Gurinder Chadha celebrates Brit Asian girl power

mumbai: gurinder chadha is feeling faint. her feet are doing 'chyown chyown'. must be something she ate. but the director of the superb bhaji on the beach and what's cooking? must steel herself for a bash to promote her latest film, bend it like beckham. so, all dressed in a black salwarkameez and flaming lipstick, she gamely does interviews and socialising, with discreet encouragement from her screenwriting partner and husband paul mayeda berges, a japanese-american who is so entirely charming, he's practically edible.at the bash, hosted by idream (the indian distributors) and indiatimes, the trailer of bend it like beckham suggests that it is a film on chadha's favourite brit-asian issues, but with even more gusto than her previous work.and it is hilarious to boot. it's about an 18-year-old brit sikh girl, jess b h a m r a ( p a r m i n d e r nagra) wanting to play professional women's football, while her parents are hoping to line up a nice boy for her and all. the title comes from a football phrase to get the ball to curl past a wall of players into the goal—a speciality of david beckham. in fact, beckham, who makes a guest appearance in the film, was quite impressed by the girls' dexterity. reflecting on her recent work, chadha says, bhaji on the beach was a second-generation brit-asian film, but bend it like beckham is the first third-generation film. it makes me feel very old,'' she smiles wryly. bhaji was an attempt to subvert stereotypes of asian women, and was aimed at a british audience. we did not expect the international success it got. it showed the goras what we're like. i continued the theme with what's cooking. but beckham, made with a british crew, is not considered an asian film, but a british movie. very much part of the new tradition, kind of feel-good, but very geographically specific and culture specific. like east is east is specific to salford, the full monty is to sheffield, billy elliot is to yorkshire, beckham is to west london, by heathrow, largely peopled by asians and suburban english,'' she says. the film has got high-profile producers, including british screen, film council, deepak nayar and a german company. bhaji on the beach started out with five prints. eight years on, bend it like beckham is readying to carpet bomb its audience with 500 prints when it opens in the uk next month and in india in june, during the world cup. unlike her earlier films, she did not feel obliged to explain the characters. i'm just telling a dramatic story about a young girl who wants to follow her dream. the football metaphor gave me access to images of normal asian girls, not barbie doll types. just regular, healthy asian girls with firm muscles. it's so rare to see images of such women on the screen''. sounds like a girl power movie. yes, it's an unabashed film on girl power, and very liberating,'' she admits. football becomes a metaphor for making it in a man's world, where the girls get what they want by bending the rules, rather than breaking them.'' parminder's dad (anupam kher) is modelled on gurinder's own liberal father, and there are elements of my mother in parminder's, but my mother is not so monstrous. still, she was always telling me, 'you can't even cook dal. fitteh mooh.' it means, 'may your mouth curdle.''' so, what did she do in her life that bent the rules and scandalised her parents? saying i wanted to marry paul. for one evening, they went into total shock. the next day, they were fine. i think there was also relief that i was getting married at all,'' she grins. the only thing is, my parents didn't want me to lose my name after marrying paul. my father understood that i didn't want to do the whole indian thing. in fact, i've always refused to learn to cook chappatis. i find it very oppressive and sexist when women make hot-hot chappatis, which men never do. the film is a tribute to my parents.'' was there anything redeeming at all regarding the fiasco about the film project produced by sunny deol? i learnt how not to make a film. this time i will get it right,'' she says brightly. next on the cards, somewhat inevitably, is a bollywood film. rather than ape bollywood, it accommodates it to my vision. it will have a cast from bollywood, britain and hollywood,'' she says. it's hard not to like chadha when she reflects, mischievously, about beckham's husband material index. david beckham loves his wife. he has a son. he is a good father. in many ways, he is the perfect catch for an indian mother.'' it's hard to bend past that one.