Shashi Godbole (Sridevi) is a housewife who loves cooking and as a hobby makes and sells laddoos which she considers to be a small business. She is a dedicated homemaker who is taken for granted by her husband, Satish(Adil Hussain) and daughter, Sapna and is ridiculed by them for her extremely poor English. However, her young son Sagar loves her as she is. There are frequent instances when Sapna and Satish make fun of her weak English but they never try to console or help her. This makes a deep impact in Shashi's emotions and makes her feel bad about herself. - Wikipedia.
This movie tries to present a liberal picture by the fact that the film director deliberately touches many different aspects in the movie. In the first part of the movie, Shashi was discriminated by people in her daughter's school for not being capable to speak fluent English. However I am slightly bemused by this because I thought this was a the gist of the movie but then she flew to the United States and then the scoop shifted to an international one. Is the film director going to investigate a local problem or view it from a global perspective?
On top of that, I am not sure if discrimination is also another main point in the movie. Obviously the United States people do not welcome people who speak broken English in the sense that they cannot even express themselves comprehensively in English from the fact that Shashi was humiliated by the rude staff in the coffee shop and not even one person was willing to give her a helping hand. The film director wisely puts a Black, a Chinese girl and a Mexican in a language school. These people are prone to being discriminated in the United States. *(I am not a racist. These are facts.) Plus, homosexual was intentionally being discussed in the movie.
I was touched by the scene that Shashi and Laurent spoke in their own language to each other in the wedding. One can easily tell that they both have affections towards each other and there are problems between Shashi and her husband. Even at the end of the movie, I only feel that it is the marriage blinding Shashi and her husband together. Shashi's husband clearly does not know how to respect his wife. When the movie was about to end, they were on the plane, Shashi's husband chose to read New York Times whilst Shashi chose to read a Hindi newspaper.
Shashi said one had to respect another in a marriage in hopes to achieve an equal and healthy relationship. After all, Shashi was still a submissive wife. She succumbs to her husband for not using English continually. She can understand some parts of the newspaper at that point despite the fact that she is only a novice for English but she did not try doing so. Why?
Shashi Godbole: This marriage is a beautiful thing. It is the most special friendship. Friendship of two people who are equal. Life is a long journey. Meera, sometimes you will feel you are less. Kevin, sometimes you will also feel you are less than Meera. Try to help each other to feel equal. It will be nice. Sometimes... Married couple don't even know how the other is feeling. So... how they will help the other? It means marriage is finished? No. That is the time you have to help yourself. Nobody can help you better than you. If you do that... you will return back feeling equal. Your friendship will return back... Your life will be beautiful.
Meera... Kevin... Maybe you'll very busy... but have family... son... daughter. In this big world... your small little world, it will make you feel so good. Family... family can never be... never be... never be judgemental! Family will never... put you down... will never make you feel small. Family is the only one who will never laugh at your weaknesses. Family is the only place where you will always get love and respect. That's all Meera and Kevin... I wish you all the best. Thank you.
To me, the movie is not bad with all those amazing music and dancing. However it will be better if Shashi can have a deep talk with her husband on how they can improve their relationships. The wife can try to fight for her rights. After all, she is not born to make laddoos nor to be a submissive wife or in a way a slave.
