The movie, Hindi Medium, brings out one of the greatest dismay that almost every portion of our society faces, and that is the division of English speaking high class, or rather sometimes called “Hinglish” speaking class, who try to put in a topping of English words or phrases to bring out the point that they are the blessed, well heeled class and the rest who generally speak Hindi or any other dialect are a kind of ignorant species, just horrible.
Driven with this concept, the director, Saket Chaudhary, portrays the simple and modest life of a hindi speaking couple Raj(Irrfan Khan) and Mita(Saba Qamar), the residents of Delhi’s Chandni Chowk. Raj is has a fashion store in Chandni Chowk and is quite wealthy. One day, his wife, Mita, decides to get her daughter admitted into a well known and high class school of Delhi. However, this becomes a staggering task for them because they are not good at English. With the help of a consultant, they somehow manage to speak few English sentences, and one that’s really hilarious is the one which Raj says during the parents’ interview, “caring is sharing” instead of “sharing is caring” much to the raised brow of the interviewer.
Next comes the idea of getting admission on the basis of reserved quota, another point which is extremely manipulative. They move to a slum area, so that during the interrogative visits of the school authorities, they can justify their reserved category lifestyle. Here the role of a poor guy acted by Deepak Dobriyal is really praiseworthy.
Although at some moments, a situation seems to be a bit exaggerated however, the movie switches to its proper position at the right time and that’s because of Irrfan Khan. He is such a brilliant actor. Saba Qamar is very impressive and has given a good performance.
This movie has focused at some of the most questionable aspects i.e., the educational system, the so called reservation criteria and of course the so called overconfident, arrogant high societies seemingly looking down upon the other sections as an ignorant bunch of brainless dimwits.