As I mentioned before that watched Bend It Like Beckham, so I had to write a movie response on it for the class. I am assuming that you have already watched the movie and If you haven’t watched it yet, then you should watch it.
The movie is about an Indian family living in England. It deals with the traditional Indian families, their values, conservative thinking and other social aspects. The movie also show how difficult is it for 2nd generation to cope up with family values.

The main characters are:

Mother: The mother shown in the movie is a typical traditional housewife, who wants her daughters to learn how to cook and do other household chores. She wants them to marry and settle down soon in their life. She forces her daughters to be ideal daughters, that she is yearning for.

Father: A middle class man earning bread and butter for his family. He is somewhat traditional but understands his daughters more than his wife. He dislikes the “whites” as they made fun of him and didn’t let him play cricket, even though he was a very good player. He is protective about his daughters as he does not want them to face the racial discrimination that he faced.

Elder Sister: She is a typical “girl” who wants to marry very soon and manage her family life. She loves to wear nice dresses, being called pretty. She expects her sister to be like her.

Jass: She is a girl who loves football (soccer) and admires David Beckham for his playing skills. She wants to play football on a professional level but knows that her parents will not allow that. She is confused if she should lead her life the way her family wants or should she follow her dreams and aspirations.

I think the movie depicts a lot of Indian culture in real sense. It shows what the society thinks about inter-race relationships. The movie also shows the racial discrimination faced by immigrant Indians initially.

Movie does a good job by showing that things are changing. Joe and Juliet are the characters who treat Jass as any other person. They do not discriminate her because of skin color or family background. Thus movie shows the changing trends all around the world about the people of color.

Generally it is thought that it’s only the Asians who are conservative, while Whites are more liberal about their children’s future. The movie shows how Juliet’s mother (a white) opposes Juliet’s football playing. Though Jass’s and Juliet’s mothers belong to different backgrounds but they have similar concerns about their daughters. Both think that sons and daughters should be treated, football is not a game for girls and girls should look and behave like a typical girl does. The movie also humorously depicts the concern of homosexuality among whites.

In the end, the father agrees to send his daughter over to USA to play pro-soccer. He gives an inspiration to his daughters to fight with evils like racial discrimination and not to bow their heads against it as he did several years. The mother also agrees while she had been opposing it throughout the movie. It shows how influential a male’s (husband’s) decision on the whole family in Indian society.

I would like to watch more movies like Bend it Like Beckham in future.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!