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All In A Day’s Work
Her first feature Bhaji On The Beach was nominated in 1994 for the Alexander Korda Award for Outstanding British Film, yet it took another six years to bring her follow-up, What’s Cooking?, to the screen. Now, as Quentin Falk discovered, there’s no stopping writer-director Gurinder Chadha.
24SEVEN Gurinder Chadha is directing her ing to make it in the world of women’s Though clearly flattered by that
third film, Bend It Like Beckham, within a stone’s throw of where she grew up in Southall. As a location it could
hardly be more different than the leafy, rather affluent suburb of Los Angeles which was the setting for What’s Cooking?, her cleverly interwoven, and genuinely mouthwatering, tale of a quartet of American families set at Thanksgiving.
Yet though the settings might be some six thousand miles apart, there is a consciously multi-ethnic (let’s avoid the expression ‘melting pot’) feel to both projects.
What’s Cooking? focused on four families – African-American, Vietnamese, Jewish and Latino – loving, fighting and eating over the turkey- stuffed holiday. Bend It Like Beckham centres on an 18-year-old Asian girl try-
professional soccer. Warring families and spicy food are, as you’d now per- haps expect from Chadha, also stirred into the ‘action comedy-drama’ (her words) mix.
And is if to underline the cross-cul- tural theme, Chadha stands on the touchline in West London orchestrating a young cast of all colours flanked by her Japanese-American co-writer hus- band, Paul Mayeda Berges and Jong Lin, her distinguished Chinese cine- matographer.
Praising What’s Cooking?, the veter- an US critic Roger Ebert noted, rhetori- cally: “How come it took a British lady of Indian origin born in Africa to make a film about us that’s so real.” Not just a bouquet but a useful shorthand resumé of the filmmaker who started out in journalism.
sort of belated attention, Chadha is still slightly bemused by the fact it took quite so long to get the project actually before the cameras. It seems that edito- rial departments loved it but when it came to discussions about marketing, the same question was endlessly posed, ‘How do we sell it?’
With Beckham in the title (which refers to bending the rules as well as bending the ball), that shouldn’t prove too much a problem this time round.
Even now her thoughts are moving ahead to future commitments. Like an adaptation of Chita Divakuruni’s novel, The Mistress Of Spices, a sexual romp in New York called Neurotica, and Love In London, touted as the first Bollywood musical to be set in England. There’s no stopping her now. ■
green format has the simplicity to run for another 25 years.
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
Possibly the simplest game ever. In a world that’s looking for interactivity this is the best. Armchair participants yell out the answer to the household when they know it and shut up when they don’t.
Survivor. With all the questions revolving around “reality or not reality” I say it’s a brilliant Machiavellian game- show that hasn’t even been developed to its best yet. Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians meets Macbeth.
And the winner is... Survivor. Worst Game-Show Format
The nominations for the worst game- show format are:-
Strike it Lucky. Without Barrymore at his brilliant best there is very little game in this show.
3,2,1. The clues on this show made as much sense as Jeffrey Archer’s alibi.
100 Per Cent. No in-vision presen- ter. No fun. No heart. 100% crap.
And the winner is... 100 Per Cent. ■ From The Muppets to Morecambe And
Wise, from Gladiators to Popstars, producer-director Nigel Lythgoe is (in his own words) “a true television Survivor.”
GURINDER CHADHA’S
NI GEL LYTHGOE’ S
6 OF THE BEST
Industry personalities hand out their very own BAFTAs
Cracker.
Possibly the darkest crime series ever. Excellent scripts, well developed characters and bril- liantly acted.
And the winner is...
Cracker.
Best Film
The nominations for the best film are:- Mel Gibson’s epic adventure
Braveheart. His direction was so much better than his accent.
George Lucas’ Star Wars. Not only did this movie bring back audiences to the science-fiction genre, it improved the audio quality of film soundtracks immeasurably.
As Good as it Gets. The casting of every single role in this film was possi- bly as good as it gets.
And the winner is... Braveheart. Worst Film
The nominations for the worst film are:- Luc Besson’s Joan of Arc. Even
though it was in English I was looking for the sub-titles during my waking moments. John Travolta’s Battlefield Earth.
The movie where science-fiction and
scientology struggle for supremacy. Scientology won, we lost!
Castaway. Rather like Tom Hanks I found myself talking to a football halfway through this movie. I got more sense out of it too!
And the winner is... Battlefield Earth.
Best Television Show
The nominations for the best television show are:-
Taxi. Like other great come- dy shows, Cheers, Frasier and Friends, the acting is superb and the situations real.
Star Trek - The Next Generation. What a year 1966 was, we won the World Cup and Star Trek was created. Without question the greatest sci-fi soap of all time.
Worst Television Show
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The nominations for the worst televi- sion are:-
Jailbreak. Channel5’sanswerto... a television show.
The Jerry Springer Show. I think this humiliation circus lowered the moral standards of participants, view- ers and its producers as well.
The Prisoner. This programme may well be classed as ‘cult’ viewing but I felt conned from the moment I saw it.
And the winner is... Jailbreak.
Best Game-Show Format
The nominations for the best game-show format are:-
Family Fortunes. Whether as Family Feud in the States or Family Fortunes here, this ever-