British director Gurinder Chadha (Bhaji on the Beach and What’s Cooking?) wants to inspire young girls everywhere to go for their goals–even if it means bending the rules.
But the critically acclaimed independent filmmaker also wants to make a big commercial British movie. “Something that would play in multiplexes and appeal to people all over the country,” she told Hollywood.com, “building on the successes of films such as Billy Elliot and The Full Monty.”
With her new film Bend It Like Beckham, she’s found a way to do both.
The lead character in the London-set movie is a young Indian woman, Jess (Parminder Nagra), whose traditional family wants her to marry a nice Indian boy and make chapati every day.
Jess, however, has only one passion in life–playing soccer–and she puts everything she has into succeeding at it, even against her family’s wishes.
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It’s undoubtedly the soccer angle that made the film an instant hit when it opened in the U.K. last year. Brits are simply mad for their “football”–and its star David Beckham, the movie’s namesake.
“[He] is just a football icon,” Chadha reports. “Both men and women love him. He’s just so gorgeous and a really nice guy to boot–a lovely husband [and] doting father, and he’s really into family values.”
He may be a sweetie, but the reason Chadha chose Beckham for her title is the unique way he scores his goals: “[He] has this ability that when he kicks a ball, instead of it going in a straight line, he can make it curve and bend–like a banana. So the goalie doesn’t know where it’s coming from, ” she explains.
That’s what the film really boils down to.
“I thought it was a wonderful metaphor for the movie,” Chadha says. “For girls, we can often stand at the end of the pitch and we can see our goal, but we can’t go straight for it. We have to bend and twist the rules to get there.”
Chadha then thought, “wouldn’t it be great to take this national passion, national fervor, around football and put an Indian girl right in the middle of it?”
G-r-r-r-r-l Power
The experience of watching the 1999 Women’s World Cup in Los Angeles gave Chadha another signal that she was on the right track.
“It was a tremendous event for me,” she says. “What appealed to me even more [than watching the women on the field] was seeing 90,000 spectators, who were largely girls with their dads. The amount of cheering and the look of joy on these girls’ faces, I just thought wow, this is exciting, being here and following this. I’d love to put this on the screen where other people could get excited about girls’ soccer.”
But Bend It Like Beckham is more than just a soccer movie. It’s also “adolescence in a nutshell,” according to Chadha.
“Most of the time girls see themselves on the screen as really skinny or well made up,” she says. It was important to me to show girls who were all body shapes, looking very athletic, powerful and comfortable with their bodies.”
Chadha found the perfect vehicle for her message in newcomer Parminder Nagra.
“She gives such a beautifully innocent performance that I don’t think she can ever repeat it…. I think we captured something there that’s very innocent and new.”
Still, even movie stars aren’t immune to adolescent angst.
“When [Parminder] first saw the film, she couldn’t get over how big her face looked. She saw all the spots and acne,” Chadah reveals. “I told her there [weren’t] any spots but she insisted, ‘yes, there they are!'”
Ah, youth.
Bend It Like Beckham opened in limited release March 12.
