After almost a year in the UK and weeks in NYC, Los Angeles, and Chicago. ’Bend It like Beckham’ finally arrives in San Francisco with rave reviews. Count this review as one of them. I ADORE this film for several reasons: One, for being realistic in terms of growing up in a strict Indian household. Two, for touching upon taboo subjects like interracial dating, premarital sex, and homosexuality. Three, it does all this packaged in heartwarming humour and a kickass soundtrack. The protagonist, Jess Bhamra (played wonderfully by Parminder Nagra) is caught between wanting to be Britain’s best soccer player to being the ideal Sikh daughter. Her control freak mother, Mrs. Bhamra (outstandingly played by Shaheen Khan) has other plans, unfortunately. Jess’s father (awesome as always Anupam Kher) is more in tune with his daughter’s desires.
Jess befriends a White girl (Keira Knightley looking very much like Winona Ryder) in an all girls soccer team in which Jess secretly joins without her parents knowing. Slowly but surely their web of deceit unravels as Jess’s xenophobic sister, Pinky (Archie Panjabi) and her soon to be in laws give the Bhamra parents an earful. In the meantime, Jess has a huge crush on the GORGEOUS Joe (played quite well by the incredibly sexy Jonathan Rhys Meyers). Joe, the coach of the girl’s team, develops a crush on Jess. I won’t tell you the entire plot because I really feel this movie has to be seen to feel its impact. However, I will tell you why this movie has become such a universal phenomenon. In every ethnic community, there are always some stereotypes and this movie has carefully shown this. We have Jess, an Indian girl whose two best friends, a White girl & a gay Indian boy, are her only allies. We have Jess’s sister Pinky, who can only be described as your typical Desi Party Slut that fools the entire Indian community into thinking she’s this ’’ideal’’ daughter because she dates ONLY Indian guys, yet we find out that she is a jaded, gossip mongering nymphomaniac that likes to have sex in her car. I have such a cousin that is exactly like the prototype Pinky. She smokes, drinks, cusses, has had at least three abortions but she feels they are justified because ’’At least I did it with Indian guys’’. In the meantime, she severely judges her sister for harboring a crush on a White guy...just like Pinky judges Jess.
The soundtrack is outrageously infectious. Bally Sagoo has long been a staple in the UK music scene but it’s only now that American audiences are exposed to bhangra remixes like Bally Sagoo, Punjabi MC, ect. I felt a warm glow in my heart when I saw an elderly White couple jutting their shoulders to the beats because they enjoyed it so much. Now this is what I call Global Peace. And finally, I’m so glad that the director, Gurinder Chadha chose a British Indian actress to play the part of Jess instead of the typical overmadeup glamour dolls of Bollywood cinema. Could you imagine how terrible the film would be if the part of Jess was played by Kareena Kapoor? To quote Marlon Brando in the movie ’Apocalypse Now’, ’’The horror!’’ Three cheers for the director and a standing ovation to the cast. I hope more crossover films of this quality will be made. This is SO MUCH better than the contrived & unfunny ’’The Guru’’ which I disliked very much. I’m glad ’’Bend It Like Beckham’’ is a huge hit. It’s about time.