All cultures have different ways of showing respect and how there life is. In Bend it Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha shows us the Indian life with the character Jessminda. Jessminda’s dreams are more important than her culture so she does not want to be the typical traditional Indian girl her parents want her to be; it sets the tone of depressed, troubled, and motivated. Jessminda changes throughout the story. At first she is really depressed because she wants to play soccer but her parents won’t let her.
The reason why they won’t let her is because her culture is against her playing a boy sport that shows body parts her culture is against showing. The author shows us the tone of depressed by having Jessminda act sad and rude towards her parents. Also he shows the tone of depressed by having calm sentimental music playing. For example, ff she follows her culture her parents will be happy and she will have to give up scholarships that she could have.
If she plays soccer her parents will be mad at her but she will get what she’s been wanting.
Then her best friend, Jules stops talking to her because she sees Jess kiss there soccer coach, Joe. The reason her friend got mad is because Jess knew Jules and there soccer coach. The author uses this fight with her friend to show more depression that Jessminda is going through. He shows by putting them together and have them argue and he angles the camera close up to show their emotions as there talking. Culture is a big part of our lives but do we always follow it or would we rather follow our dreams? Jess starts to become daring which makes her start getting in trouble.
She does what she has to just so she can play in soccer games. For example her parents and sister leave but she acts like she is sick so she doesn’t have to go with them but once they leave she goes to play in a soccer game but her dad had to go back to the house and finds out that she isn’t home. He then goes to where her game is and watches her play. Her parent’s hate that she wants to play soccer but her dad sees how much she likes it but she’s sneaking out to go play. By the author putting in this scene, he is showing that sometimes people have to do what they need to just to get what they want.
He shows us the process of Jessminda lying to her parents and going and playing the game. This shows that she is a troubled girl who will show how much she likes something that means something to her. Everyone has those moments when we have to sneak away to do something that we really want to do. In addition another example of her being troubled is when she starts falling in love with their coach. She knows her culture only allows Indian woman to date Indian boys that the family accepts. Her falling for Joe is risking her life and his. The author shows us being troubled by having them two alone, dark nights so they fall in love.
She does spend a lot of time with Joe but only because he is her soccer coach. Everyone has moments when we do things that changes us as a person. Jess becomes motivated to playing soccer. If it wasn’t for her coach she would of quit right in the beginning when her parents told her she couldn’t play. The problem is if she doesn’t play she won’t get the scholarships she can get and she won’t go on to college. So her coach talks to her and tells her if she just plays this championship game she will have a scholarship because they will be out there watching how they play.
The author uses this to show that there are chances out there. Another problem is that her sister’s wedding lands on the day of the championship game, and her parents will not let her miss her sister’s wedding. She is sad that she can’t go but until her dad sees that she is talking to the guy her parents want her to marry and he sees what’s going on. They then tell her dad that the championship game is going on and she’s missing it so he tells them to go. This example shows confident by Chadha having her dad give her a chance to play.
She then goes to the game and gets more motivated that when she gets there Jules is happy to see her so they could play together. She then played and ended up making the winning goal. After the game the person who was watching them to see if they can get there scholarships went up to them and offered them there scholarships. While he is watching them play Chadha keeps having the camera go to him to show how he reacts to good or bad plays. The camera angles help shows motivation and confidence by they keeps repeating his reaction.
Chadha has good parts and bad parts to get us thinking. If it wasn’t for her coach Joe she would have given up her dream to respect her culture but now she has a scholarship that leads her to a better successful life. Cultures are what people believe in and that they follow but sometimes there’s a negative side in our culture that cannot always be followed. Everyone changes as a person good or bad and have different types of attitudes towards what he or she wants or has. Jessmindas dreams were more important to her that she went against her culture but her dad accepted it.