Bend it like Beckham (2002)
“Anyone can cook aloo gobi, but who can bend the ball like Beckham?”
(Jesminder "Jess" Bhamra)
Director: Gurinder Chadha
Country: UK, Germany, USA Synopsis: Bend it like Beckham is the story of an Indian girl, Jess, who lives in London and wants to play football, while her parents want her to grow up and become a marriageable woman. This means that she has to help at home and learn how to cook Indian food. However, when one day she’s playing football with her friends at the park, Jules, who plays football in the local girls’ team, sees her and asks her to join the team. Jess starts playing with them, and participates to some matches also abroad, until she and Jules are noticed by an American scout who offers them a scholarship to go to University and play football professionally in the United States. |
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Food, for Jess’ Indian family, is part of their cultural identity and distinguishes them from 'the other', their English neighbours. Using the words of Kamler and Threadgold, “food is a crucial cultural signifier, potentially marking both belonging and exclusion” (2003:148).
To maintain the reputation of her family, Jess’ two duties are to learn how to cook an Indian meal and to marry an Indian man. Furthermore, she should stop playing football. However, when her father realises her talent as a footballer, he accepts her wish to go to the United State to play football. Moreover, her family eventually accept her relationship with Joe, her Irish coach. Resigned to her daughter chosen future, Jess’ mother exclaims: “At least I taught her full Indian dinner. The rest is up to God!” Of all the aspects that would have defined Jess as a real Indian woman, the essential one is her capacity to cook Indian food. Therefore food is not only the identifying signifier of Indianness, but also of womanhood.
To maintain the reputation of her family, Jess’ two duties are to learn how to cook an Indian meal and to marry an Indian man. Furthermore, she should stop playing football. However, when her father realises her talent as a footballer, he accepts her wish to go to the United State to play football. Moreover, her family eventually accept her relationship with Joe, her Irish coach. Resigned to her daughter chosen future, Jess’ mother exclaims: “At least I taught her full Indian dinner. The rest is up to God!” Of all the aspects that would have defined Jess as a real Indian woman, the essential one is her capacity to cook Indian food. Therefore food is not only the identifying signifier of Indianness, but also of womanhood.