The predominant issue in Bend It Like Beckham is one of ethnic identity: how does a young Sikh in Britain, not cut out for the traditional female role, escape the pressures of her family? Jesminder (Nagra) is eighteen and a pretty fab footballer. She is spotted in the park by a girl from the local girls� team, and is asked to join. Soon, she�s knocking in the goals and is invaluable to the team. But her family�s expectations of her � to marry, learn to cook, and generally not come home all muddy � conflict with her footballing ambitions, and she is forbidden. Jess plays some football, gets found out, gets told off. Then she plays some football, gets found out, gets told off. Are we starting to sense a pattern?
The complexity of these issues is enormous but by using a light comedy touch, Chadha gets away with trivialising things. The film is a bit like a super-size meal at McDonald�s � cheap, fun, filling, but not completely satisfying. Here we have issues of ethnicity jumbled with how feminist issues affect white native Britons as well as second-generation non-white British. There�s a pretty hacky and unnecessary love triangle thrown in. And then Jess�s male friend turns out to be gay. One five-minute scene, and - next highly volatile political issue please! Now that is superficial. I�m waving my little feminist flag for anyone who attempts to highlight sexism in the sports world, and anyway, this mess of issues is exactly what we are facing in real life. It is a bit much to ask a film to sort it all out for us.
It does take a while to � well, give a shit, really, and the first half of the film is a pretty pedestrian affair. But slowly you do get involved and the film gets markedly funnier later on, but never really seems to escape the Goodness Gracious Me sitcom mould. I get the feeling the line �But you don�t even know how to make goulab jamon!� is meant to be a hilarious comment on small-minded traditionalism, yet that kind of thing has been done to death. There are some great moments from Juliet Stevenson, who plays the kitsch mother of Jess� footballing friend. When attempting to make conversation with Jess: �Do you know, I made a lovely curry the other night.�
As for football realism, an awful lot of flashy photography masked the football scenes, presumably to escape the eagle eyes of all the Sun-readers who are desperate to affirm the �fact� that women can�t play. What we did see clearly was good; Jess can really Bend It, etc etc.
With solid acting, a great poppy soundtrack and a cheesy ending, this film is a lot of fun. It doesn�t deal with any of the issues involved at all adequately, and could have been refined to a far more interesting comedy. But the fact that an entertaining film can be made from these issues is good news; just because a film discusses ethnicity and sexism, is it morally required to be profound? Well, wait for the video, but you could do worse. |
