Yrs, this Shirley MacLaine is the cranky aging woman that started with her role of Aurora in "Terms of Endearment" five years before. In fact, it's her first leading theatrical role since then, prior to playing Ouiser and Meryl's movie star mother. She's a very talented pianist who never made a name for herself, having moved from Russia to New York City and finally to London where she now is a piano teacher. Her newest student, Navin Chowdhry, is a very talented teenager, but she consumes his life with more than just piano lessons, basically trying to replace his mother and make her the child she never had. She's very dedicated, but she's a bit too much, and eventually she finds herself in conflict with his real mother Shabana Azmi and eventually him as he tries to make him into something that he isn't. He wants to be a concert pianist of the finest training possible, but he also wants to be a regular kid and enjoy his youth. Not on her watch.

A fabulous view of the world of music, this shows how ones are can consume them into forgetting about humanity, and everybody is truly superb. MacLaine deservedly won a Golden Globe (tying with two other actresses) but was overlooked an Oscar nomination in a very tough year. She shows every facet of this fantastically eccentric character, not your typical domineering old crank, but someone with a soul that has been damaged, and you see it in brief flashbacks that fortunately use MacLaine but only briefly in playing her younger self. Chowdhry is absolutely exuberant as the student, curious and caring, yet needing space and not finding it with the two "mothers" in his life. When he brings out the joy in her, she youthens several decades. In return, she gives him every ounce of herself, psychologically falling in love with him as a mentor often does for a protege. In a sense, it's a reverse gender Svengali.

Dame Peggy Ashcroft is terrific as MacLaine's landlady, just as sweet and curious as she was as Mrs. Moore in "A Passage to India". An ambitious singer and an aging gay doctor are also part of their little family, and it's very sweet to watch the young Chowdhry bond with the doctor, having come to his rescue while he was being roughed up on the streets in an obvious gay bashing. For me, this is MacLaine's best "Terms of Endearment" performance, superbly directed by John Schlesinger and perfect in practically every detail. Azmi deserves credit for making the mother very likeable. This is best watched with a full stereo so you get to hear every note of music as if you were in one of the greatest concert halls of the world. Every sound that comes out of this, including the dualog, is a true work of art.

I see that Shirley MacLaine complained that no one got to see Madame Sousatzka in its first run. Well I can say that back in 1988 I did get to see this film with the late Daniel Strausbaugh in its initial run. Seeing it again 31 years later it is as fresh and original as it was on first viewing.

Playing the title role of a strict and demanding piano teacher recently settled in London MacLaine is far from some of the characters she did in her salad days. She's a good teacher, but she intrudes a bit too much into the lives of her students. She's not one to just take the money from parents who want their untalented kids. She's like a jockey who wants only to ride stake horse races.

Such a thoroughbred is Indian kid Navin Chowdhry whose mom Shabana Amzi is a single mom with a catering business who has sacrificed all for her talented kid.

The thing is Navin is a regular kid who likes to kid things such as rollerskating. A habit MacLaine cures him of. She nurtures his talent and him. But he does grow away from her because teenage boys do have hormones even if they're piano prodigies.

The cast is uniformly fine and this film should be better known. MacLaine's scenes with Chowdhry are special. You really do think this is a demanding teacher and pupil not just actors playing them.

If you like Shirley MacLaine this is a must.

Shirley MacLaine gave an effective, splendid performance in this film dealing with an imperious music teacher and the relationship she developed with an Indian student.

Taking place in England, Mme. Sousatzka is a difficult woman trying to live life through her Indian student. Life, as we know it, has passed the Madame by. Flashbacks show a difficult mother. Once Sousatzka becomes your teacher, she totally throws herself into the lives of those she taught. You are taught not only to play but feel music as well throughout your body.

We have a very interesting cast in this film. The late Dame Peggy Ashcroft appears as the landlady and of all people, Twiggy portrays a tenant in the rooming-house where Sousatzka lives with the group while teaching music. Again, we see the decline of a neighborhood and those wanting to buy Ashcroft out.

Music was certainly one of the many things in Shirley MacLaine's long career. Remember her in What A Way to Go? and The Turning Point? Too bad that Shirley didn't garner another Oscar nomination for her performance here. The make-up artist working on her did a fabulous job. There were actually some scenes that I thought she resembled Carol Burnett's Norma Desmond of 'Sunset' fame. This is a strong character study of a woman whose life has passed her by. Dedicated to the teaching of music, she allowed herself to be totally immersed in it.