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Gurinder Chadha’s Bend it like Beckham,
like Mira Nair’s Monsoon
Wedding, introduces a world audience to Indian perspectives on dating, marriage
and societal duties. Both Nair and Chadha play on Indian stereotypes of arranged
marriages, muddled parents, and loud music, but do so in a way that furthers rather than
impedes an understanding of such Indian cliches; these films have the power to make the
audience laugh with the characters rather than at them.
Bend it like Beckham refers to the uncanny ability of British
soccer superstar David Beckham to curve the football past the defenders and towards the
goalpost. Because of this ability, and also, owing in no small measure to his good looks,
Beckham has millions of fans, among them a young Indian girl in London called Jesminder or
Jess (Parminder Nagra). Jess, unlike other Indian girls in this film’s universe,
prefers to play soccer rather than make chapattis
at home. In the park near her house, she participates with a rowdy group of boys who play
rough-shod soccer. Not to fear, for Jess is skillful enough to hold her own and
“bollocks” to anyone who wants to act fresh with her; she rams the football into
his crotch. At home, she is as demure as only Indian girls in movies can be, folding her
hands and saying Sasriyakal (hello in Punjabi) to her big bosomed aunts all of whom seem
to have hidden cell phones in the folds of their saris.
This double life is common knowledge to most first generation Indians,
who have either learnt to live happily in their different avatars or become a little
neurotic adjusting the two. The latter has happened so frequently that first generation
Indians have earned the unkind sobriquet ABCDs, or American Born Confused Desis (Desi
refers to anyone from the Indian subcontinent), or as they would be called in Britain,
BBCDs.
Bend it like Beckham introduces more complications in the
typical life of a British Born Confused Desi, in this case, Jess. Her interest in soccer
takes her to an all-woman soccer team, but she hides this fact from her parents, who she
knows will strongly disapprove. Her double life gets even more complicated when she falls
in love with her Irish coach, Joe (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers). This alliance is, of course, a
big no-no with her parents who want her to marry a nice Punjabi boy, preferably with a job
that does not entail coaching eleven screaming teenage girls. In one of several such funny
but genuine moments in the film, Jess indicates that marrying an Irish man is not as bad
as marrying a Muslim (Jess comes from a Sikh family who brought their prejudices with them
when immigrating to England).
Jess’s mother, played by Shaheen Khan, is typecast as the
conservative and shrill Indian mother; a terror to her daughter and a shrew to her
husband. The father, Indian audiences would be pleasantly surprised to find, is played by
the veteran Bollywood actor Anupam Kher, who is sometimes known to give over-the-top
performances. Fortunately, for the film as well as the fictional narrative, Kher gives a
restrained performance as a father who is concerned about rather than outraged by his
daughter’s peccadilloes.
The role of Jess asks for a tomboy, someone who is comfortable in
shorts and t-shirt, and ribbing with the boys. Nagra manages this effortlessly while also
looking demure and charming in her Indian costumes. In one scene, she changes from a sari
to soccer shorts so quickly that her transition from a traditional home-bound woman to a
kick-butt female jock looks all the more miraculous.
Unlike other films on expatriate Indians and their offspring, like the
campy and ethnic Indian focused American Desi, ABCD, and American Chai, Bend it like
Beckham works at various levels. The formulaic underdog–wins-at-the-end sports
story has been nicely interspersed with the friendly but crotchety Indian family rituals
to give a warm and fuzzy feeling to the movie, palatable to all kinds of audiences. But
Indian audiences will have plenty of in-jokes to laugh at, the kind that every immigrant
culture develops in its interaction with an alien world. Particular mention should be made
of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, whose severe photograph looks down at the
inhabitants of the living room in the Jess household. When Joe comes to visit, his
timorous look at the seemingly disapproving picture of Guru Nanak is one of the funnier
moments of the film.
Coincidentally, the three most influential directors of expatriate
Indian cinema today, Mira Nair, Deepa Mehta (Earth) and Gurinder
Chadha are of Punjabi origin. The fabled region of Punjab lies in the north of India
and is equally well-known for its fun-loving culture and turbulent past (clashes between
Hindus and Muslims). Because of their provenance, films made by these directors are a
little skewed in their perspective on Indian culture, concentrating for the most part on
Punjabi rituals (like the religious figures and the dancing in Bend it like Beckham)--customs that are followed by
not more than ten percent of the Indian population. Nevertheless, Bend it like Beckham also shows some universal
features of Indian family life such as the disproportionate number of aunts and uncles at
weddings, and the intrusive yet naive role of Indian parents.
The resolution of Jess’ dilemma is never in doubt, for the fun in,
and the fortunes of, Bend it like Beckham depend on how one gets there. With its
flamboyantly choreographed wedding dances interspersed with rousing soccer games,
it’s a joyous ride all the way, peopled with somewhat caricatured characters who
nevertheless transcend their roles.
- Nigam
Nuggehalli
