MASARYK UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF ARTS
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN STUDIES
ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
Soňa Šašinková
Food, Family and Football: Discussing Selected Themes in
Gurinder Chadha’s Bhaji on the Beach and Bend it Like Beckham
B.A. Major Thesis
Supervisor: doc. Mgr. Milada Franková, CSc., M.A.
2007
I hereby declare that I have worked on this Bachelor Thesis independently, using only primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.
…………………………..
1 I wish to express many thanks to my supervisor,
doc. Mgr. Milada Franková, CSc., M.A.
for her kind and valuable advice, help and support.
2 Table of Contents 1 Introduction ...... 4 2 Historical Background ...... 5 2.1 Indian Migration from the Beginning ...... 5 2.2 Indian Migration in the 20 th Century ...... 6 3 Stereotypes ...... 8 4 Gurinder Chadha and her Work ...... 11 4.1 Gurinder Chadha ...... 11 4.2 Bhaji on the Beach (1993) ...... 12 4.3 Bend it Like Beckham (2002) ...... 13 5 Themes ...... 14 5.1 Food ...... 14 5.1.1 Food in Bhaji on the Beach ...... 15 5.1.2 Food in Bend it Like Beckham ...... 18 5.2 Family ...... 20 5.2.1 Family in Bend it Like Beckham ...... 21 5.2.2 Family in Bhaji on the Beach ...... 24 5.3 Leading a Double Life ...... 27 5.3.1 Leading a Double Life in Bhaji on the Beach ...... 28 5.3.2 Leading a Double Life – Playing Football in Bend it Like Beckham ...... 30 5.4 Images of Racism ...... 34 5.4.1 Images of Racism in Bhaji on the Beach ...... 34 5.4.2 Images of Racism in Bend it Like Beckham ...... 37 6 Comparisons and Conclusions ...... 39 6.1 Food ...... 39 6.2 Family ...... 40 6.3 Double Life ...... 41 6.4 Racism ...... 42 7 Conclusion ...... 43 8 Bibliography ...... 44
3
1 Introduction
Over the past few decades several films have attempted to portray the life of second generation Asian immigrants in Great Britain, specifically concentrating on the experience of Indians. Some of them have achieved great recognition by critics as well as the general public, others have not. The directors and screenwriters come from the first or second generation of immigrants and their aim seems to be communicating their own experience of either arriving to a foreign country or coming to terms with their double identity as both British and Indian. Other issues dealt with in their films include exploring
British culture and subsequently getting accustomed to it. They present their viewers with their perception of a variety of contemporary issues, such as ethnic and cultural identity and racism.
The thesis deals with two films by a first generation Indian filmmaker Gurinder
Chadha, whose films about the British Asian experience are thought to be quite original.
Chadha’s first major motion picture Bhaji on the Beach came out in 1993 and was followed by her best known and most popular work Bend it Like Beckham (2002).
The objective of this thesis is to explore and analyze some of the most frequent and therefore important themes occurring in the two films. The thesis deals with many topics divided up into four major areas: food, family, leading double lives and racism. The main questions the thesis addresses are: the importance attributed to each of the four themes in both films and the way Chadha deals with the problems her characters encounter during their lives.
4 The first part is a general overview of the history of Indian immigration to Britain and a list of stereotypes concerning Indians. The rest of the thesis deals specifically with
Chadha and her films: the director and the films are presented to the reader and subsequently the four main themes are discussed and analyzed. The last part includes comparisons of the two films based on the different themes.
2 Historical Background
2.1 Indian Migration from the Beginning
The first immigration limiting piece of legislation was the 1596 “edict limiting the number of black people entering England” (Storry and Childs 259) issued by Queen
Elizabeth I.
The first Indians apparently arrived to Britain as servants of returning East India
Company (EIC) workers during the 17 th and 18 th centuries. Many EIC employees quickly amassed wealth on a scale undreamed of in their native country and subsequently returned back home as rich men: “these nabobs retired to Britain with their wealth, their
Indian artefacts, their Indian servants and, occasionally, their Indian wives” (Visram 4).
It is generally accepted that the widespread import of Indian servants and ayahs to
Britain began in the 18 th century, but there is some evidence of early arrivals during the
17th century. In any case, by the end of the 18 th century having Indian servants in the household was a common sign of wealth even outside the newly rich of the nabob world.
Visram notes that “some Indian servants were sent back when no longer required, but an
5 unknown number remained as personal servants” (Visram 9). Most Indian servants (and their nabob masters) were then to be found in Edinburgh, Cheltenham, Bath and – of course – London.
From the mid 19 th century to the onset of WWI only “several hundred Asians lived in Britain, […] the majority [coming] directly from the Indian sub continent” (Visram
44). However, more and more Asians kept arriving: some seeking employment, others in search of university education and others still coming as exiled noblemen. Together they started to form the basis for a diverse and “growing multi racial society” (Visram 44).
Some Indians were employed by the royal family – Queen Victoria even learned to speak
Hindustani. However, in spite of limited integration, India remained only one of the colonies answering to the mighty British Empire and – sadly – was treated as such.
2.2 Indian Migration in the 20 th Century
During the first half of the 20 th century Britain maintained an ‘open door policy.’
Following the end of WWII, a huge influx of people from all over the Commonwealth including India and Pakistan took the British Isles by surprise. The British began to see immigration as a controversial issue: on one hand, the cheap labour the immigrants represented was not to be disposed of lightly, on the other hand, the rise of non White ethnic groups was perceived as a potential threat; as Marwick puts it, “the British, at the best of times, are a xenophobic people” (164).
The rise in immigration sparked a quick reaction: in 1954 “the central government deprived the Indian provincial authorities of their right to issue passports. It then
6 introduced stringent educational and financial requirements for successful passport applications” (Hiro 113). “With such strict controls at source Indian and Pakistani migration was kept to an absolute minimum until the 1960s” (Hiro 114). The figures are indeed extremely low: in 1955 there were 7,350 Indian and Pakistani immigrants in the
UK, five years later the number had only grown to 8,400. However, in 1961 their numbers soared to 48,850, largely due to the fact that in the previous year the Supreme
Court of India ruled it unconstitutional to deny its citizens the fundamental right to travel.
The British government reacted in 1962 by instituting the Commonwealth Immigrant
Act, the first legislative act limiting the number of immigrants arriving to the UK due to a major increase in Indian immigrants. As a consequence of the act, more immigrants found it more convenient to settle in the UK permanently rather than taking up temporary employment. In 1965 the UK government further restricted the number of unskilled workers entering the country and in 1971 the Immigration Act formed a decisive piece of legislation restricting the arrival of primary immigrants. As a result, most of the post
Immigration Act arrivals were comprised of spouses and dependants of those already settled on British soil. Citizenship was awarded to either those born in the United
Kingdom or those living there in excess of five years. All others were considered aliens and non patrial Commonwealth citizens and needed permission to enter the UK, usually on the basis of work permits. In 1976 the first piece of legislation on racial discrimination
– the Race Relations Act – was passed. By the 1980s, two important trends were evident in British immigration policy: first of all, primary immigration was being strictly controlled, and secondly, the state said it would provide for protection of ethnic minority rights.
7 According to data gathered during the 2001 census, two percent of the population
England and Wales were Indian; a slight increase in comparison with data collected a decade earlier. The exact figures are as follows: the majority of the UK population was
White (92%). The remaining 4.6 million (7.9%) of all people belonged to other ethnic groups, the largest of these was Indian (1,053,411 or 1.8% of the population). Indians formed almost a quarter (22.7%) of the non White population.
3 Stereotypes
The centuries long history of Indian immigration to Britain and the issues connected to the process had a definite effect on the way the White majority perceived the newcomers. Over a period of time Indians began to be associated with certain images, places, behavioural patterns and character. Gradually, several significant stereotypes begin to emerge.
In the beginning it is essential to note that, in spite of the strong influence of the
British environment and culture, “like the British and Chinese – that is, people with a strong sense of their own identity – the Indians are adept at recreating substantially the environment they have left behind; and they do not totally discard their culture whatever the direct or indirect pressures” (Hiro 109). They did not want “to be contained by mainstream British culture” (Storry and Childs 260) and by keeping their traditional values they managed to maintain some of their unique cultural identity.
When they first arrived, Indians were mostly employed as servants and functioned as “exotic” (Storry and Childs 260) accessories in wealthy households. “Unlike the West
8 Indians, Pakistani and Indians never visualized their migration in socio cultural terms.
For them, the economic consideration was the sole motive for migration” (Hiro 113).
During the 20 th century the Indians’ position regarding their work changed considerably. Former domestic servants were replaced by skilled craftsmen, professionals, etc and eventually, e.g.: “In the 1950s and 1960s job opportunities were better in Britain than in their own countries and some of those who came had served in the Royal Air Force during the second world war or had worked as skilled craftsmen in factories on Merseyside. Others were recruited by London Transport for work on the buses and the Underground railway” (reader 24). The reason for going to Britain changed: the new wave of immigrants coming “in the late 1960s [was] prompted by a desire for better opportunities in employment and education” (reader 24).
Gradually, the image connected with the Indian minority in terms of employment has become one of owning and running a restaurant or a small shop. There are “certain associations between ethnicity and employment [which have become so strongly] established in popular culture that it can be difficult for individuals from these ethnic communities either to imagine or to be accepted in different employment contexts”
(Storry and Childs 270).
Many Indians resorted to running restaurants and family operated shops precisely because of the fact that it was not only one person who was involved but rather it could be run by the family as a whole, as “the family remains a strong institution” (background to immigration reader 24).
On the whole “Asian families tend to put a much greater emphasis on blood relationships. Family members feel that they have strong loyalties and obligations”
9 (Addis 62). An extremely family centred approach seems to form the basis for many
Indians’ lives but this fact is perceived as non standard, even rather unusual, by the White population. Some aspects of Indian family and community life are completely unacceptable and alien to mainstream British society, such as arranged or forced marriages, tolerating abusive husbands and maintaining family honour under any circumstances and at all costs. “Immigrant families […] may be patriarchal: the man is the head of the household. He controls the family finances and negotiates major family decisions” (Addis 62). Even if an Indian girl decides to leave her aggressive husband, she won’t get any support from her family. Her escape would be understood as disgraceful for the whole family, even to the point of preventing her single sister from getting married.
From his personal experience Dr. Theodore Dalrymple argues that: “I work in an area which contains […] detective agencies which are devoted entirely to the search for
(and kidnapping of) Indian girls who have run away from home to avoid arranged marriages or other restrictions which are unacceptable to them” (Dalrymple, New
Statesman ).
However, “Indian family life, oppressive as it might be in some respects, clearly conduces to a higher level of educational attainment than the current domestic arrangements of the Whites, at least in the forms to be found in my area” (Dalrymple,
New Statesman ). All in all Indians are often perceived as hard working, responsible regarding their family, careers and education. In his article Marwick states that “the
Indians and the Pakistanis [are] generally industrious, often prosperous, and frequently high achievers at school” (221).
10 Several of the above mentioned stereotypes are presented in Gurinder Chadha’s two films – Bhaji on the Beach and Bend it Like Beckham . The very presence of these images emphasizes the differences between the two cultures.
4 Gurinder Chadha and her Work
4.1 Gurinder Chadha
When the Kenyan born Indian, later an immigrant to Great Britain film director
Gurinder Chadha released her first major film Bhaji on the Beach in 1993, she made an attempt to bring the images of Indian society in Great Britain nearer to the wider public; she examined the cross cultural conflict as well as the generation gap and sexism. Nine years and four films later she introduced the world another film, Bend it Like Beckham
(2002) which has brought her recognition as well as profit. The widely popular and according to Paul Fischer “crowd pleasing charmer” became a huge hit in the UK and abroad, most importantly in the USA. Despite its great success, Bend it Like Beckham should not overshadow her other work, most notably What’s Cooking? (2000), which depicts Thanksgiving Day in several families of different ethnic groups (Jewish , African
American, Latino and Vietnamese), A Nice Arrangement (1994) about British South
Asian wedding, a Bollywood style adaptation of Jane Austen’s famous novel, Bride and
Prejudice (2004) and a short story for Paris, je t’aime (2006).
In her films, Chadha likes to challenge the images of Indian culture that could be acquired by White public. By combining unusual themes, she seems to be gradually
11 creating a new approach to the ethnic minority filmmaking. Her films and scripts are, to a certain extent, tinged by her own upbringing and childhood, which bestows them the extra bit of ‘spark’: such effect can be seen in Bend it Like Beckham in particular. Chadha admits this film to be “partly autobiographical, reflecting her own efforts to manage her adolescence” and communicating her own attitudes towards the traditions and expectations that her parents and the people around her, including her teachers have for her (Bedell 2006).
She discusses what it is like to belong to two cultures at the same time and how the main characters of her films deal with it. In order to question the stereotypical images,
Chadha tries to show the world her (predominantly) heroines live in and accentuate this world as “just existing” not as “a kind of cultural problem, conflict, or a clash or a racial problem or always a problem” (Fischer 2003) which is typical for representation of ‘her’, as Chadha calls it, “bicultural” (Bedell 2006) world. By all means Chadha makes an attempt to ‘educate’ the viewers of her film by “mak[ing] them see the world from [her] point of view and from the point of view of someone who is Indian and English at the same time” (Fischer 2003) and she appears to be successful in getting her films to ‘work’ for both Indian and non Indian audience.
4.2 Bhaji on the Beach (1993)
The film focuses on a group of nine women spending one day at the seaside, in
Blackpool. There is Ginder, who has left her abusive husband and Hashida who has just discovered that she is pregnant with her Black boyfriend. Madhu and Ladhu, teenage
12 sisters who are coming to mainly to get away from boring Birmingham, and also Simi, who seems to be a friend of everyone’s and mainly a coordinator of the Saheli Asian
Women’s Centre by whom the trip is organised. Included also is Pushpa, an elderly and extremely judgmental wife of a shop owner, Asha, who has been suffering with headaches and visions of the God Rama, Bina, her friend and Rekha, who is visiting from
Bombay.
The women set out on a journey of discovery not only of the picturesque and
‘flashy’ Blackpool but their secrets and problems as well. Eventually they are confronted by Ginder’s husband who comes to Blackpool to convince his wife to return back with him. Hashida meets up with her boyfriend Oliver who is looking for her in Blackpool in order to discuss the future of their secretive relationship and her pregnancy.
4.3 Bend it Like Beckham (2002)
The story evolves around the character of 18 year old Jesminder "Jess" Bhamra, the youngest daughter in an orthodox family of Sikhs. She has just sat for her A Levels, loves to play football in the park with her male friends and dreams of playing professionally, and of becoming such a good player as David Beckham, her hero, while her parents want her to study and be a doctor or a solicitor. When playing ‘footie’ in the park, she is noticed by Juliette "Jules" Paxton, who plays football in a team of Hounslow Harriers, in the area of West London borough. Jules offers Jess to come to play with them and the girls become good friends as well as team mates. Playing for the team is a chance for her
13 to fulfil her ambitions but it also means bending rules and traditions as well as deceiving her parents.
5 Themes
5.1 Food
Food as one of the most important parts of people’s lives is clearly focused on in some of Chadha’s work; it is included in the titles of several of her films, most notably
Bhaji on the Beach (1993), in What’s Cooking? (2000) and in her script for Mistress of
Spices (2005) there is a clear allusion to food.
Chadha proves that food is a vital part of her life when she sets up meeting for several of her interviews in restaurants and holds these while eating. While having an interview for The Observer , she and Geraldine Bedell meet in an Asian restaurant, order too much food and she eats “with gusto that is frankly awe inspiring” (Bedell 2006).
During an interview for The Guardian , which takes place in a curry house close to the place where she grew up, Chadha “sends back a dish because it is not hot enough.
The manager gives her a copy of the Good Curry Guide” which makes her more than excited (Brockes 2004).
In both Bhaji on the Beach and Bend it Like Beckham, Chadha “seasons” the stories of her characters with images of food, its consumption and cooking.
14 5.1.1 Food in Bhaji on the Beach
Food and its preparation and consumption represent one of the essential themes appearing in Gurinder Chadha’s first film. Being an omnipresent element of the film, not only does food link the scenes but it stands for the symbols of Indian culture as well.
Moreover, food in this film even seems to become one of the means enabling people to cross the boundaries between British and Indian worlds and thus create a prospective connection which allows members of each group to blend together.
The importance of food is already emphasized and incorporated in the title of the film Bhaji on the Beach “bhaji” is “a popular Indian snack food in Britain similar to vegetable tempura” (Hornaday 1994). This aspect is again underlined in the opening scene of the film. The camera is focused on one of the main characters, Asha, who is carrying a tray with a bowl of rice, a coconut, incense sticks and flowers which is the offering to the Hindu god Rama, whose shrine she has in her shop. She drops it when she has one of her first visions. Asha’s dropping the tray could be understood as a representation of the shattering of the life she has been living so far without questioning it.
There are several scenes in the film where eating together represents one of the inseparable parts of Indian family life. Firstly, it is the scene where Asha is having another reverie, regarding Ginder and her disgracing of a ‘good’ Indian family, we are presented with Ginder serving food recklessly to her in laws. By doing so, Ginder is showing a clear contempt of traditional Indian family values and causes her mother in
15 law a heart attack. Ginder consequently spills all the water on the floor instead of passing it to Ranjit’s mother and she is laughing viciously at her being in shock and pain.
Another example of a scene where food and eating has a clear importance in the sense of family values is when Ranjit’s family, sitting at the table in the kitchen, discuses
Ginder, Ranjit’s wife running away with her five year old son and her applying for a divorce. Here, food is being cooked and eaten while the problems and future of Ranjit’s life are talked about. The kitchen may therefore be considered to be the place where things regarding (not only) the family members’ lives are decided. Another scene seems to support this idea: the first time the viewer is introduced to Hashida’s parents, they are in the kitchen having a discussion about her future. Apart from this, there is a section depicting an idyllic moment on the beach where all the women sit down for an Indian style picnic including samosas, poppadoms and bhajis, which could be viewed as a kind of family reunion, with the beach substituting for the kitchen. Finally, returning to the story of Ranjit, the meeting with Ginder’s uncle, whom Ranjit and his brothers ask for information about Ginder’s whereabouts, significantly takes place in a fast food shop, with the sound of samosas being fried in oil. The location might be thus perceived as a metaphor for a kitchen, a place of the making of Ginder’s and Ranjit’s future life, as well.
All these aforementioned scenes show food as a basic ingredient in the ‘recipe’ for a contented and ‘proper’ Indian family life which, in fact, represents one of the building blocks of Indian culture.
Moreover, food in Bhaji on the Beach does not serve only as a way of presenting traditional Indian values but on the contrary, it provides the viewer with an example of the changing attitudes of second generation Indians in Britain. As a representation of
16 these changes, Madhu and Ladhu, the duo of teenage sisters, eat mainly fast food such as fries, burgers as well as sweets, which could be understood as their attempt to escape the traditional perception of Indian culture slash cuisine and become a part of White, non
Indian community as opposed to the representatives of the first generation of Indians living in Britain, Bina and Pushpa, who come to a café and start eating their food which they had previously prepared at home. As Chakravarti points out in her article: “The children’s acculturation and the immigrant parent’s fears collide,” and through the medium of eating the differences become more lucid (20).
Whereas all the food eaten in the film is either traditionally Indian or typically
British fast food, there are two scenes in the film that seem to challenge both generally accepted images and somehow merge the two cuisines. Firstly it is the scene where the two eldest and most judgemental Indian ladies of the group, Pushpa and Bina, buy chips and, after having tasted them, they realize that the food is not spicy enough for an Indian.
That is why they season their chips with some chilli and finally enjoy them. This scene seems to insinuate that only a little bit of typically Indian spice can make ‘terrible’ British food ‘edible’. Alternatively, when applying this formula to culture, this scene gains even profounder importance: the slightest effort can make British culture ‘digestible’ even
‘tasty’ for an Indian person. This idea is then emphasised by the very last scene of the film. Here, Rekha pulls out of her bag a dessert symbolizing woman’s breasts bearing the words “Blackpool or Bust” and offers it to her companions. By this gesture not only does she lift the tension created by preceding Ginder and Ranjit’s unpleasant encounter but she also again presents the idea of a potential union of the two cultures: as already mentioned
17 above, not only the two cuisines but the two cultures can be merged if both sides are willing to ‘taste’ something new.
5.1.2 Food in Bend it Like Beckham
In Chadha’s Bend it Like Beckham , food and its preparation, consumption as well as its presentation, is predominantly used as a symbol of family values in Indian culture.
Here, food can be viewed as a way of overcoming differences between mothers and daughters in any culture when cooking and preparation of food is stereotypically viewed as a woman’s responsibility, and in Bend it Like Beckham the predominant part of cooking is done by women, except for a scene rebutting this stereotype where Jess’s father, Mr. Bhamra, helps with the refreshments preparation during his older daughter’s engagement party and takes care of the garden grill.
Apart from that, food can be perceived as a representation of any culture known, as each culture or country usually has its own set of traditional meals and ingredients used in their cuisines. However, a dish that is typical of a specific culture might gain a meaning of a potential misinterpretation of a cultural confusion. An example of such a thing is clearly shown in the scene where Jess comes to visit her friend Jules. Jules’s mother, Mrs. Paxton asks Jess again about her name and then lets Jess in with: “I made a lovely curry the other day” comment which seems to be to her an appropriate small talk line when speaking with an Indian girl and in Mrs. Paxton’s view, Jess is an Indian and therefore she knows, eats or even makes curry. In this seemingly harmless comment,
Chadha is trying to express the stereotypical views that are widely accepted among White
18 British citizens. For Mrs. Paxton, who seems to represent all the possible characters, stereotypes, links and behaviour which are often attributed to Indian people by British people.
Because of this, as Chadha puts it in the director’s commentary, it was easy for her to write Juliet Stevenson’s (Mrs. Paxon) lines, because those were the things that her
English school friends’ mothers would say when she (Chadha) came to visit.
As opposed to Mrs. Paxton’s character, that of Mrs. Bhamra is mainly portrayed in the film as the lady of the kitchen, most of the time cooking, while cheese straws that
Mrs. Paxton “made with real Gruyere” are the only example of her cooking skills presented throughout the film.
Regarding the aforementioned significance of cooking in the sense of a way of mother and daughter’s means of becoming friends, there are several sequences pointing this out. Firstly there is a scene where we see Mr. Paxton and his wife sitting at the table in their garden, probably getting ready to eat. This is the moment when the complicated relationship between Jules and her mother improves. Jars and bottles of seasoning and flavour adding ingredients, such as mustard, sea salt and teriyaki sauce function here as the medium in this process, and are used by Mr. Paxton as football players in his little scenario explaining the offside rule to his wife. Interestingly, the “missing ingredient” in the recipe of Jules’s and her mother’s relationship is added with the use of some sort of burger relish.
Secondly, the importance of food is alluded to at a family meeting which takes place on the occasion of Pinky and Teetu’s (second) engagement party. Jess is sitting at one table with all the older women, including Jess’s mother and preparing some
19 traditional Indian dishes As far as we can see, Jess is the youngest woman sitting at the table, none of the other girls are helping and it is easy to read from Jess’s face that she is not happy to be there but because her family expects from her to support her sister, Jess as “a good girl” fulfils their wishes. Being ‘a good girl’ is for Jess’s mother most importantly being able to cook a “full Punjabi dinner, meat and vegetarian too” and definitely not playing in the park with boys.
The line “Anyone can cook allo gobi but who can bend the ball like Beckham?” might be a good tagline for Chadha’s so far most successful film but also a statement that explains a much deeper meaning to a person, in this specific case a girl, belonging to any culture or community whose future life can be predestined by her culture’s tradition as well as the expectation of her family and the society surrounding her.
5.2 Family
The theme of family in Bend it Like Beckham and Bhaji on the Beach is one of the principal aspects in these films. After all, family is considered to be the base, or rather a foundation stone of the society as well as of the state. Generally speaking, there is a great significance of family in any culture, whether it is within British, Indian or British Indian society and therefore all of these societies have, despite their potential cultural clashes and differences, at least one thing in common.
20 5.2.1 Family in Bend it Like Beckham
Through the images of families, Gurinder Chadha makes an attempt to point out the values and processes that are part of the family lives in both British and Indian society.
Jess’s and Julie’s families present two clearly different pictures, on one side rather an orthodox family of Sikhs with two daughters and a large group of relatives and on the other side a perfect image of a typical British middle class nuclear family with an only child. As well as the backgrounds for the heroine and her good friend, these two groups of relatives offer a comparison of two different cultures and ethnicities. In the former, the family seems to be everything, the whole world swings around the notion of belonging and being a part of a bigger entity. In the latter there are not mentioned any other members of Jules’s family but herself, her mother and father.
On one hand Chadha emphasizes all the cultural differences between the families of
Jessminder Bhamra and Julie Paxton and on the other hand the common values and problems that both groups share are underlined in the story as well.
Firstly, both the parents of Jess and the parents of Jules want to protect their daughters, both want their daughters to be happy. Above all, Jules’s mother wants a daughter who is interested in boys and clothes – she perceives these interests as a feasible way to ‘connect’ with Jules. Aside from that, Mrs. Paxton puts a great emphasis on reminding both her husband and her daughter that she (Jules) is a girl and should not expect to find a boy who would want to go out with her if she had bigger muscles than him. To make her argument even more persuasive she uses the model of a member of the
21 girl music band Spice Girls: “there is a reason why Sporty Spice is the only one of them without a fella.”
In contrast to Mrs. Paxton, Jess’s mother has no desire to see Jess dating a boy (not even a Sikh) and for her it is quite shocking to see her ‘little girl’ running around and showing her bare legs to the boys she plays football in the park with and to “all the world” as well and therefore disgracing her family. She places education, food and cooking at the top of the list of priorities, for her any “good Indian girl” is automatically a wife to be to a “good Indian man”. She always follows the traditions and beliefs of her religion and culture.
However, it is Mrs. Paxton who is the first person, or rather parent who makes a concession to his/her child’s obsession with football. Her first step on the imaginary journey to understand and to support her daughter is demonstrated in the interest she takes to the offside rule and another step is her attending one of the most important matches. Here, again, her small town behaviour is shown when she dresses up for the event as if she was going to Ascot and wears rather an inappropriate (but impressive) pink hat.
In comparison to their spouses the fathers are members of a rival team when using football terminology. Jules’s father supports her greatly in her ambition to become a famous footballer and he is the one who is pleased with the lack of interest that she has for boys and dating as opposed to Jesminder’s dad, who is not, at least at the beginning of the story, supportive but the main reason for his disapproval is rooted in a racist experience, thus his attitude towards Jess’s passion for playing football is just another way to protect her.
22 The importance of family union and support within the family is explicitly emphasised by the number of relatives who are attending all of celebrations and parties held in the Bhamra family. Interestingly, there are never less than four people to be seen in the scenes which concern Jess and her family, which could be done on purpose to highlight the richness and colourfulness of the Indian traditions.
Furthermore, it is articulated that by being a member of an Indian family, one (Jess) has to take on the responsibility for her acts and behaviour. When her older sister, Pinky, is getting married, it is a matter of course that Jess should be helping with the preparations and also ‘behaving herself’ in order to represent the family well. When the wedding is called off because Teetu’s parents saw Jess “being naughty with an English boy”, Jess has (but she has not), by having a relationship with a boy who does not come from the same ethnic group as her, violated the unwritten law of Indian ethnics and disgraced her family, specifically Pinky and thus “destroyed her life”. It is not important for Teetu’s parents that the person they saw Jess with was actually Jules, who has short hair, and that the girls were hugging.
It seems, in fact, that Jess’s family and Julie’s family mirror each other. By contrasting the Bhamras and the Paxtons, Chadha provides a clear proof of it being equally difficult for all the families presented in these films to bring up their children and the fact that there are only girl offspring in both households compensates for the lacks of aspects that the Bhamras and the Paxtons could share given their origins, ethnic groups, religion and social status.
23 5.2.2 Family in Bhaji on the Beach
The story of Bhaji on the Beach evolves around a group of nine Asian women whose roles in the family vary from being daughters, mothers and wives to mothers in law. Even though the film does not offer a contrast to be placed against a White British family, as it is done in Bend it Like Beckham , the patterns and values within circles of relatives appear to be similar in these two works of Gurinder Chadha.
In general, there are two types of families portrayed in the film. Firstly, there is the nuclear family that is set around some of the main characters which I consider being the most important for my analysis. These are most notably Asha, her husband and her two children, Hashida and her parents and Ginder’s husband and her family in law. Secondly, there is the extended family, the group of ‘aunties’, possibly blood related to the main characters or related by belonging to the same community (here an ethnic community) or sharing the same experience of having immigrated to Great Britain and settling in the same area. Similarly to Bend it Like Beckham , the importance of the extended family and even the most distant relatives is underlined. As an illustration of this serves the fact that
‘the aunties’ learn about Hashida’s pregnancy earlier than her own parents.
As opposed to the stereotypical behaviour of Pushpa and Bina, members of the extended family, Chadha uses the continuous development of Asha’s character to set an example for the other older women. In the beginning, Asha is portrayed as dutiful, responsible and judgmental Indian woman, a wife of a shopkeeper and a mother of two children. The gradual ‘progress’ seems to be well observable in the scenes where Asha suffers from her visions as well as in the sections which follow these reveries. Asha’s
24 process of change lies in her perception of the world and people around her: her biased opinion and judgment strictly based on traditionally Indian points of view change in the course of the film and becomes more open and perceptive – the Indian world is not as plainly ‘black and white’ as she saw it before. She is pressed to set on this “journey”
(Fischer 2003), as Chadha calls the “the cultural process” “everybody has to go through”
(Fischer 2003), in order to rediscover and re evaluate her own life.
In her first vision Asha sees herself alone with her husband, their son and their daughter. In these seemingly idyllic scenes of traditional position of Indian women in the family as a good wife and a good mother Asha unknowingly begins to question these qualities in her own life. She looks down on Ginder, who has, by leaving her husband and thus escaping from her responsibilities and chores, violated the traditional position of a married woman. Ginder is marked down as the ‘bad one’, the one who is there to be blamed for the fall of her and Ranjit’s marriage and it is being pointed out by Ranjit’s mother that “ever since she (Ginder) has stepped into this house she has been trouble and nothing but trouble.” Ginder is looked down on and judged by her family in law, the aunties, including Asha, as well as by her own mother. In another of Asha’s dreamy sequences, Ginder is depicted as a mean and despicable wife and daughter in law who does not respect her in laws or their traditions. Asha could be seen as founding her
‘journey’ on the contrast of her and Ginder’s acts and decisions.
Asha’s next vision comes to her after she by accident overhears a conversation between Simi and Hashida about Hashida’s pregnancy. She sees Hashida heavily pregnant with a blond wig; smoking and profaning Rama’s temple with her parent’s looking at her in shock. Her own daughter stands nearby and watches the scene with an
25 amused expression in her face. Hashida is at first presented as the antithesis of Ginder, being praised by her parents and the other members of the extended family, too.
Then Hashida’s secret gets out and sets ground for an animated discussion, regarding her Black boyfriend and pregnancy, joined by all the women and most disapprovingly commented on by Pushpa, whose earlier compliments to Hashida on her being accepted to a medical school and because she was “at least one of our girls we can be proud of” as she put it, are swiftly forgotten. Here, the viewer is given an example of
Indian society being judgmental as well as supportive.
As for the family represented by the ‘aunties’, the portrayal of their relationship towards the younger women in the group on the whole inclines to the negative or judgmental rather than supportive attitude, as opposed to the one indicated by the members of the ‘closer’ families. Such approach could on one hand appear as typical behaviour. But on the other hand, if the Indian community is perceived as a large entity, where, so to say everyone knows everyone, it would be understandable or quite likely that the ‘aunties’ will support and protect as well as guide the younger ones.
Asha proves that she can be helpful and supportive, she is moving forward on her
‘journey’ when she gives Ginder all of her money to spend on a haircut and some new clothes. By this gesture, Asha makes an attempt to show her newly acquired understanding for Ginder’s previous behaviour as well as realize her own progress on her
‘path’. In the last of her visions, she finds herself alone in front of the lord Rama who reminds her to remember who she is, to which Asha replies: “my life wasn’t meant to be like this, […] duty, honour, sacrifice, and what about me?” There are flashes of lightning and the sound of thunder and her husband appears in front of her. Then she gets back to
26 the reality and instead of her husband she sees her “new friend” Ambrose and seems to come to an epiphany and reconciliation with her own conscience. Her last reverie could be understood as a final step on her ‘journey’ and she is ready to leave her old views, or at least some of them. Asha “goes through the cultural process[es] together” with
Hashida, Ginder and even her daughter, she [Asha] being the “first generation” (Fischer
2003). However, she even if it might seem so, is not in this “process” alone she becomes accompanied by the predominantly narrow minded Pushpa, who, after having seen
Hashida and her boyfriend Oliver standing by the road in a loving embrace, comments on this sight by: “What can you do?”
All in all, by allowing Asha and Pushpa to change their perspectives of the second generation of Indian women who do not follow Indian tradition as devotedly as them,
Chadha accentuates the importance of the extended family as the supportive, nevertheless sometimes unsympathetic background to their culture or ethnic group.
5.3 Leading a Double Life
There are several images of the main characters’ attempts to create a hidden passage leading to their dreams and ambitions which might not be approved of by their relatives or even friends. These characters are thus forced to start living a second life, separated from the official one.
The notion of such ‘double living’ was commented on in an interview following the release of Bend it Like Beckham by actress Juliet Stevenson, who appeared in the film as
Mrs. Paxton, Jules’s mother. She has been heard that she was “struck by the extent to
27 which modern British women from Indian families have to live a kind of ‘double life’”
(Thorpe 2004). Chadha admitted that by placing certain scenes in Bend it Like Beckham , i.e. where Jess pretend to be ill and as soon as her parents leave the house, she heads for the football stadium, she (Chadha) “gave away” some of the “secrets of many young
Asian boys and girls”. Such a comment only adds to the extent to which the Asian youth sometimes has to cheat and lie as well to get the freedom they crave for. In both chosen
Gurinder Chadha’s films Bhaji on the Beach and Bend it Like Beckham , there can be observed a large amount of ‘double living’ being led by several of the main characters.
5.3.1 Leading a Double Life in Bhaji on the Beach
In Bhaji on the Beach the director concentrates the majority of the double life theme around Hashida, a second generation Indian woman, one of the youngest members of the
Blackpool Illumination Fun Day trip. In the scene where Hashida is introduced to the viewer for the first time, she is holding a pregnancy test which comes out positive. It could be understood that by portraying Hashida as a ‘girl in trouble’ Chadha is making an attempt to show, that despite the tradition and high expectations held by her parents a well as by other members of their society, it is possible for a ‘good Indian girl’ to have the same problems as any other girl anywhere in the world.
However, Hashida’s situation might be considered rather ‘serious’ in regard of the beliefs and rules kept within Indian ethnics. To begin with, she is having a sexual relationship with an African Caribbean boy, which seems to be unacceptable as it is shown in the scene where ‘the aunties’ find out about her boyfriend being Black.
28 Furthermore, she is expecting a child with her non Indian boyfriend, which is a scenario that does not appear to be desired by her parents who expect her to start a medical school soon and become, as her father proudly says: “the first doctor in our family.”
By hiding her relationship with Oliver from her parents, Hashida appears to admit her wrong doing by being involved with someone who does not share her ethnic background. She has been keeping her lover in secret for more than a year and until she got pregnant and probably did not intend to tell her parents about it. Oliver’s parents know about his relationship with Hashida and as it implied in the scene where Oliver, having had a major argument with Hashida over her pregnancy, comes to see his father and openly tells him about his problem. Despite being African Caribbean and belonging to an ethnic minority as well, Oliver’s father does not perceive Hashida, unlike her parents would see Oliver, as a partner who is not ‘good’ for their child. In the same scene, the director presents another contrast between the ‘worlds of responsibilities and values’ where Hashida’s sense of family relevance takes an important place in her life. She remembers Oliver father’s birthday and even sends him a card while Oliver forgets about his father’s anniversary.
The pressure on Hashida, who has to manage two separate lives, must be intensified by her awareness of her parents presumable disapproval of her romance with Oliver.
Knowing that his parents would endorse their relationship and do not seem to have any reservations regarding their relationship must make her even more forlorn. When Oliver’s father finds out about his son’s girlfriend being pregnant, he becomes angry and clearly disappointed with his son when Oliver tells him “that it’s over”. Oliver’s father functions here as the keeper of the balance between responsibility that both Hashida and Oliver
29 should be aware of and passion which the two of them have developed towards each other.
After all, Hashida’s pregnancy means a potential end to her ‘double life’ and by keeping the child and raising it, whether with the help of Oliver or not, she is compelled to bring the double life to an end and to deal with her parents and moreover, with her rather schizophrenic life. By having their child and marrying Oliver , Hashida could therefore create a ‘bridge’ between the two families and cultures and help to develop a new interracial relationship, which would not be left without complications and involve potential cultural clashes but would make her make her contended and happy.
5.3.2 Leading a Double Life – Playing Football in Bend it Like Beckham
As for the theme of living in two worlds, keeping them, to a certain extent, separate from each other and possibly managing so without acquiring a schizophrenic personality, there are three distinct ways of such act in this film. We can find two main ‘areas’ concerning the double life, one of them is sport and the other one is love and relationships.
Firstly, there is the most dominant way of leading a double life, that is taking part in past time activities which could be perceived as atypical for a young Indian girl. In fact, it does not occur that there are other activities and hobbies that are clearly shown as prohibited by either Jess’s or Jules’s parents, there are ‘only’ things that do not seem to be ‘appropriate’ for girls of their age or ethnicity. Football is a passionate interest for
Jules and Jess rather than a hobby. Neither Jess’s parents nor Jules’s mother understand
30 their daughters’ love for football, but unlike Jules, who has support from her father,
Jess’s family has no understanding whatsoever. Because of the lack of enthusiasm that her family has for her passion for football, Jess is forced follow a path of deception and lies so she can join a girls’ football team and play professionally as opposed to the
‘footie’ sessions in the park with some Indian boys. Despite threats from her mother and disapproving looks from her sister who eventually finds out about Jess’s secretive escapes from home, Jess keeps coming back to the pitch and even lies to her coach, Joe about her parents being ‘cool’ about it. By attending trainings and playing matches, every time that Jess changes her clothes for a football dress, she goes through a transition where her Indian determination melts together with the White British emancipation and she becomes a different person; she is not a ‘good Indian girl’ anymore, but a football player, a very good one. On the football pitch, she seems to know exactly what to do and she knows what she wants to do, too. Jess manages to balance these two worlds at the same time for quite a while, but eventually her secret is revealed and she it forced to chose between her family and football. With a notable dose of self denial she chooses her responsibilities and demands required by her family above kicking a football and gaining a chance to get a scholarship at top university in the USA. By doing so, Jess once again becomes the good girl that her mother wants her to be.
Secondly, there is Jess’s father and his dream of playing cricket, which was shattered after he arrived to Great Britain. However, Mr. Bhamra’s appears to be unaware of having led his second life until the end of the story where he allows his younger daughter to leave for Santa Clara, USA to study and, most notably, play football. Before he left Nairobi, he used to be the best fast bowler and his team even won the East African
31 Cup, but his request to play in a British team was dismissed without further discussion and he was not allowed to play in any team and what is more, “they made fun of (his) turban”. He never complained and swore that he would never play cricket again, which only made him suffer. As a result of this experience Mr. Bhamra forbid Jess from playing football as to protect her from possible humiliation and lost of her dreams as well. His responsibility for his family and their happiness seemed to cover his pain and the ‘scar’ that the undeserved ‘disqualification’ has left. Eventually he realised that even though he wants to guard his daughter, he wants them to be happy as well and he “wants (them) to fight and win”. Mr Bhamra, despite his negative experience, takes on the task of releasing his younger daughter from the confines of becoming a solicitor or a doctor only to please her parents in spite of her own happiness. By doing so and letting his daughter follow her dream, he deals with his secret life of anger and bitterness over his own wasted talent.
Interestingly, Jess’s father is shown in the very last scene playing cricket with Joe, a scene, which could be interpreted as a gentle transition to finding a balance between
Jess’s and Joe’s cultures. Alternatively, this scene is seen by Hussein as “reinforcing the ethnic solidarity of father and daughter” where Mr. Bhamra sometimes supports his daughter behind his wife’s back (Hussein 88). Following this sequence, it comes forward that Mr. Bhamra and Joe have found a something they have in common which could be applied in a wider scale as archetypes of people coming from different worlds of culture, traditions and beliefs.
Thirdly, the literal burden of having to keep something in secret is claimed by Jess’s best friend Tony. Tony, with his good manners, always contented appearance and clearly good results at school, serves as an example of a girl’s best friend, especially from the
32 parents’ point of view. Jess does not seem to hide anything from him; Tony knows about her playing football secretly, he attends some of the matches to support her and gives the impression of being more than just ‘a friend’. On account of their mutual honesty and subsequently to Jess’s request to start dating with him, Tony decides to share the secret of his homosexuality with Jess, whose reaction could serve as explanation of the majority of
Indian community’s opinion as it is portrayed in the film. From Jess’s words: “But you are Indian, […] what is your mum going to say?” we can understand that Tony’s sexuality presents a ‘condition’ that would be hard to accept, particularly by the older generations within his ethnic and religious community. Opposing to such a conclusion there is a scene where Jules’s mother, convinced that Jules and Jess are lovers, calls Jess a lesbian which makes one of the relatives wonder: ”Lesbian? […] I thought she was
Pisces”. Another older Indian lady attending the wedding makes an attempt to correct
Mrs. Paxton, who is, in her opinion confused with Jess’s origins, by saying: “She no
Lebanese. She Punjabi.” Neither of these older ladies understands what ‘lesbian’ of
‘homosexual’ is. According to Chadha’s commentary on the film, the reactions presented are true to the reality and especially the elderly people “don’t have a clue” what homosexuality, gay or lesbian mean. All in all, Tony’s sexual orientation is only touched upon by the director and it seems that unlike the subject of Jess’s fictitious lesbianism, it does not serve as a humorous addition to the story, but rather as a supportive aspect of
Jess’s and Tony’s ‘mere’ friendship.
In effect, Chadha approaches the topics of double live in order to present Jess’s internal conflict between satisfying her parents’ demands and her fulfilling her dreams and even though Jess comes out from this battle as a winner, her parents do not take the
33 place of losers. Furthermore, Chadha touches the emotional topics of love, sexuality and secrets and uncovers the topics that can be considered taboo. While Hussein questions the
“film[’s] attempt[s] to handle too wide a variety of issues in great depth” as a positive aspect, I do think that the theme of homosexuality in particular is not developed enough
(73).
5.4 Images of Racism
There are reappearing images of racial attitudes towards a foreign culture or race portrayed in most of Gurinder Chadha’s cinematic work and the same can be applied to
Bend it Like Beckham as well as to Bhaji on the Beach. The representation of racism to a certain extent seems to act in these two films as an inevitable aspect of a portrait of communities of diaspora in the UK.
5.4.1 Images of Racism in Bhaji on the Beach
There are several kinds of racism to be found, referring to the theme of racism in the course of the story evolving round the group of three generations of Indian women spending a day in Blackpool. The focus is on two types specifically. First kind to be observed is a racist attitude of White people towards Indian, while the second type mainly regards Indian racism pointed at the other races, primarily at African Caribbean.
34 Primarily, as it is shown in one of the earliest scenes, the first and possible the most aggressive racial experience that the women ‘gain’, is during a stop at a service station on their way to Blackpool. Simi and Hashida are approached by two young White men who start to talk to them, suggesting spending some time together if Simi and Hashida “get rid of the old saris”. Even though that in the beginning these men might perceive Simi,
Hashida and the others as some kind of exotic ‘entertainment’ on their journey, they soon descend to see them ‘only’ as targets of their sexist and racist insults. Simi turns down the offer and calls one of the men a “sexist prick” and consequently is spitted on by this member of the “cream of British youth”. The racial attitudes of these teddy boys go through several motions. Firstly, there is the interest regarding the Indian women, then comes a phase of verbal insult which includes obscene gestures and the finally, the encounter culminates with aggression when all the men start throwing empty and full cans at the van. Rekha, a friend of Asha who is visiting from Bombay, cannot hide her shock when she witnesses this attack, obviously not used to such behaviour back home and asks: “How can you live with it?”
The remaining examples of racist attitudes towards the women are mainly within the spectre of comments from their White counterpart, most notably expressed by reaction of a White waitress in a café, where Pushpa and Bina come to. The two women sit down and after receiving their tea, take out their own (Indian) food to enjoy. Their act is angrily commented on by the waitress in the café by; “No manners! [...] they ought to send them all back.” This woman expresses her racial attitudes towards Bina and Pushpa who represent the Indian minority, assuming that these two women want to insult ‘her country’ and communicates her disagreement with their behaviour. The scene could be
35 seen as an image not only of Pusha and Bina’s attitudes to the British culture that surrounds them but also the process of accepting certain aspect of this culture. Just as they eat the food they have previously prepared at home a thus ‘refuse’ to eat food sold at the café but they do drink tea which was made there, they pick ‘bits and pieces’ of the culture that could be acceptable for them and by doing so, they gradually take on the process of acculturation, which is, as explained by Dalrymple “the acceptance and adoption by immigrants of the most important aspects of western culture” ( New
Statesman 29).
Pushpa does not believe in mixing of races, and mainly culture, thus when she discovers that Hashida is pregnant with her Black boyfriend, she literally spits out her disgust and disappointment with Hashida. Interestingly, Chadha poses an analogy to
Pushpa’s beliefs and attitudes upon Oliver’s Black friend Joe, who put great effort into convincing Oliver that he should abandon Hashida and bases his opinions of the statement that “Black don’t mean not White anymore. […] Try fusion, you get con fusion!” Through the contrast of Joe’s and Pushpa’s points of view Chadha introduces another type of racism which should be paid attention to. As opposed to Pushpa’s role of racist attack victim, she also acts as a person having and subsequently displaying her racist attitude. After the Pushpa and the other sit down on the beach to have a picnic, she notices a young Black family nearby and immediately checks her purse to make sure that all her money is there. An expression of relief appears in her face, but she cannot help herself not ‘check on’ them every so often. Pushpa’s behaviour makes the viewer notice that even the members of ethnic minorities, who often become victims of racist attacks, can become those who project racist attitudes on other ethnic groups.
36
5.4.2 Images of Racism in Bend it Like Beckham
In the more recent of her two discussed films Chadha offers two types of racism.
Firstly, it is the racism of Whites towards Indian and secondly behaviour in terms of racism aimed by Indian people at the other Indians within their own community
Jess’s father does not want to allow his daughter to play football because he is afraid that by entering the world of football which is predominantly seen as White or non Indian territory, she would encounter racial attitudes projected on her for being
‘Brown’. Jess’s father behaves so as a result of his own experience with racial discrimination, when he came to Great Britain he wanted to join a cricket team after, having been one of the best players in his native Nairobi. He was prevented from becoming a member of a British cricket team as well as humiliated because of his turban and his origin.
When describing his experience, Chadha presents one of the two images of racism towards ethnic groups which appear in the film. The second example is at a match, where
Jess is fouled by a member of the rival team and called a “paki”, which is a great insult to her. Consequently, she is being given a red card by the referee and sent away from the pitch after she pushes the other player. The White footballer is mistakenly placing Jess into a different ethnic group, judging by the colour of her skin without being able to distinguish which ethnic group Jess comes from. There is a clear confusion in the racial offence aimed at Jess by the other player. Despite managing to insult Jess by calling her a
“paki” she assumes that Jess is Pakistani, she gains her racist ‘victory’ not by ‘calling she
37 names’ but by showing her racial ignorance, which could lead to much more serious manifestation or racism.
In spite of Mr. Bhamra’s effort to prevent Jess from experiencing White racism, he becomes a witness to this scene where Jess for the first time undergoes an experience not too different from his own. Nevertheless, Jess does not allow such thing to stop her from playing as he father did. By not giving up she seems to help her father to overcome his bitterness.
To return to the second type of racism depicted in this film it is necessary to examine the patterns of Teetu’s parents’ behaviour. Before their parents agreed to their, marriage Teetu and Jess’s older sister Pinky had been dating secretly for some time, and their marriage is not arranged but a love match. From the very first scene where we see
Teetu’s parents it becomes obvious, that they are much richer than Jess’s parents and do not fail to show that, whether in the way of showing their latest model of Mercedes, their clothes and Teetu mother’s lavishly adorned and embroidered saris in particular. It is understood from Pinky’s future mother in law’s behaviour that she considers herself and her relatives to be placed higher in the Indian social hierarchy. After having seen Jess with Jules and mistaken her for an English boy, Teetu’s parents who thus claim to be
‘better Indian that the others’ do not hesitate to inform Jess’s parents and at the same time call the wedding off.
However, the possibility that the aforementioned affair was only a cover for their disappointment with their son’s choice of a wife appears as a more plausible reason.
Jess’s mother is convinced that this is only an excuse and that “[her family] were never good enough for them.” Jess’s mother realises that she and her family is being looked
38 down on as well as judged for Jess’s ‘misconduct’ by Teetu’s mother and therefore causing her older daughter to be discriminated because of their status. When the marriage cancellation is eventually withdrawn she tries to regain her dignity by throwing an extremely pompous wedding.
Through the attitude of Teetu’s parents to Jess’s parents, the notion of ‘racism of classes’ does not seem, admittedly, as significant as in the images of White racism.
Nevertheless, it implies that the class distinction, as it is presented by the richer family, creates a part of the Indian community and influences it as well as other, more prominent racially affected deeds.
6 Comparisons and Conclusions
6.1 Food
The first theme discussed is the theme of food and things and processes related to it.
Food, its preparation and consumption represent a point of gathering of families, distant relatives and friends and therefore stand for a symbol of a union. In both films, the occasions of eating and preparing food serve as points of gathering of the family or/and friends in order to enjoy time together as well as to discuss problems and plans.
Food or rather dishes represent one of the most typical ways of distinguishing every culture in both films. As for Indians, the richness of flavours and colours of their spices and dishes seems to express the richness and colourfulness of the nation itself. Chadha strives to shown that by keeping their own flavours and colours, they (Indians) pronounce
39 their desire not to be swallowed neither “contained by mainstream British culture” and thus avoid being defined simply as “one exotic Brown identity” (Storry and Childs 260).
On the other hand, acquiring new flavours and enriching the usual experience of consumption by trying new and different tastes and repasts can serve as a way of merging of not only tastes but also the two cultures, the two worlds.
6.2 Family
Another image represents the family, which serves as the centrepiece of British as well as Indian society. Moreover, as the Indian form a minority in Great Britain, the strength and depth of the ties within the family are much stronger and seem to be of even greater importance than those of British.
On one hand, the story of the film Bend it Like Beckham is predominantly focused on the nuclear families and common problems in the families of both British and Indian main characters, Jess and Jules. Jess’s family as well as Jules’s family is presented as well functioning and not containing any basic flaws which can be often seen in modern families. The relationships in them are based on unconditional love, despite the conventional generation gap problems between the parents and daughters. On the other hand, the contrast between the Bhamra family and the Paxton family is visible when presented in connection with the aspect of an extended family: whereas in Jules’s case there is no mention of any other relative besides her own parents, Jess seems to be permanently surrounded by uncles, cousins and aunties. However the importance of an extended family is much more pronounced in the other film Bhaji on the Beach : the
40 group of women attending a trip to Blackpool create some sort of family (consisting of women only) to each other, whose members do not necessarily have to be related by blood but present an inseparable part of Indian community.
The main focus seems to be in both films set on values and responsibilities regarding the family, such as duty, honour and sacrifice in Indian culture. Through the images of families, the director makes an attempt to bring the viewer closer to understanding of the aspects of belonging to an ethnic minority on the British territory the in course of twentieth century and thus tries to “appeal in certain ways to White audiences” (Hussein 90).
6.3 Double Life
The third theme developed in both films is that of various ways of leading a double life. In Bend it Like Beckham the director picked up the threads of the interracial relationship portrayed in Bhaji on the Beach and subtly developed the topic. Whereas in
Bend it Like Beckham the double life is represented in connection to sport in the case of
Jess and her father, and homosexual orientation of young Tony; in Bhaji on the Beach , the director focuses mainly on Hashida’s secret relationship and the conflict between keeping it secret and, as ‘a good daughter’, trying to satisfy her parents’ expectations.
Nearly a decade passes between the two stories taking place and the course of history, politics and changing attitudes seems to have influenced the behaviour and opinions of the society in Britain. By placing Jess’s story at the beginning of the twentieth century, Chadha made her life seemingly easier when compared to the main
41 characters’ fates in the other discussed film. The types of double life seem to differ according to the period they are set in and what is more, the topics explored in them have altered as well: Tony’s sexuality and Jess’s fulfilled dream of playing football professionally and leaving the country without being previously married would not be worthy of discussion ten years ago.
6.4 Racism
The final theme concerns various depictions of racism in the two Chadha’s films. In
Bend it Like Beckham the images of racism are focused mainly on the racial discrimination of Indian people by White people. Furthermore, the focus shifts to an example of a prejudiced behaviour related to class within Indian society rather than to racism. The main character of Bend it Like Beckham encounters racist attitude while making successful attempts to connect these two worlds, Indian and British. Also in Bhaji on the Beach the concept of White racism seems to be developed to a considerable extent, moreover, the viewer can find there an account of a different type of racism which is projected by Indian people onto Black people.
However, Chadha does not seem to take on a lamentable or accusative tone when displaying her film characters’ experience with racism, her way is more a matter of fact which keeps her films outside the imaginary box of cinematic works portraying South
Asians (or other ethnic groups of diaspora in Britain) as oppressed and suffering from constant racist abuse from their White counterparts. She does not try to create helpless victims of racism but those who can live without feeling maltreated or marginalized.
42
7 Conclusion
The thesis deals with two films by Indian filmmaker Gurinder Chadha, whose films
Bhaji on the Beach (1993) and Bend it Like Beckham (2002) portray the British Asian experience from the inside. On analyzing both the films and the relevant cultural and social aspects it has been ascertained that the films reflect the director’s filmmaking approach as well as her cultural background.
The themes served to portray the Indian community and characters in new light.
They highlighted details and topics which were not previously to be seen in similar films.
Even Chadha’s characters were found to be somewhat unique: they handled problems in a different manner than might have been expected by their friends, family and the whole cultural environment.
All in all, Chadha manages to spice up and add more colour to the bland and stereotypically brown image of Indians in film, which had been the norm up till then.
43 8 Bibliography Abercrombie, Nicholas and Alan Warde. Contemporary British Society: A New Introduction to Sociology . Cambridge: Polity Press, 1998. Addis, Catherine. “Britain Now.” London: BBC English, 1992. 28—37. British Studies: A Reader . Eds. Franková Milada, Stephen Hardy and Lidia Kyzlinková. Brno: Masarykova Univerzita v Brně, 2002. 59—62. “Background to Immigration.” London: Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Jan 1991. 5—10. British Studies: A Reader . Eds. Franková Milada, Stephen Hardy and Lidia Kyzlinková. Brno: Masarykova Univerzita v Brně, 2002. 24—26. Bedell, Geraldine. Larger Than Life. The Observer . July 16 2006
Bolaffi, Guido, ed. Dictionary of Race, Ethnicity and Culture . London: SAGE Publications, 2003. Brockes, Emma. “Laughing all the way to the box office” The Guardian . July 19 2004
44 Bromhead, Peter. Life in Modern Britain . Harlow: Longman, (1991). Chakravarti, Debnita. “Feel Good Reel Food: A Taste of the Cultural Kedgeree in Gurinder Chadha’s What’s Cooking? ” Reel Food: Essays on Food and Film . Ed. Anne L. Bower, London: Routledge 2004. Dalrymple, Theodore. “Can a Liberal Society Tolerate Eastern Culture?” New Statesman . 23 Oct. 1998 28—29. Dalrymple, Theodore. “India Goes Native.” The Spectator . 12 Sept 1998 11 12. “Ethnicity. ” Office for National Statistics. 24 June 2004. June 2007
45 Hussain, Yasmin. Writing Diaspora: South Asian Women, Culture and Ethnicity . Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005. Marwick, Arthur. Culture in Britain since 1945 . Oxford: Blackwell, 1991. Morgan, Kenneth O., ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain . Oxford: OUP, 1984. Solomos, John. Race and Racism in Britain . 2nd ed. London: Macmillan, 1993. Storry, Mike and Peter Childs, eds. British Cultural Identities . London: Routledge, 1997. Thorpe, Vanessa. “Pride and Sikh”. The Guardian . 19 Sept 2004
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