Bend It Like Beckham Relationships

The movie Bend It Like Beckham was released in 2002 by producer Gurinder Chadha. Ever since then, it has received critical acclaim for being “full of easy, an impeccable sense of milieu that is the result of knowing the culture intimately enough to poke fun at it while understanding its underlying integrity.”* The movie has been nominated several times as “Best Film of the Year”. Although this movie is considered a comedy, it expresses relationships and cultures in a serious tone. I feel the way the characters behave with one another demonstrates a deeper meaning underneath the comedic outline, for example the two relationships of Jules and her parents and Jasminder and her soccer coach.

The cultures in the movie are also very diverse, such as the Indian culture compared to the culture of soccer. Both of the cultures are respected in different ways, like how the Indian culture is restricted by a social hierarchy and the soccer culture is respected in unity.

Jules’ and her parent’s relationship can be described in many ways, but I feel the two dominant features displayed within their relationship have to be adaptability and cautiousness. I feel Jules’s parents have been adaptable to Jules’ soccer career because they always want what is best for Jules. Jules’ mother does not adapt to her daughter’s soccer vision at the same speed as the father. Jules’ dad has promoted her dream to become a professional soccer player for a very long time, although Jules’ mother has been against this fantasy.

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Her mother wants Jules to have a respectable job such as a “math teacher”. However by the end of the movie, Jules’ mother has broadened her mind for the benefit of her daughter to explore different job opportunities she has an interest in. The other example of a quality, which I feel is dominant throughout the motion picture, is cautiousness, or being tentative.

How Is Culture Expressed

Jules’ parents are cautious with their daughter because they fear Jules will fall onto the wrong path of life. At least, what they feel is the wrong path for Jules. Jules’ mother and father were misguided into thinking Jules was homosexual with Jasminder. Although they were mistaken about this assumption, they spoke to Jules about her sexual preferences because they were guarded over their daughter. I think the parents were also tentative about sending Jules abroad to America because they had to be reassured that soccer was what Jules really wanted. I feel this shows Jules’ parents in a different light because if Jules and Jasminder were in fact homosexual, I believe Jules’ parents would have took this the wrong way, unless Jules somehow reassured her parents that she really loved Jasminder.

Jasminder and the coach, Joe, have a very complicated relationship, but throughout the scenes which they share together, two characteristics stick out. Their relationship can easily be described as empathetic and intuitive. Their relationship with one another is empathetic because they both understand what is going with each other’s lives. Their relationship appears to be empathetic to a high degree of intensity when Jasminder is ashamed of the burn on her leg and decides she will not play during practice and instead will watch from the bench. Joe sits next to Jasminder and tells her about how she should not be ashamed of her injuries, but be proud of them since they are remnants of the past. He then goes on to show Jasminder the fracture he has on his own knee which does not allow him to play soccer anymore. He regrets it, although he does not let it hold him back. He tells her that his love for soccer is greater than an injury he has ever received and that is why he became a coach. After this Joe and Jasminder discuss how they received the imperfections on their skin and how they feel about them.

The last dominant quality both Jasminder and Joe share is being intuitive with each other. Their relationship comes off as instinctive. I sense a feeling of automatic and natural reassurance when Joe rubs Jasminder’s feet after she goes on a run as a result of a punishment given by Joe. Her foot cramps, but she still continues to run. I feel this comes as a second nature to Jasminder because she tries to not disappoint Joe by appearing weak. Joe notices this and comes to help her. He tells her to take off her soccer cleats and he rubs her feet to loosen her muscles. I feel Joe is mentally inclined to help Jasminder because he understands the pain Jasminder is going through just to please him. It is his first instinct to run over to Jasminder when he sees her struggling. At first Jasminder seems shocked that Joe would touch her feet, but in the end, they both come to an understanding with each other and do what they feel is right.