19th October 2024

On the occasion of screening Bhaji on the Beach (1993) dir. by Gurinder Chadha

You might want to know that Bend it Like Beckham’s Jess Bhamra is running around a Hounslow football pitch half-naked in front of strange men, but when my mum taught the actress Parminder Nagra at a school in Leicester, she was actually a very nice girl who would make a good wife. Twenty-two years later, Pakistani Muslim Count Abdulla is hanging out with a white lady who is far too old for him (and turned him into a vampire in the first place). His Sikh love interest Amrita is a much more appropriate age (despite that she is Sikh), is very pretty, and can understand all the rude things Abdulla’s friends shout in Punjabi.


If you didn’t know or care about any of that, then that’s okay. It is as of yet not a crime to have been born outside of Leicester, Southall, or Bradford. And even if you were, there is no guarantee of assimilation into the Punjabiverse.

For reference, the Punjabiverse is contained in the following (non exhaustive) list:


Bhaji on the Beach (1993) dir. by Gurinder Chadha
East is East (1999) dir. by Damien O’Donnell
Bend It Like Beckham (2002) dir. by Gurinder Chadha
Citizen Khan (2012 – 2016) created by Adil Ray
Blinded by the Light (2019) dir. by Gurinder Chadha
Count Abdulla (2023) created by Kaamil Shah
Polite Society (2023) dir. by Nida Manzoor

You see, this intricate network of comedy, espionage and drama, exists almost entirely in first-generation references and harsh Punjabi-language criticisms that old people fire at their children. These People are Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus and more who share a language and mannerism impossible to conceal. Sometimes brutish, clumsy, and more often than not, naive; the Punjabiverse is a place where Sikh families can sit around the TV and project themselves onto one of Citizen Khan’s family members as they navigate the intricacies of Sparkhill Jamiya Mosque and a dozen impending marriages. This mirroring, while beautiful, can be alienating if you are not a Punjabi-speaking child of the late 90’s. The only known way around this is to have a Punjabi speaking friend nearby, or someone who has Punjabi speaking parents and now identifies as a coconut.


I’m not sure if she identified as a coconut at the time, but Gurinder Kaur Chadha achieved great critical and box office success when she wrote and directed Bend it Like Beckham, and that feels good because the dad in that film looks exactly like my dad. I hope you have all seen a great film with a dad in it that looked like your dad. The gossip on her is that she has not typecast herself as a director of Punjabi things. Going on to direct films continuing very un-Punjabi things, like kissing and French people.