MOVIE REVIEW
“Polite Society”
Rated PG-13. At the At the AMC Boston Common, Coolidge Corner and suburban theaters.
Grade: A-
Written and directed by British television writer and director of Pakistani-Muslim descent Nida Mazoor, “Polite Society” might be described as a mash-up of an immigrant coming-of age comedy, a martial-arts action film, and a Bollywood musical. It’s East meets West in the best possible way. The film’s protagonist Ria Khan is played by the human tornado known as Priya Kansara (“Bridgerton”). Ria studies karate and dreams of becoming a stunt woman, needless to say an unlikely and unacceptable dream as far as her traditional parents Fatima (a delightful Shobu Kapoor) and Rafe Khan (a quite funny Jeff Mirza) are concerned. Ria’s parents own their own home in Shepherds Bush, London and send their daughter to a public school, where she has two dear friends Alba (Ella Bruccoleri) and Clara (Seraphina Beh). Ria’s archenemy at school is mean rich girl Kovacs (Shona Babayemi) with whom Ria has hand-to-hand fights. Ria is very close to her older sister Lena (a delightful Ritu Arya), who has just dropped out of art school and has fallen into a deep funk from which Ria is trying to extract her.
When Lena meets Salim Shah, the spoiled geneticist son of a rich couple and utter mamma’s boy, she thinks that marrying him and moving to Singapore is the answer to her problems. Ria, on the other hand, thinks that Salim is “smarmy” and suggests that Lena, “Shag him and cut him loose.”
But Ria soon comes to fear Salim’s conniving and controlling mother Raheela (the extraordinary Nimra Bucha, “Ms. Marvel”) even more. The diabolically evil Raheela eventually becomes a villain of Bond film proportions and has a plan that is surprisingly creepy for a film as seemingly lighthearted as “Polite Society.” Writer-director Mazoor must have been profoundly disturbed by “Rosemary’s Baby” as a child. Before hatching her scheme, Raheela and her rich friends tolerate Fatima at their posh teas, where they vie to impress. The film’s action is punctuated by comical, chapter-heading captions.
“Polite Society” has a rather complicated premise, and one of the great things about is to watch how writer-director Mazoor, her team and great cast make it all happen. The music by Tom Howe (“Ted Lasso”) and Manzoor collaborator Shez Manzoor (“Lady Parts”) is key to the film’s impact, especially concerning its evolution into a caper film. The Pakistani-Muslim wedding trappings and ceremonies, especially a dance performed by the regally-garbed, dance sensation Ria, become a hugely important part of the film’s cultural and comical impact. “Polite Society” is a coming-of-age, martial arts, Bollywood wedding-crasher movie unlike anything you have ever seen before.
Films about Pakistanis from the former British colony, trying to assimilate into modern British culture can be traced back to such entries as “East Is East” (1999) and the Hanif Kureishi-scripted “My Son the Fanatic” (1997), both with the great Indian actor Om Puri. In “Polite Society,” the assimilation is not exactly complete. But Ria’s dream of becoming a stunt woman and perfecting a challenging twist-in-the-air and kick technique have notably little to do with where her parents are from and everything to do with crazy adolescents. Ria’s cheesy, action-film motto is, “I am the fury.” She really is.
(“Polite Society” contains violence, profanity, sexual content and partial nudity)
