360 Part VI: The Part of Tens
Bend it Like Beckham
This delightful film is about girl power, friendship, and fulfilling dreams and
aspirations in spite of obstacles, and also shows how ‘isms’ can trap you
in a prison of unhappiness until you have the courage to break out of the
restrictions that are imposed on you.
Jess (Parminder Nagra) a British girl of Indian parents only wants to play
football; unfortunately she’s trapped by a cultural background that frowns
on such unladylike activities and has to sneak off to play the beautiful game,
leading to some interesting subterfuges. Jess is miserable until she comes out
into the open and admits her passion for football. She becomes close friends
with a Caucasian, English girl Juliette ‘Jules’ Paxton played by Keira Knightly,
which causes hilarious misunderstandings. When Jules leaves Jess at a bus
stop and they’re spotted giving each other a hug by an Asian family, the
family immediately see the innocent embrace through prejudiced filters and
assume that the white, short haired person is a boy, which really sets the cat
among the pigeons.
Juliet Stevenson plays Jules’s homophobic mother, Paula Paxton. She’s a
total and utter delight as she struggles to understand and accept Jules’s
tomboyish ways and what she misunderstands to be a homosexual
relationship between Jess and Jules. Her attempts at trying to be politically
correct and pretending to understand Asian ways in order to make Jess
comfortable in her home are extremely touching and will have you shedding
tears of laughter.
Chapter 14 examines some of the conflicts that arise when the logical-level
hierarchy (see Chapter 11) is misaligned, whether it is within an individual or
groups of people. Conflict is present in Bend it Like Beckham because Jess’s
family and community have certain beliefs about the role of girls. The girls
who do conform to the norms of being able to cook and produce offspring
are accepted into the bosom of the family and community. In a way, the
community’s identity is threatened by the behaviour of Jess’s non-conformity.
Paula Paxton, too, allows Jules’s behavior to affect her feelings.
Starring: Parminder K Nagra and Keira Knightley. Director: Gurinder Chadha.
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox Home Video (2002).
