Theatre director Pravesh Kumar has written and directed an affectionate comedy a few dysfunctional British south Asian household. It’s a movie very a lot within the custom of sitcom-ish Brit films: the comedy painted in broad strokes, warm-hearted however with an unmistakable air of naffness. It nearly will get by on sheer likability and heat for its Punjabi household residing in a Slough semi.
We meet them simply as eldest son Raj (Simon Rivers) does a runner after his wedding ceremony to Simmy (Rameet Rauli); she’s newly arrived from India, barely talking a phrase of English. The wedding has been organized by Raj’s overbearing mum Gurbaksh (Seema Bowri). To maintain up appearances with their nosy neighbours, she confiscates Simmy’s passport and retains her new daughter-in-law locked up in the home. I did surprise if the movie is a bit lighthearted in its remedy of home abuse.
At first Simmy feels a gravitational pull of loyalty to her new household – and patiently waits for her awol husband to return. However quickly she begins to seek out her ft: the 1st step, studying English from the telly. Then the household’s youngest son Harry (Viraj Juneja) exhibits up, freshly launched from jail – a lot to his mom’s disgrace. And you realize precisely the place the story is headed when Simmy by chance journeys into Harry’s arms the second she first claps eyes on him.
Clearly, Little English is made for a household viewers. Even so, there are fairly just a few clumsily broad moments of comedy right here. Some genuinely humorous scenes too: an aunty armed with a taser gun brings down a thief. One afternoon Harry takes Simmy out by the river. “I by no means knew Slough might be so lovely,” she says in surprise. Little English most likely does have the makings of a good sitcom; the method would develop the characters and maybe get one thing sharper from the script, which looks like an early draft in locations.
