THE MOVIE PAGES feature BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM starring Parminder Nagra & Keira Knightley bendit.htm

Insight When the critics described "Bend it like Beckham" as bigger than "Billy Elliot and "The Full Monty", or use such terms as the best British Comedy since "Bridget Jones's Diary" you begin to suspect that you may be in for a real treat. Well believe me, it's hard to find enough superlatives to describe this fantastic film from director Gurinda Chada. Those who have had the opportunity are still marvelling at her efforts with "What's Cooking", a film which received huge international acclaim. "Bend it like Beckham" will do much, much more for her already highly respected reputation. Who would ever imagine a film based on an Indian family and featuring a daughter who wants to play in the womens soccer league could send critics and audiences alike into such a raptuous state. Believe me, "Bend it like Beckham" is that good. In fact it's brilliant. It's colorful! It's very funny! It will have you shedding a tear or two! It will have you hoping with all your heart that Jess can succeed. More importantly there is never a dull moment in a highly entertaining 112 minutes of pure joy. Chadha has genuinely captured the emotional side of football remarkabley well , born from an experience she'd had during the 1988 World Cup. "I went to my local pub to watch the games and was amazed to see grown men crying on the pavements of Camden High Street when England were out of the cup," she explained. "I had the football bug and thought wouldn't it be great to take all this energy, and put two girls in the middle of it all." The film was to centre on an Indian girl who idolises David Beckham and an English girl who idolises USA women's soccer star Mia Hamm. The idea was that both girls would be fanatical about playing soccer while those around them would see it as unfeminine. The added spice and color of a traditional Indian family in which Jess has been raised and a doting mum who wants Jules to be more womanly, adds so many defining and unique moments to the melting pot of Chadha's theme and to the final success of the film itself. If I was giving out brownie points I might just give this film five big ones. But then everyone knows I don't go down that road. Let me finish by quoting a most credible and respected source, "The Sunday Express". "Brilliant.. a masterpiece in feel-good comedy. 5 STARS." Chadha Casts The Film Chadha knew the role of Jess would carry the weight of the film and had first seen Parminder Nagra in a play called 'Oh Sweet Sita' at the Oval Theatre in 1997. Gurinder recounts, "I was instantly taken with her and when I started writing the screenplay I always had her in mind. " Gurinder approached her in 1998, and asked if she'd played football before. "She lied to me and said she had," says the director. "Still even if I'd known that she'd never played football before, I always knew she was the only actress for the role. She has an innocence on screen that is completely arresting and she worked harder on preparing for the role than any actor I'd ever worked with. " Jules needed to be played by an actress that would capture the self-confidence and drive girls have today. As soon as Chadha met Keira Knightley she knew she was perfect for the role. She was shocked to learn that Knightley had just turned 16, as she had a wonderful combination of youthfulness with a mature screen presence. "Keira would come to training in between studying for her GCSEs," says the director "which completely impressed the whole cast. The schedule had to be adjusted around her finishing her exams but everyone felt it was well worth it. " Chadha wanted Joe, the coach, to be someone who the audience would really feel for, not a clichéd London lad who screams from the sidelines. She admired Jonathan Rhys Meyers' work and wanted to cast him as an ordinary boy next door using his natural Irish accent, a role quite different from what he was used to. Says Chadha, "Jonathan is very charming, beautiful looking and has an electric screen presence. I completely believed that both Jess and Jules could fall head over heels for him."

For the role of Mr. Bhamra, Chadha needed an actor who would be able to portray a man who had grown up in a totally different culture from the one he was born into and show the complexities of coming to terms with that. Additionally, Chadha wanted someone the audience felt sympathetic toward. She knew the Bollywood actor Anupam Kher would be ideal for the role. "We were both excited that this would be his first British film. I asked him to act in a completely different style than he was used to, naturalistic as opposed to Bollywood, and he's done an amazing job," says the director. On casting Archie Panjabi as Jess' tarty elder sister, Chadha playfully explains, "She's quite cutting and bitchy in real life so she was a perfect choice for Pinky!" To prepare for her role, Panjabi, who Chadha describes as a "great actress," spent a lot of time hanging out with girls like her character in London and Southall. When casting the role of Paula, the brash, busty, mother of Jules, Chadha thought of Juliet Stevenson. Says the director, "she's one of our country's greatest actors, and I had never seen her do a role like this before. When we first met, I joked with her that it had taken her 15 years of Royal Shakespeare Company training to prepare her for the role of 'common-as-muck' Paula! When she opened her mouth at the first read through, I knew she had nailed the character instantly. " For the role of Jess' mother, Mrs. Bhamra, Chadha turned to Shaheen Khan, whom she had previously cast in Bhaji On The Beach. "I knew she could do it even though she looks far too young and trendy to play the mum," Chadha muses. To morph into the role, Khan put on weight and spent a great deal of time in her trailer practicing what Chadha refers to as the "stern-mum gaze. " Chadha laughingly says that Khan was playing a combination of her own mother and Chadha's. Football: Casting & Filming To cast the team members for the Hounslow Harriers, Chadha and team were looking for athletic, confident girls with good soccer skills. They worked with the UK's Football Association and ended up casting actual players from a variety of school teams. Chadha did her homework when it came to shooting the football scenes. "I looked at just about every sports movie I could find with my Director of Photography, Jong Lin, and talked through how we wanted the camera to move and capture the action. " Lin, who had previously worked with Chadha on 'What's Cooking?,' designed his own piece of camera equipment specifically for shooting the action sequences. The Wego, a similar device to the Steadicam, was used for the very low-angled, fast-moving shots that could not be accomplished with the Steadicam. "The Wego created a new vision of shooting the football scenes as you could avoid those high-angled shots, seen so many times in football sequences. " Continues Lin, "because the Wego had to be held by two people, it achieved a very steady, sharp look and allowed Paul Mayeda Berges, the 2nd Unit Director, to get very involved with the sequences. " Chadha brought Simon Clifford on board to coordinate the football sequences and train the girls. He worked with the leading actors and actresses in the film using Futebol de Salao training techniques to ensure that the football scenes were of the highest quality. Clifford worked in the weeks prior to filming to bring the football up to standard and during filming to choreograph the football scenes. The Story Jess is eighteen, lives in the UK, comes from a conventional Indian family, has a sister Pinky who is about to get married, loves kicking the footy around in the local park with the boys and is a huge fan of Englands international football star David Beckham. Unfortunately her parents don't share her enthusiasm and are not impressed, they want her to settle down, live a normal life, be just like her sister. The last thing Jess needs is to end up like her tarty sister. Her life and her love of the world game take a dramatic turn when Jess is spotted in the park by Jules who plays football for the local womens team, the Houndslow Harriers. When Jules invites Jess to a tryout the coach Joe is very impressed. Jess is in the team. But she can't tell her parents. It becomes a game of cat and mouse as Jess tries to keep her new life a secret from her parents. Things go from bad to worse when the team is invited to play in Germany. With the help of her sympathetic sister, Jess sneaks off to play in her first international, but it doesn't bring the result she wanted. Jess is sprung. Despite her fathers misgivings Jess agress to submit to her parents wishes. It seems her career and an opportunity to play in the USA are gone. But you never know where a glimmer of hope may come from?

The Verdict "A joyous, remarkable film that truly captures ones heart. One of the most accomplished feel good films I've ever had the pleasure to witness. If it has one fault though, it is this. "Bend it like Beckham" is a film you know must end, yet as if looking for a miracle you selfishly hope and pray it won't. Sadly it must, but not before some very funny out-takes add to what is truly a pleasurable and lasting experience. A wonderful, brilliant film."

What The Critics Say

"A charming, often hilarious experience, brimming with excellent performances and clever dialogue."
Mark Adams HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
"It's the kind of film that'll have the whole audience clapping by the time the credit sequence outtakes appear."
Jamie Russell BBC NEWS
"The fact that it makes us consider implications beyond the events onscreen is impressive.... "
Ian Waldron-Mantgani UK CRITIC
"It is impossible not to like the film, not least because of Nagra's charming performance."
The Wolf IOFILM.CO.UK
"Bend It is an enjoyable, relentlessly upbeat, slightly old-fashioned picture which unobtrusively explores families, cultures and societies."
Neil Young JIGSAW LOUNGE
"Chadha makes a film with something in short supply in American teen-targeted films: class."
Josh Bell LAS VEGAS WEEKLY

The Cast

Parminder K Nagra
Keira Knightley
Jonathan Rhys-Meyers
Anupam Kher
Archie Panjabi
Shaznay Lewis
Frank Harper
Juliet Stevenson
Shaheen Khan
Ameet Chana
Poojah Shah
Paven Virk
Preeya Kalidas
Trey Farley
Saraj Chaudry
Imran Ali
Kulvinder Ghir
Havey Virdi
Ash Varrez
Gary Lineker
Alan Hansen
John Barnes

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Jess Bhamra
Jules
Joe
Mr Bhamra
Pinky
Mel
Alan
Paula
Mrs Bhamra
Tony
Meena
Bubbly
Monica
Taz
Sonny
Gary
Teetu
Teetu's mum
Teetu's Dad
Himself
Himself
Himself