POLITE SOCIETY

UK, 2023, 103 minutes, Colour.

Priya Kansara, Ritu Arya, Nira Buche, Seraphina Beh, Ella Bruccoleri, Jenny Funnell, Shona Babayeki, Shoby Kapoor.

Directed by Nida Manzoor.

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, the daughter of the family 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, Gurinda Chadha, was Bride and Prejudice, and some of the dialogue here refers to Jane Austen. But it is very much Jane Austen with martial arts.

This is very much a women’s film. Writer, main cast, scarcely a male character to be found – the tall dark and handsome doctor (but?), 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, Priya Kansara, a lively presence, self-confident, trying to shape the world as she wants it, ambitions for her older sister, getting into all kinds of tangles – but, at the martial arts classes, having her own video channel with her moves, determined to fulfil her life’s ambition, to be a stunt woman.

There have been quite a number of 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, 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 in its way. However, it is making its points through the absurdity, Ria and her the idol of the martial arts instructor 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!).

Not exactly a must-see entertainment. But, Ria is quite a persuasive character in her own way, even when she exasperates her family and us, so that 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.

1. The title? The references? British society? British Pakistani society?
2. The London settings, Shepherd’s Bush, Pakistani families, homes, lifestyles? The rich? The middle-class?
3. The martial arts atmosphere, Ria and her ambitions to be a stunt woman, her classes, not always successful? Her going into action during the film? The various fights? Especially the final confrontation with the mother of the groom? The martial arts giving the action and comedy for particular flavour? Ria and her martial arts videos, Lena helping her, rehearsals and action?
4. The family, mother and father, the quiet father and his work, care for his daughters? The mother, her friends with the other mothers? The prospect for their daughters?
5. Ria, age 16, at school, her friends, her being taunted by Kovacs? The teacher and her attitudes towards the rear and her work? The contrast with Lena, older, going to art school, dropping out? Drifting?
6. Ria, her idealism, her ambition to be a stunt woman, her idol and emailing her? (And the final happy ending with a reply?) Ria and her idea of how life or to be, especially for Lena, thinking that she would be a great artist, pressurising her, pressurising her parents? Relying on her friends for support?
7. Salim and his mother, his being a successful doctor, place in society, possibilities for marriage, all the girls wanting him? Salim and his choice of Lena, the outings, the greater friendship, the bonding – and Ria’s hostility? The dominance of Raheela on her son?
8. Ria and the chapters of the film in wanting to undermine the relationship, smearing his reputation, the condoms? Spying and interfering? Stealing the laptop, finding nothing incriminating? The photo of his first wife in the sad story of her dying in childbirth – and the later realisation that this was the motivation for his experiments? Going too far, being denounced?
9. The engagement, the preparation for the wedding? Ria and the dress – and her dance at the wedding?
10. The plan, testing the chloroform, Ria and her friends as part of the staff, the radio contact, the dance, the trolley, the friends, the bodyguard at the door, the getting in, the chloroform, taking Lena out?
11. Ria and Raheela, the clashes, Ria and the basement, the discovery of the laboratory, the fact that women at the celebration of Eid were all secretly tested, the mother and the son, their plans, the mother to clone herself, and her devoted son?
12. Audience response to Salim, tall dark and handsome, charming with Lena? The ceremony, his dependence on his mother? The revelation of the truth?
13. The farcical aspects of the crisis at the wedding, the girls, Kovacs joining in, her car, the other girls? Ria and her fighting with Write healer? The denunciation of Saleem?
14. The aftermath, Lena and her future, rear facing reality, that she could not continually shape people’s lives according to her ideas? And the reply from the stunt woman!
15. And the finale with the two sisters reconciled and eating burgers and chips at the diner!