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MAY 2002 Contents Sports & Adventure Rachel
Thomas - First South Baichung
Bhutia - India's
Art
of Correct Breathing &
Gurinder
Chaddha's 'Bend it 'Knock
at Every Alien Door' Lifestyle Ritu
Kumar's Style for the
Viewpoint
Books
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Aspirations vs. Culture - 'Bend it like Beckham' by Nutan Sehgal
Gurinder Chadha’s new film ‘Bend It Like Beckham’ reflects the aspirations of a generation of Briton-born Indians caught between their roots and their British surroundings. A conflict that this former BBC reporter says she has struggled to balance all through her growing years…
Back in 1993 when BBC correspondent and documentary maker Gurinder Chadha decided to venture into film-making, she had no difficulty selecting a subject. She was an Indian born in Kenya who later migrated to England where she has spent all her growing years. In a way she belongs to the fast growing hyphenated generation of Indians living in different parts of the world. The result was Bhaji on the Beach, a metaphor for the lives of South Asian women living in England. It was a race-sensitive entertainer which not only examined the cross-cultural conflicts but also aspirations and dilemmas of a generation of west-born Indians who find themselves teetering between two cultures---that of India and of their adopted homeland Like her, there are over two million Asians born and bred in England who have faced an identity crisis. Their parents migrated to England years ago but retained their ties with India and also kept reminding their kids of their roots. The children carried the cross of a culture they knew little about. The western value system was not even remotely connected to what was preached in homes. That, Gurinder Chadha decided, was going to be her subject. The result was Bhaji On The Beach, a film from the heart which took a hilarious look at the first generation migrants from India and their desperate attempts at protecting their Indianness. " I grew-up in an environment where my family wanted me to be Indian while I was inclined to adopt a British way of life. So I’ve experienced the dilemma faced by thousands of Asians born in the West. When I decided to make a film the issue which was closest to my heart came first in mind,"says Chadha. Bhaji On the Beach was riveting fusion film from the word go. The incongruously dressed Asian women herded to the Blackpool beach by a community leader drew two hours of non-stop mirth. There was a battered wife who during the trip made up her mind to kick out her husband; a romantic teenage couple, a grandmother who talks about the virtues of chastity, Godliness and respect for elders and other Asian stereotypes. Numerous Awards The film won numerous awards and was nominated for the BAFTA award for the Best British Film of 1994. Chadha won the prestigious ‘Evening Standard British Film Award’ for the Best Newcomer to British Cinema. For a film which had non-descript casting it did exceedingly well not just among the British-Asians but also among British cine-goers. Buoyed by the success of the film, Chadha made another film , but this time she got more ambitious and launched What's Cooking? Which did not have a multicultural theme but was aimed at the western audience. The film was a critical success and won the Best Director Award from the London Film Critics Association. It received the Best Script Award from the prestigious Sundance Institute Writer’s Laboratory, was voted as the joint audience winner in the New York Film Critics Awards and the best film at the 2001 Birmingham Film Festival. However, though critically acclaimed, What’s Cooking? was a commercial disaster. " The mistake I made was to shoot the film in America. I feel my way of looking at things is different from American and British directors," says Chadha. Which explains why she has now gone back to her first love---speaking about the cultural isolation of British-Asians which is resulting in break-up of families and other serious emotional problems. Her new film, curiously titled Bend It Like Beckham revolves around a young Indian girl Jesse who dreams of becoming a sports person like English soccer team star, David Beckham. She dreams of playing football like him and with him. Threatening her dreams is her mother who wants her to follow the straight and narrow by getting married and settling down to a less adventurous existence. Role Model The title of the film is derived from the famous Beckham free kick which curls into the goal and has fetched his club and country many titles. For 18-year-old Jesse, Beckham is the ultimate role model both personally and professionally. Being born and brought-up in a traditional Punjabi expatriate family, no one approves her love for this ‘manly’ game. No one except her father played brilliantly by Anupam Kher. " I lost my father very recently. He was exactly like the character played by Anupam Kher. My dad always took my side even if I was wrong. I wanted to create a character who would bring out the deep bond of love between a father and a daughter," says Chadha. Apart from Anupam Kher, the film has newcomer Parminder Nagra in the lead role and boasts of a crew that largely comprises stage and TV artists from Britain. It comes at a time when football fever is reaching its pitch because of the forthcoming FIFA World Cup in June. Gurinder readily agrees that she decided the release date with the Cup in mind. " Football is like religion in England and with the World Cup coming, names like Beckham, Shearer and Cole will acquire the status of demi-Gods, I wanted to cash on this hysteria which sweeps both British and Asian fans," says Chadha. Already, the film has generated a great amount of interest among cinegoers with Daily Telegraph calling it the next best movie after the Bridget Jones Diary. Another unique feature is that many relatives of Chadha have done cameos in the film. Explains the filmmaker, " It is very difficult to find extras in England so I asked my aunts and uncles to play the roles of members of an extended Punjabi family. The whole thing turned out to be one big family picnic of sorts. We thoroughly enjoyed it." Though films made by Asians have been fairly successful abroad, they seldom create ripples at the box-office in India. That, says Chadha, " is primarily Indians living abroad have common problems, common aspirations, common jokes and a kind of a common culture and language. But mainstream Indians in India cannot relate to these. But now with the people traveling more frequently all these things are changing and even Indians are supporting such kind of films." Being an Indian settled in England does not mean that Chadha will only do films concerning Asians marginalized in western cultures. She is already discussing a Mumbai kind of a potboiler with a Hollywood studio to be made in English. But, as of now, like Mira Nair, she is happy being labelled as the mascot of Punjabis in England and in Bend It Like Beckham she very meticulously mirrors the joys and depressions of the community. The film has been made on a shoestring budget and from the look of things it appears it is likely to do what Monsoon Wedding did for Mira Nair---transform Gurinder Chadha from a chronicler of marginalized Indians into a global filmmaker.
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