Hindi Medium


Hindi Medium is a 2017 Indian Hindi-language comedy-drama film written and directed by Saket Chaudhary, and produced by Dinesh Vijan and Bhushan Kumar under their respective banners Maddock Films and T-Series. It stars Irrfan Khan, Saba Qamar, Dishita Sehgal, Deepak Dobriyal and Amrita Singh. Set in Delhi, the plot centres on a couple's struggle to get their daughter admitted to a prestigious English-medium school in order to rise in society.
The idea for the film was created by Chaudhary and his co-writer Zeenat Lakhani during the development of his previous film Shaadi Ke Side Effects. It was shot in Chandni Chowk, Anand Lok, Karol Bagh, and Sangam Vihar. The film's soundtrack album was composed by the duo Sachin–Jigar, with lyrics by Priya Saraiya and Kumaar. The score was composed by Amar Mohile. Cinematography was handled by Laxman Utekar, and A. Sreekar Prasad edited the film.
Made on a production budget of crore, Hindi Medium was released on 19 May 2017, and received a generally positive reception from the critics, with particular praise for the cast performances. The film grossed at the worldwide box office. At the 63rd Filmfare Awards, it won Best Film, and Best Actor for Khan. A spiritual successor, Angrezi Medium was released theatrically on 13 March 2020.

Plot

Raj Batra is a successful boutique owner who lives in the Old Delhi neighbourhood of Chandni Chowk with his wife Meeta and his 5-year-old daughter, Pia. The couple wants Pia to be admitted to a prestigious English-medium school in Delhi as they feel that this will enable her to become a part of the elite society. They decide on Delhi Grammar School, which is ranked the best in the city, but requires that students must stay within a 3-km radius of the school. They move to a posh villa in New Delhi's upscale Vasant Vihar neighbourhood and try to become more refined in their manner. A consultant, Saumya, despite her misgivings about them, tutors them in the answers to be given in the admission interview, but their limited knowledge of English means Pia's application is rejected.
Raj and Meeta learn from an employee that his daughter has been admitted through the RTE quota, a scheme that helps children from poor families to be admitted to prestigious schools. After a scam reveals that rich parents have been misusing the quota to admit their children, they move to Bharat Nagar, a slum area, for a month and pretend to be poor. They strike a friendship with Shyam Prakash and Tulsi Prakash, who are hopeful that their son Mohan will get to study at Delhi Grammar School through the RTE quota. Shyam and Tulsi teach them to live like truly poor people, and Raj joins Shyam at work. However, while Pia eventually gets admission, Mohan's application is rejected.
Raj, Meeta & Pia return to Vasant Vihar. Raj and Meeta make a donation to the Bharat Nagar Government School, where Mohan studies, to renovate it and get new books. After watching their son become fluent in English, Shyam and Tulsi search for the identity of the anonymous donor to thank them. However, when he visits the donor's address in Vasant Vihar, Shyam finds out the truth about Raj pretending to be poor to enable Pia's admission and leaves to tell Delhi Grammar School's principal Lodha Singhania of Raj's deceit.
Raj and Meeta rush to Delhi Grammar School to get there before Shyam but fail. Shyam, reaching there first, tries to find the principal's office but meets Pia instead, where Shyam endures an emotional moment with her and decides not to tell the principal, but Raj reacts with guilt for what he has done. Finally, Raj goes to the principal and asks for Pia's admission to be revoked, while telling the truth, but the principal rejects him. Raj gatecrashes the Annual Day function, gives a speech about English in India and education rights, and leaves, with no one clapping for him, except Meeta. On their way out, Raj and Meeta tell the principal of the Bharat Nagar Government School that they plan to admit Pia to his school to study with Mohan.

Cast

Credits adapted from Bollywood Hungama:
  • Irrfan Khan as Raj Batra
  • *Delzad Hiwale as young Raj
  • Saba Qamar as Meeta Malhotra Batra
  • *Sanjana Sanghi as young Meeta
  • Dishita Sehgal as Pia Batra
  • Amrita Singh as Principal Lodha Singhania
  • Deepak Dobriyal as Shyam Prakash
  • Neelu Kohli as Geeta Malhotra
  • Kiran Khoje as Sushila, Raaj & Meeta's house maid
  • Rajeev Gupta as Batra Master, Raaj's father
  • Sumit Gulati as Chhotu
  • Mallika Dua as Dolly, a customer at Batra Fashion Studio
  • Kulbir Kaur as Dolly's mother
  • Charu Shankar as Maya
  • Tillotama Shome as Saumya, a consultant
  • Rajesh Sharma as MLA
  • Taran Bajaj as Teashop owner, the man who settled Raaj & Meeta's house in Bharat Nagar
  • Ankur Jain as news reader
  • Swati Daas as Tulsi Prakash, Shyam's wife
  • Neha Dhupia as Aarti Suri, Kabir's wife
  • Sanjay Suri as Kabir Suri, Aarti's husband
  • Angshuman Nandi as Mohan Prakash, Shyam & Tulsi's son
  • Jason as Ayaan Suri, Kabir & Aarti's son
  • Anurag Arora as Mr. Kumar, Hindi Teacher at Delhi Grammar School
  • Jaspal Sharma as Raj's neighbor
  • Ekta singh as Raj's neighbor
  • Taniskaa Sanghvi as a student from Bharat Nagar Government School
  • Guru Randhawa as himself
  • Arjun as himself

    Production

Made on a production budget of crore, Hindi Medium was produced by Vijan of Maddock Films and Bhushan Kumar of T-Series. The film was directed by Chaudhary, his third after romantic comedy films Pyaar Ke Side Effects and Shaadi Ke Side Effects. He came up with the idea of making a film about India's education system with his co-writer Zeenat Lakhani during the development of the latter film. They found the idea too extensive to include in Shaadi Ke Side Effects, so after its release, they decided to incorporate the idea into a separate film. Stating the reason to make Hindi Medium, Chaudhary said, "The subject is so relevant. We realised that today irrespective of the background of the parent, they still want to have the best education for the children."
Pre-production work began after the release of Shaadi Ke Side Effects. Chaudhary began working on the story at that time, and he chose Delhi as the film's key location. The production crew consisted primarily of people Chaudhary had worked with on Pyaar Ke Side Effects and Shaadi Ke Side Effects, with the exception of production designer Mustafa Stationwala—they are editor A. Sreekar Prasad; dialogue writer Amitosh Nagpal; and cinematographer Laxman Utekar. The score was composed by Amar Mohile.
On 29 May 2016, News18 reported the casting of Saba Qamar in the film, which marked her Bollywood debut. Khan had recommended the casting of Qamar to the makers of the film. He said, "When I saw her YouTube videos, I recommended her to the director and producer and they really liked her". Speaking about her role, Qamar said, "I play a person who didn't get an opportunity to fulfil her dreams so she comes up with a scheme about giving the daughter a life that she didn't have".
Khan commented that he had accepted the role as it tackled the realistic subject of the challenges of obtaining a good education in India.
Qamar arrived in Mumbai from Pakistan in July 2016, and the film's principal photography began in the same month. The film was shot in Chandni Chowk, Anand Lok, Karol Bagh, and Sangam Vihar. The shooting was completed in October 2016. A song sequence was also filmed in Georgia. Qamar commented that she enjoyed working with Khan, and felt safe while shooting in Delhi. In the same interview with Pakistani newspaper Dawn, she commented that her experience wasn't affected by the nationalist far-right political party Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's hostility towards Pakistan at the time.

Soundtrack

Hindi Medium's soundtrack consists of two original compositions: "Hoor" and "Ek Jindari", which were produced by Sachin–Jigar. The songs were written by Priya Saraiya and Kumaar, whereas Atif Aslam and Taniskaa Sanghvi, rendered the vocals. In addition to the original tracks, the makers recreated two songs: "Suit Suit", written and sung by Guru Randhawa and Arjun and composed by Randhawa and Rajat Nagpal, and "Oh Ho Ho Ho", composed by Sukhbir and Abhijit Vaghani, sung by Sukhbir, rapped by Ikka Singh and written by Kumaar. The album rights of the film were acquired by T-Series, and it was released on 21 April 2017.

Release

The film was initially scheduled to release on 12 May 2017, but was pushed by a week back, thereby clashing with Half Girlfriend, scheduled for release on the same date. Hindi Medium was declared 'tax-free' in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.
In February 2018, following the success of Dangal and Secret Superstar in China, it was announced that Hindi Medium was to be released in China. Hindi Medium was released in China on 4 April 2018 to coincide with the Qingming Festival. The film's Chinese title is 起跑线, which means The Starting Line.

Controversy

The makers of the Bengali film Ramdhanu, directed by the duo Nandita Roy and Shiboprosad Mukherjee, had launched a copyright case against Hindi Medium, claiming that the storyline was similar to their film. In response to this, Chaudhary said "We have researched our script over a year and it is based on original material. I would request everyone involved to not rush to a judgement without ascertaining the facts. And the facts can easily be confirmed by watching the film." Roy and Mukherjee later withdrew their case.

Critical reception

Hindi Medium received a generally positive reception from critics, with particular praise for Khan's and Qamar's performances.
Rohit Bhatnagar of Deccan Chronicle called the film a "masterpiece" and praised Khan's and Qamar's acting. Rachit Gupta of Filmfare rated the film 4.5 out of 5 stars and said that it was a "refreshingly funny and brilliantly insightful film on parenting and education." Madhureeta Mukherjee of The Times of India highlighted the script, and the comedic elements of the film as its strengths. Rohit Vats of Hindustan Times giving 3.5 stars out of 5 stars, commented that "Khan asks the viewers to take a stand against faulty Indian education system". Samrudhi Ghosh of India Today gave 3 out of 5 stars, praising Khan's and Qamar's performances, said "Hindi Medium may use over-dramatised events to make its message hit home, but in spite of its hiccups, the film is not bogged down because of the performances and the humour". Smrity Sharma of India.com rated the film 2.5 out of 5 stars, and wrote: "Decent story, humour, a few heart tugging moments and effortless performances by Irrfan Khan, Saba Qamar and Deepak Dobriyal make the movie watchable." Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express giving 2 out of 5 stars, praised Khan's acting however felt that the writing was "flat", and that some of the supporting characters were "more caricature than real".
Hindi Medium received a generally positive reception from critics outside of India. A reviewer for Time Out gave it 4 out of 5 stars: "With all its merits, though, the film stumbles near the end with its overly sentimental conclusion." The reviewer concluded that "the film is one of the best Bollywood films". James Marsh of South China Morning Post rated it 3.5 stars out of 5 stars, calling it "a classical comedy of manners full of humour and playful performances". Sadaf Siddique of Dawn observed: "Chaudhary gets full marks for novelty, he fails to adequately flesh his ideas out".
Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN gave 2.5 stars out of 5, commenting "Despite its shortcomings, the film is never unwatchable and benefits enormously from a winning performance by Irrfan Khan who makes his every moment on screen count. From his hilarious wooing of a mother-daughter pair of potential customers at his shop in the film's first half to his earnest amends on discovering his conscience late into the final act, he has you eating out of his palm. For Irrfan alone, Hindi Medium may be worth a watch."