Bhaji on the Beach

This utterly charming film could perhaps be compared to some of the ingredients used in curry powder: from mild to bitter to spicy hot for in this comedy drama from 1993, we get the whole range including romance, cultural clashes and racism, different attitudes between young and old, and some saucy moments. The story centres around a group of women from Birmingham who venture on a day out to Blackpool in the hope of leaving their humdrum lives behind for a few hours.

There is a brief ‘introduction’ of the character’s world when the camera zooms along some of the streets and corners which our main players either call home or work or both. Asian shop fronts (some of them defaced with National Front symbols), followed by a brief introduction of owners and employees who inhabit this closed community, although there are also brief domestic scenes which explain the circumstances of the women and teenagers about to embark on a trip to Blackpool. The group is meeting at the Saheli Asian Women’s Centre before they get into their hired minibus, with Simi (Shaheen Khan), the centre’s organiser, behind the steering wheel. From the outset, there is friction between the feminist and forward-thinking Simi and some of the more traditional thinking elder women, in particular granny Pushpa who looks upon feminist and modern attitudes as a threat to Punjabi values. Another woman who is at Pushpa’s receiving end is Rekha (Souad Faress), who came up all the way from London to join the trip and is dressed in ‘decadent’ western clothes (and smokes cigarettes - oh dear).

The trip begins pleasantly enough, with the group singing a Punjabi rendition of Cliff Richard’s ‘Summer Holiday’ and cheerful banter. Soon though, we get to know about the issues of some of the passengers, with their backstory occasionally told in surreal flashback sequences. Foremost is young Hashida (Sarita Khajuria), a soon-to-be medical student who now is no longer sure whether she can still go to university after having discovered that she will soon be a mother! As if the result of the pregnancy test isn’t bad enough, further problems arise due to the fact that her boyfriend Oliver (Mo Sesay) is back and obviously not a member of the tight-knit Asian community - a scandal which enrages gran Pushpa so much that she calls Hashida all sort of names. Of course, Oliver and Hashida are equally at a loss as to how to handle the unexpected news, with Hashida having stormed out of his flat.
Then there is young mother Ginder (Kim Vithana), who - together with her little son - flees her violent husband Ranjit (Jimmi Harkishin) though it goes without saying that he and his cronies, in particular hot-tempered loudmouth Amrik (Amar Chadha-Patel) are soon on their way to Blackpool once they find out where the group of women are heading to.

Meanwhile, rebellious teenage sisters Madhu (Renu Kochar) and Ladhu (Nisha Nayar) enjoy the fact that they are not accompanied by their parents or any relatives and are hell-bent to make the most of their day out in Blackpool and do what Western girls do. As for Asha (Lalita Ahmed), whose life usually revolves around working behind the counter of her husband’s shop, we learn that her boring existence results in her daydreaming of participating in Bollywood productions… being a massive fan of Bollywood films. This is the cue for some more surreal dream sequences throughout the films.

When the mini-bus arrives in Blackpool, the women quickly disperse in search of their own entertainment and kicks although the group is to meet at 6.30pm sharp at a designated cocktail bar. It doesn’t take long before Madhu and Ladhu are chatted up by two local lads working at one of the many amusement arcades, with Madhu not being interested in a quick flirt and Ladhu enjoying the attention. Asha gets ‘chatted up’ by local Ambrose Waddington (Peter Cellier), a throwback to the golden days of seafront entertainment complete with boater and striped jacket. Although running a shoe shop, Ambrose always seems to have time for the ladies (apparently, his wife left him for a feminist) and shows an enchanted Asha to an Victorian-style theatre - even taking her on the stage. Straight away, she starts dreaming of being in a Bollywood production before reality kicks in and she sadly mutters that it isn’t right for her to embark on a romance with her new admirer. Hashida not only has her hands full phoning Oliver in order to work out what’s best for them but she also has a run-in with gran Pushpa and some of the other women in a greasy spoon cafe, where the two hurl abuse at each other. Ginder enjoys time with her little son and when all the women meet inside the cocktail bar as arranged (she stacks her little son away in a quiet corner), they don’t know what hit them when the evening’s entertainment is announced (think the Full Monty…). However, when one of the male strippers teasingly pulls down one of Ginder’s sleeves, an extremely bruised arm is revealed. In shame and embarrassment, she runs out of the establishment. It’s outside that Ranjit and his mates, who had arrived in Blackpool earlier, are waiting and it comes to a violent confrontation, culminating in the group of women overpowering Ranjit while his unassuming younger brother Manjit (Akbar Kurtha) has finally enough of the bullying tactics of his brother and mate Amrik and knocks them out with a few punches. Who would have thought… The film ends with Simi driving the group of women back to Birmingham where presumably, not too much will have changed for most of them except for some. At best, they had a day out in Blackpool, enjoying bhajis on the beach.

The Blu-ray release comes with some interesting Special Features:
*’I’m British But…’ (1989, 30 mins): hort film by Gurinder Chadha uncovering a defiant culture of British Asian in the UK against the rhythms of Bhangra and Bangla music.
*’A Nice Arrangement’ (1991, 11 mins): short comedy directed by Gurinder Chadha and written by Meera Syal about the pre-ceremony rituals of an arranged marriage
*’First Film of Blackpool’ (c1898, 3 mins): early archive footage.
*’Holiday’ (1957, 18 mins): the delights of 1950s Blackpool holidays are vibrantly revisited in John Taylor’s fondly remembered travelogue.
*’London Me Bharat’ (1972, 20 mins): the first Hindi-language film made in Britain, presenting a distinctive and sometimes surprising view of 1970s Britain.
*Gallery / illustrated booklet (first pressing only).