Bend It Like Beckham (2002)

This is an English rather than an Indian film, but I like it so I'll make a post on it anyhow.

Bend it Like Beckham revisits the oft-told tale of a first-generation Westerner caught in a neither-here-nor-there limbo between her immigrant parents and the dominant culture around her. Jesminder (Parminder Nagra) lives in a tidy working class London neighborhood, and wants nothing more than to play football (soccer to us Americans) like her idol, David Beckham.  Then Jesminder (or "Jess" as she prefers to be known) meets Julie (Kiera Knightley), who invites her to try out for a competitive football league.  Jess is an instant star.  But her Punjabi family - her mother in particular - doesn't find that a suitable pass-time for an Indian girl, and soon Jess is sneaking out of the house to play.  She can't keep up the ruse forever, though, and eventually the pursuit of her football dreams threatens to tear a rift in her family.

Bend it Like Beckham's take on the culture clash theme is sweetly told, and I liked it much more than I expected to. It is driven by stellar acting performances, including one from the prolific Anupam Kher (who has been in hundreds of Hindi films) as Jess's father, and one from Parminder Nagra herself, who makes the most adorable use of her expressive face. The only weakness in the film is a rather contrived and improbable romance between Jess and her football coach (Jonathan Rhys Meyers); the chemistry between Jess and Julie was so strong that I think the story might have turned out rather differently - and evidently I am not alone in that impression.

Comments

[माझी]

ّThe Hindi font in the फ़िल्मी गीक title image looks too bland beside the English version of your title. Could you match the Hindi and English font styles? Or at the very least, get a serif devnagari font. Macs have a beautiful devnagari serif font that you could use for your image. I'm sure you can find many other better fonts out there. Google for Hindi OpenType font.

And welcome to the web of Hindi film blogs. I blogsearched and found your new site.

[carla]

माझी जी,

आपके comments की महरबानी के लिए बहुत बहुत धन्यवाद! अभी हिन्दी में लिखना मुझे काफ़ी मुश्किल लगता है, लेकिन मैं अभुयास कर रही हूँ ।

I could not agree with you more about the Hindi typeface in the banner - I had the intention of replacing it with a more elegant font exactly as you suggested, and just haven't gotten to it yet as I've been focusing more on getting the content up to speed. But stay tuned - I will fix it soon.

फ़िल्मी गीक पढ़ने के लिए धन्यवाद!