Bianca Gomes. “Manhattan - Full Song With Lyrics - English Vinglish | Sridevi Best Song.”
YouTube, 21 January 2013, https://youtu.be/e3zyVW_SMbA. Accessed 6 October 2022.
de Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex. Random House, 2014. Accessed 6 October 2022.
Dogan, Ebru. “An Analysis of 'English Vinglish': Questioning Patriarchal Hegemony from a Feminist Literary
Approach.” Academia.edu, 2018,
https://www.academia.edu/47812884/An_Analysis_of_English_Vinglish_Questioning_Patriarchal_Hegemony_
from_a_Feminist_Literary_Approach. Accessed 6 October 2022.

16. “English Vinglish Notes compilation summary - Main point Key scenes Analysis Looked down upon in her.” StuDocu,
https://www.studocu.com/sg/document/national-university-of-singapore/framing-bollywood-unpacking-the/english-
vinglish-notes-compilation-summary/20180181. Accessed 6 October 2022.
Lenos, Melissa, and Michael Ryan. An Introduction to Film Analysis: Technique and Meaning in Narrative Film. Bloomsbury
Publishing, 2020. Accessed 6 October 2022.
Menon, Nivedita. Seeing Like a Feminist. Zubaan in collaboration with Penguin Books, 2012. Accessed 6 October 2022.
Rajan, Radhika Ravi. “English Vinglish: Mind your language!” Speaking Tree, 17 October 2012,
https://www.speakingtree.in/blog/english-vinglish-mind-your-language. Accessed 6 October 2022.
Shinder, Gauri, director. English Vinglish. Hope Production, 2012.
Spivak, Gayatri. “Full text of "Can The Subaltern Speak."” Internet Archive, 2008,
https://archive.org/stream/CanTheSubalternSpeak/Can_the_subaltern_speak_djvu.txt. Accessed 6 October 2022.
Trivedi, Amit. “English Vinglish | Full Title Track (Female Version) | Sridevi Best Song.” YouTube, 5 November 2012,
https://youtu.be/i-F5oU8FuR0. Accessed 6 October 2022.

17. THANK
YOU!