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Jesminder Bhamra (Parminder Nagra), or Jess, is the main protagonist of Bend it Like Beckham (Gurinder Chadha, 2002). She is an eighteen-year- old living in London who finds herself standing at a complicated crossroad in her life. She has discovered an undying passion for playing football (or soccer, as it is known in Australia), but her Indian parents expect her to become a doctor or a lawyer. Her family also insists that she be able to cook full Indian dinners, both meat and vegetarian, as well as being generally brilliant, saving lives and jailing criminals, and all in traditional Indian dress, just like any self-respecting Indian woman.
It's a lot of responsibility for young Jess to endure and, as the film asks its audience, 'Who wants to cook chapattis when you can bend a ball like Beckham?'1 While this light-hearted question initially appears to lie at the heart of the film, Bend it Like Beckham contains a variety of themes and dilemmas experienced not only by young women, but by those reckoning with family expectations, and their own sense of culture and identity. The notion that you can 'bend a ball like Beckham' could be interpreted to mean having the ability to 'bend' your own life in a way that is true to you (and without causing harm to anyone in the process).
This feel-good, cross-cultural comedy enjoyed box office success following its release, and this is not entirely surprising. It is a vibrant, energetic and sassy film that has been compared to films such as My Big Fat Greek Wedding (Joel Zwick, 2002), Monsoon Wedding (Mira Nair, 2001) and East is East (Damien O'Donnell, 1999). However, such comparisons are ultimately unfair to Bend it Like Beckham; they tend to reduce the film to being merely another satirical presentation of cultural stereotypes. What sets Bend it Like Beckham apart is its focus on women playing sport, a topic that is rarely touched upon in either commercial or independent cinema. To do this, the film rides on the popularity and success of former Manchester United player, David Beckham (Beckham now plays for Real Madrid). He is also famous for being the husband of former Spice Girl, Posh Spice (Victoria Beckham). Beckham is a masculine yet...