Director: Nida Manzoor
Starring: Priya Kansara, Ritu Arya, Nimra Bucha, Seraphina Beh, Ella Bruccoleri, Jenny Funnell, Shona Babayemi, Shobu Kapoor
Distributor: Universal
Runtime: 103 mins. Reviewed in May 2023
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc

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Rating notes: Violence, crude sexual humour and coarse language

Ria Khan believes she must save her older sister Lena from her impending marriage. After enlisting her friends’ help, she attempts to pull off the most ambitious of all wedding heists in the name of independence and sisterhood.

The title really doesn’t give much away. But, as we enter into the world of British Pakistani families, we realise that, while there is some politeness, under the surface there are all kinds of tensions.

Quite a lot of commentators make reference to the 2002 sports film, Bend it like Beckham, a British Indian family in the outer suburbs of London, with the daughter eager to play football. This one might have been called ‘Bend it like Bruce Lee’. And, the action has moved further into central London, now in Shepherd’s Bush. Another film by the Beckham director, Gurinder Chadha, was Bride and Prejudice, and some of the dialogue here refers to Jane Austen. But it is Jane Austen with martial arts.

This is very much a women’s film. There’s scarcely a male character to be found – the tall dark and handsome doctor, a nice father seen now and again, a bodyguard, a marriage official, the server in a diner . . . That’s about all. We are immersed in the women’s world.

However, the central character is only 16. Ria (Kansara) is a lively presence – self-confident, trying to shape the world as she wants it. She has ambitions for her older sister, keeps getting into all kinds of tangles, but is determined to fulfil her life’s ambition to be a stunt woman.

There have been many films taking audiences into the British Pakistani world – for instance, What’s Love Got to Do With It. This is the world of arranged marriages, but this time it takes, ultimately, a more sinister tone. However, on the surface there is love at first sight, with the older sister, something of a slacker, being charmed by the doctor. He, however, is devoted to his dominant, dominating, malevolent mother. Ria is against the wedding for all kinds of (wrong) reasons. She is determined to sabotage it, relying on her close friends from school.

Actually, while the audience is drawn into this unusual world, it is all rather absurd. However, it makes its points through the absurdity. There is Ria and her ambitions, her elaborate plans to undermine the wedding, smear the groom, clash with his mother – and engage in all kinds of martial arts manoeuvres (even with the malevolent mother).

While not exactly a must-see entertainment, Ria is a persuasive character in her own way, even when she exasperates her family and us. We are ready for the big climax, the sabotage even while we watch Ria’s wedding dance, the elaborate clothes, the ceremonies. And this is not a spoiler, Ria will get her chance as a stunt woman and the final scene of the film, ironically, has Ria and her sister in a diner – very British – eating burgers and chips.

And all this makes us wonder about the title, Polite Society.