Bhaji on the Beach Director: Gurinder Chadha

Rip It Up, Issue 210, 1 February 1995, Page 38

Bhaji on the Beach Director: Gurinder Chadha

The most perceptive moment in Bhaji on the Beach comes when an elegant Chanel-clad visitor from Bombay (the otherwise under-used Souad Faress) berates Shaheen Khan for clinging so desperately to her fantasies of India as home. It illustrates, as does the Punjab version of ‘Summer Holiday’ that bubbles away on the soundtrack from time to time, one of the tragedies of our time — the problems experienced by individuals caught between two opposing, or even merging, cultures.

The premise of Bhaji is perhaps a little pat for comfort: a group of Indian women take themselves off for a Blackpool holiday, in many cases to escape from the men in their lives. The men follow, literally to the beach front. One woman is tormented by bizarre visions mingling Indian deities in hilariously irreverent contexts. Two boy-crazy teenage girls are chased by two local lads from a burger bar. A young wife and her child are pursued by an abusive husband. Yet another is taking time to sort out her life, having just found out she is pregnant by her West Indian boyfriend. There are enough problems here to keep a mini-series going, but scriptwriter Meera Syral compresses it all into a mere 100 minutes. Director Chadha has a nice eye for Blackpool tack, and the actors show a solidarity and feeling for the characters that make Bhaji a memorable experience.

WILLIAM DART