English Vinglish

Sridevi returned to cinema after a 15-year hiatus with English Vinglish, and what a return it was. She plays Shashi, a Pune housewife whose family treats her with casual contempt because she can't speak English. When she travels alone to New York for her niece's wedding, she secretly enrolls in an ESL class — and begins the quiet, private work of reclaiming her self-worth.

Gauri Shinde's direction is masterfully understated. There is no villain here, no grand confrontation. Shashi's husband loves her; he just doesn't respect her. Her daughter mocks her accent but doesn't mean to wound. The damage is done through a thousand small slights, and Shashi's rebellion — learning English, wearing a sari to a New York café, speaking up — is all the more moving for being so modest.

The speech Shashi gives at her niece's wedding, in hesitant but heartfelt English, is one of the great monologues in Hindi cinema. "When you don't like yourself," she says, "you tend to dislike everything connected to you." As a thesis for a whole life, it's hard to beat.