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.
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