Review: Polite Society

 

Polite Society has a very obvious and very fun hook: what if Bollywood, but with fights instead of musical numbers? The fact there's more  - and only slightly less - going on here than that shouldn't put you off, but be warned: if you've seen the (excellent) trailer it might not hurt to dial your expectations down from "flamboyant fist-and-feet-flinging frenzy" to "fiercely funny YA fight flick".

Ria Khan (Priya Kansara) wants to be a stunt woman when she leaves high school. Her big sister Lena (Rita Arya) used to want to be an artist, but now she just mopes around a lot. Ria is not impressed; she's even less impressed when the very single, very eligible Dr. Salim (Akshay Khanna) decides Ria is the one for him.

The fact they met at a party for suitable suitors arranged by his imposing mother Raheela (Nimra Bucha) is just part of the reason why Ria is appalled. Why is her sister throwing away her dreams to be the bride of some - okay, attractive, caring, intelligent doctor who runs a medical clinic in Asia. But for Ria it still doesn't add up. Will her detective work uncover a sinister mystery, or just trash her reputation and leave her an isolated friendless loser?

The (brutal yet acrobatic) fights in Polite Society work like musical numbers: when the characters have feelings that can't be contained, they let them out by belting each other. Writer-director Nida Manzoor pushes each one enjoyably over the top, but keeps them for big moments between main characters: this is not a film where Ria is mowing down bad guys John Wick style.

Where this really packs a punch is with the two sisters. Lena is deftly sketched early on, and then everything we thought we knew about her gets turned on its head as marriage looms. Is she changing herself for a man, or just revealing who she really is? Much of the tension here comes from not being sure  - after all, love does make people do crazy things, and sometimes they work out just fine.

Then again, Ria is such a whirlwind of a character it's difficult to imagine anything standing in her way. She (and Kansara) are the star of the show here by a very wide margin, and considering how perfectly cast everyone else is (a special thumbs up to Shobu Kapoor and Jeff Mirza as the sisters' parents), that's saying a lot.

Kicking arse in every possible way, she's a lead who deserves (and could easily carry) a dozen spin-offs. In a story about the perils of marrying into a family where mother knows best, she's the one sinking her often airborne boots into the idea of settling down - and everything else that gets in her way.

- Anthony Morris