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winterbadgerI really enjoyed a movie I watched recently, a movie about Bengalis living in London and trying to puzzle out where "home" really was, and it made me realise how many great films I've seen about the South Asian experience in the UK. So I decided to sponsor a virtual film festival: I'm nominating my slate of great movies about the mixture of South Asian cultures and communities with those of the UK, *in* the UK, and the challenges that mixing presents. I'll try to provide a thoughtful commentary on each of the titles each day of the festival (if I have time). Commentors are welcome to suggest alternative films. I'm also working on the flip side, tentatively title "Claiming Tea for the Queen: Britain's Love Affair with India", which will focus on films dealing with the British experience in South Asia.
So, the festival week lineup:
Monday: Bend It Like Beckham Why not start off with an international pop-culture hit? Gurinder Chadha's 2002 breakout hit about a girl caught between her traditional Sikh parents and her dream of--what else--becoming an international soccer star! Everyone swooned over Keira Knightley in her third big film role, but I thought Parminder Nagra was the more interesting actress (as well and much prettier!)
Tuesday: Brick Lane Next up, the movie I just watched, a 2007 film showing the conflicting forces at work on a "good girl from the village" who comes from rural Bangladesh to marry "an educated man" and live in London's Banglatown.
Wednesday: My Beautiful Laundrette Doing laundry in preparation for holiday travel? What better accompaniment than this 1985 film about two friends that take over a laundrette ("laundromat" in American) using a somewhat...irregular...finance model. Two of my favourite Asian actors, Saaed Jaffrey and Roshan Seth, have supporting roles in this film directed by Stephen Frears and written by Hanif Kureishi. Fourth movie role for the young Daniel Day-Lewis.
Thursday: Bhaji on the Beach Thanksgiving Day is all about the eating and about spending time with family, so here's another Gurinder Chadha pic, this one from 1993. A roadtrip movie about a diverse group of female South Asian friends and relatives who decide to take a road trip to Blackpool (Americans--think "Coney Island").
Friday: My Son, the Fanatic Friday prayers followed by this film about the influence of religion in South Asian British communities. Om Puri, another excellent long-time actor, stars in this 1997 picture, also by Hanif Kureishi, about a man who thinks he has achieved his goal of assimilating his family to Britain, only to have his son throw it all back in his face after he joins a conservative local mosque.
Saturday Double-Feature: East Is East: Om Puri again, this time as the more conservative side of the generation gap, in a 1999 movie directed by Damien O'Donnell. Puri's character can't accept that his children have moved beyond the traditional family structures from back home and don't respect the patriarchal role he assumes is his by right.
Special Late Movie: Who wants to go home early on Saturday night? So stay out for our follow-up film, Mississippi Massala. I'm totally cheating here, but I want to be sure to squeeze in this wonderful movie showing the culture clash between *Americans* and South Asians, a three-way race triangle between white Southerners, Indians (from Africa), and African Americans. Of course, it needs a pair of star-crossed lovers, played by Denzel Washington at his hunkiest and the stunning Sarita Choudhury, with my man, Roshan Seth, playing Sarita's father who longs for his old home in Uganda.
Sunday: Ae Fond Kiss Sunday is the day I'm having my St Andrew's Day party, so I'll slate a Scottish film here. Ken Loach's 2004 movie portrays two Glaswegians, a young Irish woman and a young Pakistani man, who fall in love and encounter the prejudices of their respective subcultures.
Interestingly, the British Film Industry's top ten list of British-Asian films includes five of the films in my festival list. Also included on their list are Peter K. Smith' 1974 'A Private Enterprise', Stephen Frears' 'Sammy and Rosie Get Laid' (1987; screenplay by Hanif Kureishi), Gurinder Chadha's documentary 'I'm British But...' (1989), Udayan Prasad's 1995 'Brothers in Trouble', and Waris Hussein's 1997 'Sixth Happiness'.
*OK, one may perhaps wince at the rather hackneyed curry reference, but food is the one South Asian/UK crossover reference I could think of right away that would be evocative but not tied to a specific subculture. Some ideas that sprang to mind were obviously Hindu, others Muslim, others Sikh--I couldn't come up with another metaphor that had the immediacy of food (or anything that has so seamlessly transferred itself to British culture). Suggestions for alternative welcome there too.
So, the festival week lineup:
Monday: Bend It Like Beckham Why not start off with an international pop-culture hit? Gurinder Chadha's 2002 breakout hit about a girl caught between her traditional Sikh parents and her dream of--what else--becoming an international soccer star! Everyone swooned over Keira Knightley in her third big film role, but I thought Parminder Nagra was the more interesting actress (as well and much prettier!)
Tuesday: Brick Lane Next up, the movie I just watched, a 2007 film showing the conflicting forces at work on a "good girl from the village" who comes from rural Bangladesh to marry "an educated man" and live in London's Banglatown.
Wednesday: My Beautiful Laundrette Doing laundry in preparation for holiday travel? What better accompaniment than this 1985 film about two friends that take over a laundrette ("laundromat" in American) using a somewhat...irregular...finance model. Two of my favourite Asian actors, Saaed Jaffrey and Roshan Seth, have supporting roles in this film directed by Stephen Frears and written by Hanif Kureishi. Fourth movie role for the young Daniel Day-Lewis.
Thursday: Bhaji on the Beach Thanksgiving Day is all about the eating and about spending time with family, so here's another Gurinder Chadha pic, this one from 1993. A roadtrip movie about a diverse group of female South Asian friends and relatives who decide to take a road trip to Blackpool (Americans--think "Coney Island").
Friday: My Son, the Fanatic Friday prayers followed by this film about the influence of religion in South Asian British communities. Om Puri, another excellent long-time actor, stars in this 1997 picture, also by Hanif Kureishi, about a man who thinks he has achieved his goal of assimilating his family to Britain, only to have his son throw it all back in his face after he joins a conservative local mosque.
Saturday Double-Feature: East Is East: Om Puri again, this time as the more conservative side of the generation gap, in a 1999 movie directed by Damien O'Donnell. Puri's character can't accept that his children have moved beyond the traditional family structures from back home and don't respect the patriarchal role he assumes is his by right.
Special Late Movie: Who wants to go home early on Saturday night? So stay out for our follow-up film, Mississippi Massala. I'm totally cheating here, but I want to be sure to squeeze in this wonderful movie showing the culture clash between *Americans* and South Asians, a three-way race triangle between white Southerners, Indians (from Africa), and African Americans. Of course, it needs a pair of star-crossed lovers, played by Denzel Washington at his hunkiest and the stunning Sarita Choudhury, with my man, Roshan Seth, playing Sarita's father who longs for his old home in Uganda.
Sunday: Ae Fond Kiss Sunday is the day I'm having my St Andrew's Day party, so I'll slate a Scottish film here. Ken Loach's 2004 movie portrays two Glaswegians, a young Irish woman and a young Pakistani man, who fall in love and encounter the prejudices of their respective subcultures.
Interestingly, the British Film Industry's top ten list of British-Asian films includes five of the films in my festival list. Also included on their list are Peter K. Smith' 1974 'A Private Enterprise', Stephen Frears' 'Sammy and Rosie Get Laid' (1987; screenplay by Hanif Kureishi), Gurinder Chadha's documentary 'I'm British But...' (1989), Udayan Prasad's 1995 'Brothers in Trouble', and Waris Hussein's 1997 'Sixth Happiness'.
*OK, one may perhaps wince at the rather hackneyed curry reference, but food is the one South Asian/UK crossover reference I could think of right away that would be evocative but not tied to a specific subculture. Some ideas that sprang to mind were obviously Hindu, others Muslim, others Sikh--I couldn't come up with another metaphor that had the immediacy of food (or anything that has so seamlessly transferred itself to British culture). Suggestions for alternative welcome there too.
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Date: 2009-11-25 07:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-25 08:12 pm (UTC)[curry and chips] Yes, I've had it a number of times; it's why I thought it was a good title, because it's a way that something so quintessentially British has taken on such a very South Asian flavour, literally! :-)