Thursday 9 August 2012

Ladies Only: Gauri Shinde and Sridevi lead English Vinglish (2012)

Though Sridevi's done over 200 films in her incredible, multi-lingual cinematic career, young Gauri Shinde has the honour of being Sridevi's first female writer/director combo. 

Indeed, English Vinglish is not only directed by Shinde, but written by her as well. With a background in advertising, she's made remarkable little narratives in her often humorous ads. 

With the presence of the Queen of Comedy in English Vinglish, and with Shinde's gentle comic sensibility (not the over-the-top nonsense of the current so-called comedies), fans are deeply excited about watching this little movie (at 129 mins, it sure is a lot shorter than most Mumbai masala movies - but then, this is a bit beyond masala...). 

Years ago, there were strong rumours that choreographer Saroj Khan would direct Madhuri Dixit and Sridevi in a dream project of hers. Khan wanted to not only bring the reigning divas of Bollywood together on screen, but be their first female director too. But, that never went beyond the gossip pages. 

Other notable women behind Sridevi's prolific film career include, the actress turned writer Honey Irani, who wrote the fabulous Lamhe, and Kamna Chandra, who wrote Chandni. Otherwise of course, the Indian film industry - esp in the early days - was.is mostly run by men... 

The tides will change - albeit slowly... 


2 comments:

  1. Kamna Chandra also wrote Nazrana , it has Rajesh Khanna , Smita Patil and Sridevi in lead

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sri looks very simple and beautiful here. Appreciate her for believing, trusting and supporting woman power that's also for there first attempt. Praise you for this.

    ReplyDelete