Written by Eva de Matos

Bend It Like Beckham encapsulates the zeitgeist of 2000s Blair Britain, through its unmatched meshing of cultures that not only represents Britain but is the source of the film’s abundant Britishness. Bend It Like Beckham follows Jess (Parminder Nagra) conflicted between pleasing her traditional Sikh family and a career in football. Feeling confined by her family she rebels and joins a team behind their back. The film both formally and thematically portrays the multiculture of Britain by intertwining them as well as constructing parallels between the cultures highlighting the discrimination Jess faces as a British Asian woman playing football. Formally, through costume and music, the film blends Western British culture with the diasporic Indian culture. A particular point of the film where this is explicitly expressed is when Jess daydreams during a game seeing women dressed in traditional saris replacing the wall in the game. This forces Jess’ traditional heritage with her western British life. This scene also highlights the differences in gender roles between the cultures. Placing the women who had already been depicted in domestic roles in the context of a football game demonstrates the film’s intersectional themes of gender roles in a representation of multiculturalism. The two cultures are meshed together. Thematically, through depictions of traditions of culture the film unites cultures by expressing their differences rather than trying to suggest they are the same which would reduce the rich cultures through homogenisation.

Set in Hounslow, a multicultural area, the film depicts the Bhamra’s family traditions in a British setting. The film effortlessly uses humour to unite these cultures often by placing traditional Indian costume within the football environment in a way that honours both cultures. The film’s blending of cultures creates a specific representation of the diasporic community, representing not only Asian culture but that specific to a British Asian diaspora. This grants the film with a great sense of Britishness that celebrates a multicultural society. This celebrated unity of cultures was particularly prominent at the time and hasn’t been recreated since in quite the same way. The film encapsulates the Cool Britannia culture of the 90s-00s as a result of the labour government that encouraged a unity of cultures. This was evident in other films at the time in which liberal desires of multiculturalism manifested in films such as East is East made in 1999. The film’s humour, however, can trivialise institutionalised discrimination of British Asians to appeal to a mainstream audience. Whilst the film was reflective of a Blairite Britain to an extent, it’s important to recognise that to suggest the film is representative of his multicultural Britain, which Blair praised the film for, there is a danger of neglecting the realities of discrimination multicultural groups faced particularly after 9/11. It can be said however that having a British Asian protagonist as mainstream in itself is significant and has not been reconstructed since.