British Comedy: Bend It Like Beckham

The 2002 British comedy Bend It Like Beckham topped the UK box office for weeks. The fact that the World Cup took place that year may have prolonged the movie's success, but top-class acting, colorful characters and very British humor are what really set the movie apart.

British Asian director Gurinder Chadha, who has won acclaim for movies such as 1993’s Bhaji on the Beach, is no stranger to comedy. However, directing a movie about women’s football that has numerous action scenes was a whole different ball game. Ultimately, the movie is about so much more than football; it is about dreams, as Chadha herself says. She describes the movie as the most autobiographical she has made to date, explaining that when she was young, she wanted to do all sorts of things that Indian girls were not supposed to do. The movie was also shot in West London, the area where she grew up, and several of her family members play supporting roles.

A Movie About Women’s Football and Modern Britain

The movie, which put Keira Knightley on the international acting map, tells the story of 17-year-old British Asian teenager Jess Bhamra (played by Parminder K. Nagra). She lives with her Sikh family in Hounslow, a suburb of London with a large Asian population. In contrast to her sister Pinky, who pays a great deal of attention to her appearance and is engaged to a nice Indian boy, Jess is most comfortable in a t-shirt, has no interest in boys and just wants to play football. She does this behind her parents’ back in the park, until Jules (Keira Knightley), a fellow footy fanatic, spots her one day and invites her to try out for the Hounslow Harriers girls’ team.

The team is coached by Joe (Jonathan Rhys Myers, star of the steamy historical series The Tudors), an attractive young man with a chip on his shoulder because a knee injury prevents him from playing himself.

Despite turning up at the first training without proper football boots, Jess shows potential from the start and she and Jules become close friends. Things start unraveling when Jess’ parents find her football boots (she’d told them she had a summer job in a music store in order to attend trainings and matches), Jess and Jules both fall for Joe and Pinky’s wedding day coincides with a crucial match.

A Good Script Carried By A Talented Cast

Bend It Like Beckham has a clever and genuinely funny script and excellent acting from a predominantly young and, in some cases, inexperienced cast: Nagra had never acted on screen before and Shaznay Lewis of the band All Saints, who plays the team’s captain Mel, had never acted at all.

Nagra and Knightley are convincing as the young, passionate Jess and Jules, even though the London accent they adopt for the movie slips on several occasions, while Rhys Meyers is charismatic as the brooding coach and love interest. The supporting roles are no less well chosen. Juliet Stevenson is excellent as Jules’ toe-curlingly embarrassing mum Paula, who just wants her tomboy daughter to act like a girl. “There’s a reason why Sporty Spice is the only one without a fella,” she says to Jules one day as she and her father are kicking a football around the garden.

Anupam Kher, who plays Jess’ father, delivers an understated performance as the voice of reason in a household full of emotional women. “What family will want a daughter-in-law who can run around kicking a football all day but can’t make a round chapatti,” laments Jess’ mother after she discovers Jess playing football in the park.

While football, and women’s football in particular, is the thread that runs through the entire movie, it is also a movie about coming of age, first love, family pressures and the prejudices that still lie under the surface of modern, multi-cultural Britain.

Bend It Like Beckham is available on DVD from most good entertainment stores as well as online vendors such as Amazon.com.

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