Angrezi Medium
Ratings: 3/5
Duration: 2 Hrs 10 Mins
Director: Homi Adajania
Genre: Drama
Release Date: 13th March 2020 (India)
Star Cast: Irrfan Khan, Radhika Madan, Ananya Goswami, Kareena Kapoor, Poorvi Jain, Raj Awasti, Deepak Dobriyal, Pankaj Tripathi, Manu Rishi Chadha, Mark Bennington, Myrah Dandekar
Plot: Angrezi Medium is a hilarious yet heartwarming story of unconditional love between daughter Tarika (Radhika Madan) and her father Champak Bansal (Irrfan). Champak born and raised in Udaipur (Rajasthan) is a sweet shop owner and a single father who is set to fulfill his daughter's dream to study in London. The dedicated father, vows to do whatever it takes to send his daughter to study abroad. But when it comes down to paying the hefty fee, things start to spiral out of control.
The plot - a tale of small-town obsessions with the ‘foreign’ dream is all about how far the father will go?
Review: The movie helmed by 'Cocktail' director Homi Adajania is the sequel of 'Hindi Medium'. While Irrfan Khan’s character Raj Batra is a Delhi based businessman with a sari showroom in 'Hindi Medium', he plays Champak from Udaipur who is into the sweet business for 'Angrezi Medium'.
The movie’s primary subject touches upon the pulse of the young generation's obsession with pursuing further studies in foreign countries, and their family's determination to embrace every hurdle.
When it comes to performances, Irrfan with his effortless performance breathes life into Champak in a way that nobody else can. Though Irrfan shot this movie while undergoing treatment, you would get to witness on screen an actor in his element – in every frame. Radhika Madan too pulls off a fine performance as this mildly rebellious and often clueless teenager. Moreover, Radhika and Irrfan looked like a real-life father and daughter.
While Deepak Dobriyal makes comedy look easy, his camaraderie with Irrfan is a testament to the fact that both are such polished, well-prepared actors. Whereas, Dimple and Kareena are solid as ever in their respective cameos.
The first half of the film is focussed on the father-daughter bond that breezes by smoothly, it is only in the second half the problem starts where the existence of logic fades off! For instance, Radhika Madan’s character is shown to be a caring and sensitive youngster in the first half and becomes somewhat selfish and uncaring in the second half. And it is not being told what leads to this change! Similarly, Champak and his cousin (Deepak Dobriyal) gets deported for insane reasons. And while their attempts to get back to England, both real and imagined, are hilarious and this derails the main theme of the film. Hence it becomes a Marx Brothers kind of comedy, from being a father-daughter film.
However, the look and feel of this comedy-drama is all things sweet and small-town. As close attention has been paid to what we call a 'small-town traits' and beautifully been played out in multiple scenes and sequences as the story progresses.
Even the music and the background score, with one foot in the homeland and the other in London - works out fine and differentiates the mood well.
All-in-all, the film touches upon lots of strands ranging from immigration, the difference between the east and the west, the generation gap, family values and so on but doesn’t properly explore them.
Overall, though ‘Angrezi Medium' does lose its grip on several occasions, it does not lose its hold on the emotion that it is trying to bring out, and hence is quite the family drama worth watching with your folks.
