More than 17 years after the release of her hit movie Bend It Like Beckham, filmmaker Gurinder Chadha says she continues to be approached by members of Britain's South Asian community who ask her to make the film "over and over again". The story follows a British-Indian girl who can kick a ball like David Beckham, an England international at the time, and reached a global audience, even becoming the only movie made in the West to be screened in North Korea. It's not a bad achievement for a film that almost wasn't made because one of the project's key funders did not think the storyline was realistic.
While Chadha admits that her latest film, Blinded by the Light, a musical about a Pakistani teenager obsessed with Bruce Springsteen, is probably not the kind of movie Bend It Like Beckham fans had in mind, both feature characters who fight to fulfil their dreams against the odds.
Blinded by the Light is an adaptation of British-Pakistani journalist Sarfraz Manzoor's memoir Greetings from Bury Park. The protagonist is Javed, 16, who lives in Luton, a large town north of London portrayed as scarred by racism and unemployment. On a societal level, Javed, his family, his Asian friends and Asian family friends all have to deal with the physical and emotional violence of racism on a regular basis and are subject to the message that they don't belong in Britain.
On a family level, this is reinforced by Javed's father, who tells him they are Pakistani and will never be accepted. Navigating both of these worlds affects Javed's spirit and he despairs that he will be unable to fulfil his dreams, but after being introduced to Bruce Springsteen's music by a boy at college, Javed's life changes. He finds a sense of purpose and connection with the American musician's lyrics, becomes more confident and is inspired to pursue his passion for writing.
Inspired by The Boss
Chadha says her love for Springsteen was one of the key reasons she wanted to turn Manzoor's story into a film. She has been a huge fan of the rock star since being introduced to his music by a colleague at Harrods when she worked there part-time and was a soul music fan, but was struck by the interracial dimension of 1975's Born to Run album cover, which features Springsteen and saxophonist Clarence Clemons.
After listening to the album, she fell in love with Springsteen's lyrics "because he writes about everyone being the same. His philosophy is no one wins, unless we all win".
"When I first heard it, I felt he was writing about people like my parents – people who struggle to make a living, people facing undue hardship, people in the margins – hard-working, working-class people," Chadha says. "I think there's a dignity in that, and that's what I'm trying to capture in the film."
It was a mutual love of Springsteen that drew her to Manzoor. After she read a newspaper article he wrote about The Boss, as Springsteen is nicknamed, Chadha got in touch with Manzoor and they became friends. When he said he was writing a memoir, she told him she believed she could turn it into a film, but would first need "Bruce's blessing".
The opportunity to ask for that came when Springsteen visited the UK for the premiere of 2010's The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town, a documentary about his fourth studio album. Chadha attended the event with Manzoor. When Springsteen approached to praise the journalist's memoir, Chadha seized her chance. She laughingly recalls telling herself to be "calm and professional", only to end up sounding hysterical when she spoke to the rocker about making a movie. The musician told her to speak to his team and the rest, as they say, is history.
Bruce gave us his entire catalogue. I was like, 'Oh my god, what are all these Bruce fans going to say when I've got Muslim kids running around Luton singing Born to Run?
A story about a British-Pakistani boy obsessed with Springsteen is a far cry from the standard tropes of Pakistani men in a society with a history of marginalising its minorities. A hallmark of Chadha's work is the way she subverts stereotypes, but she admits she learnt the hard way that representation matters after she made a short film, 1992's A Nice Arrangement, about an Indian Hindu woman who is in love with a Muslim, but faces an arranged marriage to another man.
"That was a good lesson for me because I understood the power of image," she says. "The image of that Indian woman not being able to marry who she wants fed into all the arranged marriage stereotypes. I realised I had to be clever with representation to avoid making that mistake again."
Since then she has made movies with non-conventional characters and storylines, including Bhaji on the Beach (1993), Bride and Prejudice (2004) and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008). Blinded by the Light tells the story of a Muslim teenager in a world where Islamophobia is rife, and Chadha says she felt a responsibility to tell that story in the right way.
"But even more than that was not messing up Bruce's words. Bruce gave us his entire catalogue. I was like, 'Oh my god, what are all these Bruce fans going to say when I've got Muslim kids running around Luton singing Born to Run?'"
Why the film will still speak to audiences today
While the film is set in the 1980s, Chadha says it will resonate with audiences of today. "It's bigger than the Muslim kid. It's bigger than Bruce," she says. "It's about what's going on in our world right now, and how to make those words and that life relevant, even though the film is set in 1987.
I put a lot of my pain and fear about what happened in England with Brexit and all the xenophobia that happened afterwards into the film, which is why I feel it’s so relevant to what’s going on in the world now.”
While the film can be read as a political commentary on British society, it strives to portray a balanced narrative. On one hand there are far-right National Front thugs who beat up Javed's dad and racist bullies who try to intimidate the teenager and his friend Roops, but there are also characters such as Javed's English teacher, who helps him cultivate his writing and pushes him to pursue his dream of being a writer. Javed's girlfriend also sensitively navigates cultural differences and unabashedly takes on her parent's bigotry, while his caring neighbour supports his writing.
"I had neighbours like that growing up, very kind English neighbours," Chadha says. "I thought it was important to show that as well."
MO
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ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
Teaching in coronavirus times
Lowest Test scores
26 - New Zealand v England at Auckland, March 1955
30 - South Africa v England at Port Elizabeth, Feb 1896
30 - South Africa v England at Birmingham, June 1924
35 - South Africa v England at Cape Town, April 1899
36 - South Africa v Australia at Melbourne, Feb. 1932
36 - Australia v England at Birmingham, May 1902
36 - India v Australia at Adelaide, Dec. 2020
38 - Ireland v England at Lord's, July 2019
42 - New Zealand v Australia in Wellington, March 1946
42 - Australia v England in Sydney, Feb. 1888
Defence review at a glance
• Increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 but given “turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”
• Prioritise a shift towards working with AI and autonomous systems
• Invest in the resilience of military space systems.
• Number of active reserves should be increased by 20%
• More F-35 fighter jets required in the next decade
• New “hybrid Navy” with AUKUS submarines and autonomous vessels
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Gender pay parity on track in the UAE
The UAE has a good record on gender pay parity, according to Mercer's Total Remuneration Study.
"In some of the lower levels of jobs women tend to be paid more than men, primarily because men are employed in blue collar jobs and women tend to be employed in white collar jobs which pay better," said Ted Raffoul, career products leader, Mena at Mercer. "I am yet to see a company in the UAE – particularly when you are looking at a blue chip multinationals or some of the bigger local companies – that actively discriminates when it comes to gender on pay."
Mr Raffoul said most gender issues are actually due to the cultural class, as the population is dominated by Asian and Arab cultures where men are generally expected to work and earn whereas women are meant to start a family.
"For that reason, we see a different gender gap. There are less women in senior roles because women tend to focus less on this but that’s not due to any companies having a policy penalising women for any reasons – it’s a cultural thing," he said.
As a result, Mr Raffoul said many companies in the UAE are coming up with benefit package programmes to help working mothers and the career development of women in general.
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
Abu Dhabi traffic facts
Drivers in Abu Dhabi spend 10 per cent longer in congested conditions than they would on a free-flowing road
The highest volume of traffic on the roads is found between 7am and 8am on a Sunday.
Travelling before 7am on a Sunday could save up to four hours per year on a 30-minute commute.
The day was the least congestion in Abu Dhabi in 2019 was Tuesday, August 13.
The highest levels of traffic were found on Sunday, November 10.
Drivers in Abu Dhabi lost 41 hours spent in traffic jams in rush hour during 2019
Brief scoreline:
Manchester United 0
Manchester City 2
Bernardo Silva 54', Sane 66'
The biog
Family: wife, four children, 11 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren
Reads: Newspapers, historical, religious books and biographies
Education: High school in Thatta, a city now in Pakistan
Regrets: Not completing college in Karachi when universities were shut down following protests by freedom fighters for the British to quit India
Happiness: Work on creative ideas, you will also need ideals to make people happy
Biography
Favourite drink: Must have karak chai and Chinese tea every day
Favourite non-Chinese food: Arabic sweets and Indian puri, small round bread of wheat flour
Favourite Chinese dish: Spicy boiled fish or anything cooked by her mother because of its flavour
Best vacation: Returning home to China
Music interests: Enjoys playing the zheng, a string musical instrument
Enjoys reading: Chinese novels, romantic comedies, reading up on business trends, government policy changes
Favourite book: Chairman Mao Zedong’s poems
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
The Buckingham Murders
Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ash Tandon, Prabhleen Sandhu
Director: Hansal Mehta
Rating: 4 / 5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
UAE squad to face Ireland
Ahmed Raza (captain), Chirag Suri (vice-captain), Rohan Mustafa, Mohammed Usman, Mohammed Boota, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmad, Zawar Farid, CP Rizwaan, Aryan Lakra, Karthik Meiyappan, Alishan Sharafu, Basil Hameed, Kashif Daud, Adithya Shetty, Vriitya Aravind
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Western Region Asia Cup Qualifier
Results
UAE beat Saudi Arabia by 12 runs
Kuwait beat Iran by eight wickets
Oman beat Maldives by 10 wickets
Bahrain beat Qatar by six wickets
Semi-finals
UAE v Qatar
Bahrain v Kuwait
Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
THE SCORES
Ireland 125 all out
(20 overs; Stirling 72, Mustafa 4-18)
UAE 125 for 5
(17 overs, Mustafa 39, D’Silva 29, Usman 29)
UAE won by five wickets
Also on December 7 to 9, the third edition of the Gulf Car Festival (www.gulfcarfestival.com) will take over Dubai Festival City Mall, a new venue for the event. Last year's festival brought together about 900 cars worth more than Dh300 million from across the Emirates and wider Gulf region – and that first figure is set to swell by several hundred this time around, with between 1,000 and 1,200 cars expected. The first day is themed around American muscle; the second centres on supercars, exotics, European cars and classics; and the final day will major in JDM (Japanese domestic market) cars, tuned vehicles and trucks. Individuals and car clubs can register their vehicles, although the festival isn’t all static displays, with stunt drifting, a rev battle, car pulls and a burnout competition.
The Settlers
Director: Louis Theroux
Starring: Daniella Weiss, Ari Abramowitz
Rating: 5/5
EA Sports FC 25
Developer: EA Vancouver, EA Romania
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4&5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
