Full marks - well, almost - for Saket Chaudhary's Hindi Medium for intent, effort and thematic novelty. It's asquint take on the scramble for pre-primary admissions that elite, metropolitan English-medium schools witness every year is likely to strike an instant chord with parents who've faced, or are due to face, the unseemly rigmarole. Taken in its entirety, however, the film scores much less.

A glass of ice water to beat the ongoing heat of getting the best for their child's education, HINDI MEDIUM is a modern day cry on the class and language divide in our society and the education system. Movies like JAGRUTI, TAARE ZAMEEN PAR, CHALK N DUSTER, have tried to focus on the relationship between a students and their teachers, the problem of dyslexia and the hardships an honest teacher goes through while performing his/her duty.

HINDI MEDIUM is an extremely endearing, light-hearted romantic story (written by Zeenat Lakhani, Saket Chaudhary) about a young couple with aspirations to move into English-speaking society for their daughter's sake. The film starts off with a day in the life of the Batra family, which consists of a boutique owner Raj Batra (Irrfan Khan), who has the knack to convince his customers that they are not less than Kareena Kapoor! Besides Raj Batra, there's his wife Mita Batra aka 'Honey' (Saba Qamar), the very lady who is ready to walk any extra mile and go to any extent to get their only child Pia Batra (Dishita Sehgal) admitted in the best of 'English' schools in Delhi.

Directed by Saket Chaudhary, Hindi Medium, a film about India's obsession with the English language, is the story of Raj Batra (Khan) and his wife Meeta (Saba Qamar), a couple from Chandni Chowk, who want their daughter to study in a 'posh' school. When Raj and Meeta decide to get their daughter in one of the elite schools of South Delhi, their decision leads to a series to hilarious consequences as the family shifts to Vasant Vihar to be a part of the 'class crowd' and then to a humble home in order to get their daughter in the school through a quote reserved for the have-nots.

Raj Batra (Irrfan Khan) is a garment businessman based in Chandni Chowk, who deals with original imitations of Manish Malhotra and Sabyasachi's creations. Though he is not very well educated, his over-bearing, demanding wife Mita (Saba Qamar) has done her schooling from a local English medium school. However, she wants her daughter to study in one of Delhi's five topmost schools. To ensure that, she even nags her husband into agreeing to move to a richer neighbourhood and change their style of living. However despite all their efforts, their daughter doesn't get admission in four schools.

To start with, for the point it's trying to make, and how far it goes with it, this film is more than a bit of a stretch, in the interest of humour, mostly. But within all the exaggerations (some of it unnecessary), frankly, I can't recall a movie that's emanated so directly from two recent and important pieces of Indian legislation. Which makes this quite unique, actually.

Mita and Raj Batra are a well-off couple, who are deeply in love with each other. They reside in Delhi's Chandni Chowk. Raj owns a shop where he sells first copies of designer lehengas and Mita is a homemaker. However, trouble begins in their paradise when they try to admit their daughter Piya into an English Medium school. They leave their ancestral home and move to a posh South Delhi location in an attempt to improve their status, so that they can fit in a society, where in Mita's words, English is not just a language but also class, which only a good school can provide.

In the India-Bharat that we live in, and especially in New Delhi aka Nai Dilli, there are many games people play when trying to assess your worth, but whichever way you slice or dice it, much of it comes down to that biggest social signifier: English or Ingliss? What is your snob-o-meter? You may be chauffeur-driven in a fancy BMW, flash your Chanel bag, sport a pair of the latest Versace shades, and so on, but if you can't speak the Queen's language as she is spoke, there go your chances to be invited to the really swish parties in town.

Education of children in India has been a sensitive issue forever. It is no secret that education has become more of a money-making business and underprivileged kids are suffering due to quota system, especially in private schools. Director Saket Chaudhary's film 'Hindi Medium' talks about such issues. Raj Batra (Irrfan Khan), a boutique owner in Chandani Chowk, Delhi, lives happily with his childhood sweetheart and now wife Mita (Saba Qamar) and daughter Pia.

At the core, the film deals with a very relevant subject of how language divides our society. How angrezi-speaking people in India are touted to be 'premium class,' while the Hindi-waale however illustrious or wealthy, are low-brow, or plain uncool. Hindi Medium shines in two areas that most of our films often fall short of. As far as the story goes - good writing, and as far as comedy goes - great timing.

It is the Spirit of the Age: Assigning every damn thing a supposed political ideology. Just last week, a friend let me in on the secret that superhero movies are actually a part of the American Right's propaganda machinery, and further argued that pani puri is a 'left liberal snack'. Since this is a game of status seeking, I seek to achieve mine by slotting Saket Choudhary's Hindi Medium as a left conservative movie. And my argument isn't entirely without reasons. Hindi Medium reserves its worst caricatures for the rich and the wannabe rich. It classifies snobbery and snootiness as the poison values of our time.

Raj Batra's (Irrfan Khan) hilarious English prompts an uneasy laugh. You have known him for years. You have seen him struggling to fit into a class structure whose exclusivity lies in deduction. It's a never ending saga of aspirations, humiliation and fight back. Raj owns a fashion studio in Old Delhi and proudly calls himself a local tycoon. A typical rags to riches story, he seems comfortable in his own skin. Raj's wife Meeta (Saba Qamar), who he fondly calls Mithoo, is determined to break into the Delhi 'gentry'. She thinks moving to south Delhi's posh Vasant Vihar will give validation to her family's income and ambition to lead an upper-class life.