If Michelle Yeoh has taught us anything, it’s that martial arts are a woman’s game. Winning her first ever Oscar for her barnstorming performance in Everything Everywhere All At Once, the indomitable actor brought good tidings to all the little girls who want to kick ass in the exact same way she continues to — a mantle gleefully picked up by Ria Khan (Priya Kansara) in Nida Manzoor’s delightful debut feature Polite Society.
Off the back of her vibrant Channel 4 sitcom We Are Lady Parts, which followed an all-female Muslim punk band, Manzoor embraces all the idiosyncratic parts of being a second-generation British-Pakistani immigrant to tell a story of ambition, family, femininity and, yes, mind-boggling martial arts. Fans of the singular spirit of Gurinder Chadha’s Bend It Like Beckham will find so much to love in Priya Kansara’s breakout performance, her dogged energy and wit calling to mind Parminder Nagra’s revelatory turn in Chadha’s sports comedy-drama.
But Polite Society is a beast all on its own – a glorious mash-up of the best of British comedy, with the sparkling wit of the Cornetto trilogy and the likability of some of the sharper Richard Curtis romcoms (though the love celebrated here is familial between siblings) —which then transforms into a genre-bending action extravaganza à la Scott Pilgrim and, yes, Everything Everywhere All At Once. Through all the madness, it never loses focus of its themes: of the unbreakable bond of sisterhood, and how a modern family confronts traditional South Asian marriages.
Films that are this much breathless fun come around infrequently.
While Ria outright confronts the Jane Austen-ness of it all (before audiences have the chance), older sister and art school dropout Lena (Ritu Arya) embraces a traditional marriage. But with the prospect of Lena being married off, Ria faces losing both her sister and her camerawoman, having recruited her to film her stuntwoman skills as alter ego The Fury. Cue an outlandish rescue mission. The two actors share rock solid chemistry: Arya brings grounding compassion as a counterpoint to Kansara’s haywire energy, which finds teenage angst and all-consuming confusion as the perfect canvas on which to paint a fresh new maximalist action comedy.
Polite Society shifts into an entirely different register in the film’s second half, keeping some of the sisters’ energy but then channelling it into the territory of a socio-political thriller with a bold twist – proof that Manzoor has serious chops beyond all the slapstick comedy and adolescent chaos. It just about works, thanks to Kansara and Arya's performances, and the film’s impressive stunt work – but perhaps the film could have survived and even thrived by simply enjoying these sisters bicker and ultimately have fun with one another too.
Still, ambitious debut features celebrating such singular personalities, dreams and families don’t come around often – least of all in the UK. Films that are this much breathless fun come around even more infrequently. Women rarely get given the opportunity to let go like this; long may Manzoor’s feverish pace keep running.
