- dir. GURINDER CHADHA
- Year. 1993
- country. UK
- run-time. 101 mins
- rating. 15
£6.00 (£4.50 conc.)
Doors 19:00 - Film 19:30
#FemaleGaze season continues with:
BHAJI ON THE BEACH
Director Gurinder Chadha's landmark debut feature is the first to be helmed by a British Asian woman. The story concerns a day-trip to Blackpool by a disparate group of Indian women from the Saheli Asian Women's Group. The group includes battered wife Ginder (Kim Vithana), refusing to stand by her man (much to the chagrin of her elders), unmarried teenage mum-to-be Hashida (Sarita Khajura), shunned by the same elders for her relationship with a black man, and respectable shop assistant Asha (Lalita Ahmed), who escapes into a fantasy world from her drab day-to-day existence when she is charmed by a local playboy thesp. Also along for the day are a middle-class Bombay woman of tasteless glamour and a couple of boy-crazy teenage girls.
In English
“this lively ensemble piece has the Saheli Asian Women’s group hitting Blackpool in their rickety old minibus for a day out, with director Chadha exploring the tensions in the lives of a group of carefully differentiated female characters.”
“Gurinder Chadha extracts maximum fun from her sedate matrons and wild teenagers let loose in a working-class holiday hell.”
“Gurinder Chadha’s film is an insightful look at the difficulties of bridging cultures and generations, but it never forgets to have fun.”