From the moment we meet our unlikely heroine
Ria (Priya Kansara) looking as determined as a freight train in her martial
arts class, we are swept into her kooky world. This debut directorial effort
from Nida Manzoor is an absolute comical delight that gets more and more
farfetched as it goes along. But we are hooked from early on and stick with
Ria's obsessive Mission Impossible exploits to save her sister from a conventional
marriage. This takes place in a conservative middle class Pakistani family
living in England, but that is really just a footnote because though that
is always in the background, it never impacts the story. Ria is as British
as Shepard's pie and her ambition is to become a stunt woman like her idol
Eunice Huthard (a real stuntwoman). On her wall are posters of Bruce Lee.
The film takes on a lot of territory and themes from sisterly love, deep
friendships, school rivalries, status, class, martial arts, family expectations
and refusing to back down. Always though with a raised eyebrow of amusement.
It is very female oriented with the few men being near invisible or dominated
by women. In the end it is even the mother who picks up a chair to hit the
villainess over the head as her husband stands by helplessly. An ode to female
power - both good and bad.
Ria calls herself The Fury - the look on
her face when she does so is priceless - as she makes content for her internet
channel of her martial arts and stunt work. She keeps failing though at one
particular move - twisting her body around as she leaps in the air for a
mighty kick - always ending up on her bottom - but you sense she will get
it right when it really matters. At school, she has two buddies - one white,
the other black - that stick to each other like super glue. Her older sister
is Lena (Ritu Arya), a failed art student and now a lay about at home. They
are devoted to each other - Lena helping Ria with her channel and Ria encouraging
her sister to keep at her artwork. Then the darkness enters the story like
an evil sorceress in a fantasy film.
Raheela (Nimra Bucha) may be the
most terrifying woman in a film since Nurse Ratched. Her smiles are like
daggers in the back. Her politeness is like a boa giving you warmth by squeezing
you. Wonderfully played by Nimra. She is upper class Pakistani with a huge
mansion and a son that she wants to get married and has been going through
various possible candidates. Her son Salim (Akshay Khanna, not to be confused
with Bollywood star Akshaye Khanna) is a doctor and a charmer with a good
sense of humor and humility. A perfect match for any Pakistani woman.
Salim and his mother choose Lena to pursue,
and she is swept up in the romance. And our Ria goes into overdrive to stop
it with various plans that all fail from breaking into his home like a wuxia
heroine and leaving filled condoms all over his room to stealing his computer
with the help of her two friends. But he is as good as gold though seeing
him with his head on his mother's lap while watching TV would have been a
red flag to me. She just thinks her sister not following her dreams is a
big mistake and she wants to sabotage the wedding. But her nemesis is ruthless
in keeping the marriage going. Then the film takes a sudden radical turn
into Stephen King territory that is absurd and almost terrifying. But Ria
and her friends are ready for anything. The worst thing about this film is
the title - it doesn't begin to reflect that nuttiness of the film - martial
art action one minute, a Bollywood dance number the next. It put me off from
watching this for a while till I came across a few positive reviews. And
Priya with her large eyes and ferocious expressions is a wonder. Pure confection.
