Sridevi's swansong is a hit in China

Sridevi's curtain call, Mom, was dubbed and released in China and its a box-office smash. Sridevi has been greatly appreciated by the region's critics. After the success of English Vinglish in local cinemas, she found a receptive audience in a completely different genre. 

Mom is a hit in China: Indian Superstar Sridevi wows the East

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Its the middle of summer in 2019 and Sridevi's film Mom is a hit across another region, beyond borders, beyond Bollywood.

Another part of the world is just discovering the Goddess of acting. As it should be.

Sridevi posters hit China: Bollywood Queen's film opens to stellar reviews and respectable box-office.

Sridevi's film Mom will be the first Indian film to hit Chinese cinemas in 2019. Previously, her film English Vinglish was one of the most successful Hindi films to do well at the box-office (in Hong Kong in particular), before Aamir Khan took over the cinemas. The 

leading lady's swansong is expected to do well in China, the thriller/action/revenge drama with exceptional powerhouse acts by the leads - Sridevi, Akshay Khanna and Nawaz - was a hit with the critics and the masses when it was released in India in 2017.  

Sridevi won several awards for the film, including a posthumous National Award for her fine finale performance. 

English Vinglish in Hong Kong & Germany

English Vinglish in Hong Kong

Eros International Media Ltd. (Eros International) will be releasing its highly acclaimed film, English Vinglish in the new markets of Hong Kong and Germany.

After receiving tremendous response across India and overseas, Eros is all set to release the Sridevi starrer in the non-traditional newer market of Hong Kong with Cantonese and English subtitles this weekend across 7 screens with 29 shows daily which is the biggest release for a Hindi film in the region. This is the widest opening any Indian film has ever got in Hong Kong. What’s also interesting is they are also screening the film at ‘The Directors club’ [an expensive private theatre where only a limited number of VIPs hire out the venue] screen, where Hindi films are not released in these screens generally.

The company is also gearing to release the dubbed version of English Vinglish in Germany across mainstream cinemas with 20 prints in May 2013. With the remarkable accolades the film has earned at prominent festivals and awards, Eros is confident of further new territories opening for its theatrical release.

Commenting on the development, Kumar Ahuja, Sr. V.P. Business Development, Eros International Media Ltd says, “It’s great that Indian films are getting recognized and accepted worldwide for their versatility and content. English Vinglish with its universal theme has been widely appreciated and is a case study with overseas revenues almost at par with domestic collections. With films such as this, we continue to open new avenues for exhibition across territories. Dubbing and sub titling our content into foreign languages, allows us to directly appeal to both local audiences as well as Asian diasporas”.

Since its release on 5th October 2012, English Vinglish directed by Gauri Shinde has won hearts of audiences and critics alike. The film earlier had its World Premiere at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival in the coveted Galas section of the festival. The comeback of Sridevi made it a highly anticipated film at the festival and the premiere was sold out with the film receiving standing ovation in the end.

English Vinglish has also attracted a lot of attention from other festivals including the International Film Festival Bratislava, which was held in November 2012 in Slovakia. The film was showcased in December 2012 at the Marrakech International Film Festival in Morocco. Other prestigious festivals it recently featured were at the 2013 Palm Springs International Film Festival where it was selected as ‘Best of the Fest’. The movie has been also been invited for the Festival Intl de Cine de Panama, Panama to be held in April, the DC International Film Festival in Washington in April, the 30th Jerusalem International Film Festival in Israel in July and the 34th Durban International Film Festival in July 2013.

In addition to rave reactions at the festivals, English Vinglish’s success story continues at the ongoing award season. The film has been the toast at all popular awards with director Gauri Shinde bagging the best debut director honors at practically all awards including the recently concluded Filmfare Awards, Zee Cine Awards, Screen Awards and Stardust Awards. English Vinglish also got its leading lady, Sridevi the Hello Magazine Hall of Fame Awards for Outstanding Performance for the Year 2012. Not counting these awards, the film has also been nominated across different categories ranging from best film, best actor (female), best story, best screenplay, best editing and best director at all the above awards. Here at BollySpice Sri Devi was named Best Actress of 2012, Gauri Shinde was on our list of Best Directors and English Vinglish was named as one of the Best Films of 2012.

By Stacey Yount
 
From BollySpice

English Vinglish - Reviews from the East

As English Vinglish opens to a potential audience of a further billion, we're super intrigued by the reviews that are coming out of the Asian sub-continent and collecting them here.

From South China Morning Post - SCMP.com

Film review
Lifestyle›Arts & Culture
Film review: English Vinglish
Thursday, 14 March, 2013 [Updated: 10:36]
By Yvonne Teh

Starring: Sridevi, Adil Hussain, Mehdi Nebbou
Director: Gauri Shinde
Category: I (Hindi, English and French)

English Vinglish will provide many Hong Kong cinemagoers with their introduction to its beautiful sari-clad star, Sridevi. But long-time fans of Indian cinema will already be familiar with the luminous actress who graced more than 200 Indian films before going into what looked like permanent retirement in 1997.

One and a half decades on, however, Sridevi has made a high-profile return in debutant director Gauri Shinde's endearing comedy-drama about a middle-aged Indian woman whose life is transformed by a fateful decision she makes while on a one-month visit to the US.

The faithful wife of business executive Satish Godbole (Adil Hussain) and loving mother of two, sweet Shashi Godbole (Sridevi) leads a typical upper-middle class housewife existence bar two things. On the positive side, she has an talent for making ladoos and channels that ability into selling the snack. Less happily for her, she also stands out within her social strata and nuclear family for being less than a fluent English speaker.

Shashi's lack of English-language proficiency sometimes exposes her to ridicule and scorn from her teen daughter (Navika Kotia) and condescension from Satish. Still, she doesn't truly feel undone by her English-language deficiencies until she experiences problems such as ordering at a New York cafe.

Resolving to remedy the situation, Shashi enrols in a crash course in English and finds herself in a class with a motley, multi-cultural crew and a flamboyant gay teacher (Cory Gibbs) who prove to be uncommonly friendly and supportive despite their hailing from diverse - at times even divergent - backgrounds. She also attracts the romantic admiration of French classmate Laurent (Mehdi Nebbou) - a development that prompts her to take a good look at her life and think about whether she's truly happy with it.

A warm-hearted film that the director has dedicated to her mother, English Vinglish admirably weighs against many forms of discrimination, including, but not restricted to, ones that stem from one's linguistic choices and facility. This movie about a woman who decides to show her husband and daughter she's better than they think she is also shows the perils of taking the familiar for granted.
Even as this film makes many pertinent moral points, it also delightfully entertains. Sridevi is undoubtedly the star and is responsible for much of the movie's spark, but the rest of the cast also impress and contribute to it being a thoroughly pleasing affair.

English Vinglish opens today [Thursday, March 14, 2013]

From DimSum Magazine, Hong Kong

Words: Russell Boaz

ENGLISH VINGLISH is a sweet, encouraging little Hindi film with a simple story but packed with much emotion.  The film tells the story about the transformation of Shashi Godvale (played by actress Sridevi), a housewife with low self-confidence.  Her husband does not seem to respect her, her daughter is embarrassed by her lack of English skills, and they both treat her with a sort of loving contempt.  One evening, they receive a phone call announcing the engagement of their elder niece and Shashi is needed to come help prepare for the wedding in New York City.  She is weary of going without her family because of her lack of English speaking abilities but they need to stay for work and school.   They convince her to go on her own and she sets off.  While she is there, she makes the decision to enroll in an English language learning course.   It is there that Shashi meets a group of classmates and teacher from all different backgrounds and we begin to see her gain self-confidence.
This film is a very simple tale that will leave you smiling coming out of the theater and maybe even shedding a tear or two.  Writer and Director Gauri Shinde has made a very positive film about overcoming one’s insecurities and gaining self-confidence.  He even included a little sub-plot about equality and includes gay characters in that plot.  Sridevi has not lost her talent as an actress (this is her first film after a 15 year hiatus to raise her children); she absolutely shines in this film.  She plays Shashi with such vulnerability and with such strength.  The plot pacing towards the end does get a bit choppy and there is one overly campy gay character that started to get on my nerves after a while but other than that this is a good little Bollywood film that I absolutely recommend you go see.

From Indonesia
Vendy Xiao

English Vinglish : Ordinary People Can Do Great Things With Great Love

For me, this film is very inspirational movie and i learn a lot from this movie. Because the story of Sashi is very similar to our ordinary life. The reason why i love Indian movie is that they usually teach something for us to learn from their film. This film try to tell about how great peoples can be if they already found passion in their life. Another important lesson i got from this movie is that never underestimate people, just by looking her job, position or educational background.In my daily life, i found that there are a lot of people who often underestimate other peoples just because of their appearance or  educational background. What Sashi do in this film make me realize and always keep in mind that ordinary people can be a great people and do something we never expect when they found their passion.

I also remember Mother Theresa ever said “Do small thing with great love“. I totally agree with this quote. Don’t assume that we have to do great things to be success in our life. Find what you love and do it with great love, and you will surprise with the result.

For you who haven’t watch this movie, i really recommend you to watch. Beside it’s very enjoyable, it also teach a lot of things. I can’t tell too much about the content of the movie, because i don’t want to spoil you who haven’t watch the movie. The thing is that i really love this movie because of its simple storyline and how it make me smile, laugh, moved by the story.