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I�m not surprised that Gurinder Chadha�s �Bend It Like Beckham� is getting national acclaim as a �breakthrough� film for this talented writer/director. She originally registered on my filmic radar in 1994 with a film called �Bhaji on the Beach.� But I�m surprised that Chadha didn�t �arrive� three years ago with her combo platter-clash-of-cultures/holiday-feast-fiasco film �What�s Cooking.�
When I saw this movie at the 2000 San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in June, I was sure that �What�s Cooking� and Gurinder Chadha would be household names by Thanksgiving. In the tradition of other films about angst-ridden Thanksgivings, Chadha fashioned a multi-family, multi-cultural story with familiar scenes of family secrets and turkey terrors. What made this screening so special was the scene in which Alfre Woodard finally puts the turkey on her immaculate table and it falls through like an Acme anvil on Wile E. Coyote�s head. I laughed so long and hard that not only did my belly ache as though I�d over-stuffed myself with turkey and all the trimmings but by the end of the movie I was tired as though the Tryptophan had kicked in.
