With all that talk about Indian things, I went home that evening having this weirdly undecided urge — on the one hand, I wanted to connect with something back home, and on the other, I wanted to get away as far as possible. Usually, in moments like these, I pick the obvious middle path — do absolutely nothing. But the other evening I decided another middle path involving watching two movies, Unbreakable and Bend it like Beckham. The following are some thoughts.
Unbreakable was a lot less retarded than Signs. Either that, or I am a much bigger fan of comic books than I am of crop circles, or Mel Gibson. To Unbreakable’s credit, it had a simple and quite brilliant musical theme. And it stayed just about constant throughout the movie — the same 7 or so notes. That was good. Unfortunately, extrapolating the curve that’s set up from the Sixth Sense through Signs all the way to The Village, I am quite certain The Village will absolutely suck.
On a more pleasant note, I absolutely adored Bend it like Beckham. It was, cute, funny, quite real and a lot more, all at the same time. I laughed. A lot. A couple of dialogues that struck me as particularly poignant. Both of the following are paraphrased, of course.
Women in a locker room in various states of undress: So Jess (the main character, Indian origin, female), what would your parents say if you brought home a white man?
Jess: Oh, no, it’s out of the question.
Jess: And a black, NO!
Jess: And a Muslim, DEFINITELY NOT!
————
Jess: I like Beckham.
Tony: (Male, Indian origin, main character’s good friend) I like Beckham too.
Jess: Yeah, no one can bend it like Beckham.
Tony: No, Jess, I really like him.
Jess: Uh, you mean?…
Jess: But you can’t be, you’re Indian.
Indian men can be gay. We’ve evolved to a point where we use PRODUCT IN OUR HAIR, but can’t possibly fancy other men?
i liked Bend It Like Beckham too. just saw it for the third time recently. and it’s weird because it’s not that great a movie, but it just has some lines and scenes that rung so true, and in a really funny way…i don’t know what i’m saying, but my point is, despite a storyline which i normally would consider contrived and silly (especially the part about her falling in love with the coach – and oh god, the lack of chemistry between them two made it really hard to watch them kiss), it was hilariously right on target.
have you seen Bhaji on the Beach? liked that one too. not yet sure if i want to see Bride & Prejudice…
That’s exactly it — I’m definitely not a Punjabi woman from an orthodox family, but some sequences rung very true, in a hilarious way. Either that, or I’m a bigger fan of Keira Knightley in a sports bra than I’m letting on.
That said, I thought the coach was pretty hot (made hotter by the accent), and didn’t really relate the word “contrived” with “woman falling for him”. Does that make sense?
I haven’t seen or heard of Bride & Prejudice or Bhaji on the Beach, but if I run into some DVDs lying about in some relative’s place, I’ll sneak a peek.
yes, he’s hot, and yes, it’s realistic for girls to have crushes on him. but i just didn’t like how it was handled in the movie, was too cheezy for me. and i really didn’t feel any chemistry between them at all, which didn’t help matters. but maybe it’s just me.
the other movies i mentioned are by the same person…Bhaji came out over 10 years ago, and Bride is just being released this week in the US i think.
It isn’t just you.
Being a guy (and a clueless one at that), I followed the naive logic of Joe’s hot => Jess falls for Joe. Perfectly expected.
The same way I might go, “Oh, she’s gorgeous, it’s obvious the guy holding her hand loves her” (and therefore I mustn’t ever approach her) — Without getting a sense of chemistry or any such.
But that’s probably because I’m what you might call “socially retarded”.
(On an offtopic note, I keep saying “Joe’s hot”. I’d like to inform the world I am so comfortable with my sexuality that I can make statements like so about other men and not be worried about what you might say, or think.)