Film Impressions

REVIEW: It's A Wonderful Afterlife (3)

SAD, BAD, MAD

When Gurinder Chadha made Bhaji On The Beach in 1993, she was this bright young UK filmmaker of Indian origin, chronicling the endearing quirks of her community. The voice was not as fresh and perky by the time she made Bend It Like Beckham in 2002, but still carried a degree of charm.

Now with her latest, It’s a Wonderful Afterlife, the tone is sneering and the formula already rancid. This is the picture of Indians in the UK that she wants to show the world, but to Indians it is offensive. There may be characters like the ones she shows in the film, but there are many more who are not the typically desi types, but you hardly see a Laxmi Mittal in the movies, just the aloo-gobhi stereotypes.

REVIEW: It's A Wonderful Afterlife (2)

WILL THE REAL GURINDER CHADDHA STAND UP?

Bhaji On The Beach was a great fun, because we saw a bit of ourselves in the biddies who took that trip to the beach. Bend It Like Beckham spoke to the tomboy within every Indian woman who was told to stay away from any kind of sport and concentrate on making the perfect chappati instead. Bride & Prejudice helped make enemies of Austen fans who don't mind watching it on the telly. That's why this smug little offering called It's A Wonderful Afterlife from I'm-Bend-It-Like-Beckham Chaddha seems to be an insult to our intelligence.

REVIEW: It's A Wonderful Afterlife

SOUL-LESS CURRY

I thought writer-director Gurinder Chada and co-writer Paul Mayeda Berges must have been suffering from severe food-related nightmares that could have been the genesis of the grotesque horror-comedy that It’s a Wonderful Afterlife is. Turns out, the director was pregnant at the time, so presumably all her cravings spilled out on screen in this bizarre fashion. Sample this: A man (Sanjeev Bhaskar, over-the-top) is murdered by over-stuffing him with excessively spicy chicken curry. Before he breathes his last in the hospital, his belly explodes, and its gooey contents go flying all over the room. His white-faced ghost then comes back to haunt the killer with the insides of his stomach dangling on the outside. He’s accompanied by three other ghosts, a skewer going through one’s throat, another with a rolling pin smashed on her head and her husband’s mouth covered with chapatti dough!