Hindi Medium
- Director
- Saket Chaudhary
- Studio
- Maddock FilmsT-Series
- Release Date
- 18 May 2017
- Running Time
- 132 min
- Language
- Hindi
- Country
- India
- Budget
- ₹14.00 Cr
- Box Office
- ₹322.40 Cr
Cast
Review
Irrfan Khan's understated brilliance elevates what could have been a ham-fisted morality tale into something genuinely touching. Khan and Saba Qamar navigate the film's central conceit—wealthy parents masquerading as slum dwellers to exploit RTE quotas—with a delicate blend of comedy and pathos that prevents the premise from sliding into outright satire or condescension. Director Ritesh Batra, known for his meditative style in *The Lunchbox*, brings an unexpectedly tender humanism to what is essentially a critique of India's class anxieties. The film works best when it abandons its message-mongering and simply observes the quiet moments: Irrfan scrubbing floors, the awkward dinners at Vasant Vihar, the genuine bonds formed across economic divides. Yet herein lies the problem—the script often resorts to convenient emotional beats rather than earned character development, and the third act's redemption arc feels more obligatory than organic.
What's most frustrating is how the film strains to balance social commentary with commercial appeal, never fully committing to either. The critique of our obsession with English-medium education and elite institutions is valid but delivered with the subtlety of a pamphlet; scenes that could have been razor-sharp instead settle for affectionate finger-wagging. The supporting cast, particularly Deepak Dobriyal as Shyam, brings authenticity that occasionally rebuke the leads' performative poverty, creating an uncomfortable tension the film do
Storyline
So there's this couple, Raj and Meeta, who own a fancy boutique in the old part of Delhi and they're pretty set on getting their little daughter Pia into this super exclusive English-medium school called Delhi Grammar School. They think going to this elite school is basically the ticket to her having a great future and being part of the upper crust society. The thing is, the school has this weird rule where kids have to live really close by, so Raj and Meeta decide to move to this fancy neighborhood called Vasant Vihar and basically try to act all sophisticated and posh.
When they apply to the school, they hire this tutor named Saumya to coach them for the interview, but their English is pretty rough and Pia ends up getting rejected. That's when they find out about this government scheme called the RTE quota that's supposed to help poor kids get into fancy schools. So here's where it gets kind of crazy—they decide to move into a slum for a month and pretend to be poor people so they can use this quota to get Pia admitted!
While living in the slum, they actually become close friends with this genuinely poor family, Shyam and Tulsi, who have their own son Mohan and are hoping he'll get into Delhi Grammar School through the same quota. The whole experience teaches Raj and Meeta what it's really like to struggle day-to-day, and Raj even starts working alongside Shyam to understand their life better. It's basically a story about these wealthy people trying to game the system while bumping into some real consequences and getting a taste of actual hardship.
