4/5/2023 0 Comments Kick it like beckhamApparently she saw him in a union jack flag and caught a glimpse of an evolving concept of Britishness in football. He had no idea (nor did I) that Chadha was originally inspired not by Beckham but by Ian Wright. Rewatching his cameo, he reckons he might have “overacted a bit”. The film tackles race, class, gender and sexuality with a fleet-footedness that belies both the subject matter and timesīend It Like Beckham: 20 Years On (BBC Three), Miriam Walker-Khan’s lighthearted documentary examining the film’s impact, also opens with … Gary Lineker. The scene where all the Indian ammas and aunties pull out their mobile phones! The dancing at the wedding! But more of that later. Until I rewatched it this week and was destroyed by its glinting moments of authenticity. Which is amazing, even if you think Bend It Like Beckham is a bit glib, cliched, overreliant on stereotypes and dodgy when it comes to sexuality, which for 20 years I did. In the intervening decades, Gurinder Chadha’s surprise hit starring Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley – who, obviously, was the one who went on to become a global superstar – has matured into the highest grossing football film of all time. And how often do we get one of those? Erm, once. ![]() ![]() As openings go, it’s supremely silly and very British, perfectly setting the tone for what follows: a relentlessly cheerful comedy about a British Indian girl torn between her love of football and her traditional Punjabi family. It’s a fantasy, obviously, which is why her mum soon butts in to tell her off for “running around with all these men, showing bare legs to 70,000 people”. I ’d forgotten how Bend It Like Beckham begins: with a spoof BBC football commentary in which Gary Lineker, Alan Hansen and John Barnes wax lyrical about the silky skills of Jesminder “Jess” Bhamra.
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