In the fourth episode of the new season of Fargo, narrated as an analogy to Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, the mysterious V.M. Varga, in one of the most stimulating monologues ever, says that in the near future “pitchfork peasants with murder in their eyes” will rise against the suffocating power of the one per cent global population which controls 85 per cent of the world’s total wealth. “There’s an accounting coming!”

Saket Chaudhary’s Hindi Medium may be a social satire about our primary school education system but scratch the surface and it’s actually an attack on the ever-widening gap between the have-nots and the haves. How the men with money are never satisfied with what they already have and are nibbling away at the handful of privileges for the needy.

The best thing about the film is that despite having such a heavy subject, for a large part of the running time, Hindi Medium (written by Saket and Zeenat Lakhani) is light and zany where the bitter pills are blended in pitchers full of fizzy fun and games. But once it has managed to slip in everything it wants to say without actually saying them, the makers decide to spell things out and go full preachy in the last act, almost ruining the experience.

Raj (Irrfan) and Mita (Saba Qamar) want to have their kid daughter Pia admitted to one of the top schools in Delhi. It’s actually the mother who is desperate and the father would do anything to make his ‘Mitthu’ smile. But despite driving a BMW and having truckloads of cash, Raj is a dukaanwaala selling ‘original copies’ of Sabyasachis and Manish Malhotras. Not the kind of parent those schools would welcome.

In a bid to upscale themselves overnight, the Batras shift from Chandni Chowk to Vasant Vihar and ‘Mitthu’ becomes ‘honey’. But when they throw a big party to hobnob with the rich and the classy, in a scene reminiscent of Ray’s Parash Pathar, the real Raj springs out as he breaks into a no-holds-barred street dance in front of everyone. For someone who mistakes beluga caviar for til ka laddoo, you can take the man out of Chandni Chowk but you can’t take Chandni Chowk out of the man.

They also join a coaching class to learn how to fill admission forms and how to give interviews. The idea of parents being groomed for their kid’s school admission was earlier seen in Shiboprosad Mukherjee-Nandita Roy’s Ramdhanu, which was adapted from a story by Suchitra Bhattacharya. But here in Hindi Medium, it’s a small little subplot with things quickly veering towards the much-chased-after poor man’s RTE (Right To Education) quota. 

So, if in the first half they were trying to buy some class, in the second half Pia’s parents try to appear poor. They jugaad a room in the slums, line up for water in the streets, fight for space in the overcrowded buses and chase rats in the night. Here they find true friends in the simple and straightforward neighbour (Deepak Dobriyal) and his wife, who help them at every step to adjust to their poor new life. 

It’s once that everything works out for the Batras that the film loses its funny tone and suddenly gets self-serious. While you can clearly see how it’s going to end from a long, long distance away, they take a lot of time to reach there. Once the preaching takes over and an unnecessary song pops up, Hindi Medium very quickly loses the grip it effortlessly had on the audiences. Why tell something you’ve already shown?

The performances are the key. In between his serious, restrained performances, Irrfan does these slightly over-the-top characters in mainstream Bollywood flicks and he clearly enjoys doing them. His Raj has a whole bunch of hilarious quips and trust Irrfan to make the most of them. 

Pakistani actress Saba Qamar is even better as the better half, gnawing away to achieve her one dream of getting her daughter into a good school. Her Mita could have easily turned into an annoying repetitive caricature, but Saba balances her act beautifully. Deepak Dobriyal is fantastic in the few scenes he has. There are also lovely cameos by Tillotama Shome, Amrita Singh, Sanjay Suri and Neha Dhupia.

Barring the last half-hour when things get heavy and clumpy, Hindi Medium is a breezy, enjoyable comedy about the two Indias which are running parallel, but with one desperate to run over the other. Even if you don’t want to mix your weekend pleasure with social conscientiousness, book your date with the Batras simply for the performances.