Football Shootball Hai Rabba Ful !!TOP!!
The Hindi title, translated, is "Football -- Shootball Hai Rabba." (Or, "Football, Shootball Oh God!") It derives from a line uttered by the mother of the main Indian character, Jess (Parminder K. Nagra). At one point, Jess's mother says, "What is this football shootball rubbish?"
Football Shootball Hai Rabba Ful
In Reel Life: The Harriers appear to be an established, well-organized team.In Real Life: Most of the players -- even a few who have some lines -- are experienced footballers selected from the rosters of Queen's Park Rangers, Slough, Bushy and the Arsenal Academy.
In Reel Life: Jess has a copy of a magazine that appears to be called "Kicks."In Real Life: The magazine was "She Kicks," a new women's football publication at the time of the filming. The magazine has since gone under and has been resurrected as "Fair Game" magazine, focusing on women's football in the U.K.
The film followed Raj Kiran, a qualified computer engineer, who takes up a temporary job as a sports instructor in a school in Ranchi and leads the school to a historic win in an inter-school football match.
Rated among one of the best Bollywood sports entertainers, this 2007 sports drama starring John Abraham, Bipasha Basu, Arshad Warsi, and Boman Irani was the story of a football-loving South Asian community in the UK.
Written by Bengali writer Prafulla Roy and directed by Gul Bahar Singh, the film also touches upon poor children who despite having an undying passion for football cannot play the game due to their respective family backgrounds.
Unlike many films about football - and particularly comedy films about football - it received positive reviews from critics, with director and co-writer Gurinder Chadha praised for her handling of social and cultural aspects surrounding Nagra's character, Jess, who is the daughter of Punjabi Sikhs and goes against their wishes to play football for the local team.
While secretly playing football with her friend in the park, Jess is spotted by Jules (Keira Knightley) who invites her to try out for the Hounslow Harriers. She impresses coach Joe (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and wins a place in the team.
However, like all sports films, there is a huge dilemma for our hero, with Jess's parents finding out about her football secret as her sister's wedding day approaches. In an amazing coincidence which only ever seems to happen in movies, the wedding falls on the same day as the football final, leaving Jess with a huge dilemma. Which will she choose?
In order to make the football scenes seem as realistic as possible, director Chadha sought assistance from the Football Association and ended up casting players from local school teams. Simon Clifford was hired to help with the 'football choreography' in the film, having previously worked on There's Only One Jimmy Grimble, a 2000 film about a young boy who dreams of playing for Manchester City.
In one part of the film, the girls travel to Germany to take on a team there. Chadha recalls how the actresses gave everything they could to beat the German side, and were more like real footballers than people playing the parts: "They played and felt like a proper team that had been playing for years together.
As Bend It Like Beckham does not feature the Hounslow Harriers going all the way to the Women's FA Cup final or something similar, no huge stadium was needed for filming. As a result, the football scenes took place at the home of Yeading FC in west London.
Yeading FC are a team that no longer exist, having been founded in 1960 and dissolved in 2007. They last played in the Conference South, coming 16th in 2006-07 before they merged with another club from the same division to become Hayes and Yeading United. Unfortunately, they were relegated at the end of the 2016-17 season and now find themselves in the Southern League Division One East, which is in the eighth tier of the English football pyramid.
As someone who's never been into sports, it seems like it would be hard for me to get into the football (or as we Americans inexplicably call it, soccer)-themed "Bend It Like Beckham". But I gotta say, this was one cool movie! Anglo-Indian Jesminder Bhamra (Parminder Nagra) and her WASP friend Juliette Paxton (Keira Knightley) love to play football (yes, I'm going to say it the British - and international - way) and just adore football player David Beckham. But Jesminder's traditional Sikh parents don't approve (her mother offers a really whacked-out description of football early in the movie). Okay, so maybe it was sort of a cliché in that sense, but you gotta love this movie! And if like me, you go to this movie not knowing the definition of "bend" in football...don't worry, the movie explains it (I'd also never heard of David Beckham prior to this movie). And we all know that Keira Knightley hit it big: a few months after "BILB" came out in the States, she starred in the equally cool "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl".
Jess (Parminder Nagra) comes from a conservative Sikh family. Her mother worries about her daughters and maintaining a good family facade. Her sister is getting married, but her mind is on football. Jules (Keira Knightley) plays on a girls team, and recruits Jess after watching her in the park. Jess starts playing despite her family's misgiving.This is Keira Knightley's big break out indie hit. It's the start of her wider fame. But it's Parminder as Jess and her family that is more fascinating. The family traditions and pressures are at the heart of this movie. The one false note in the movie is the girlie drama with Jules getting jealous of Jess and couch Joe. It reeks of lesser teen fare. But the movie gets over it quickly and moves on. It gets back on firmer ground of family drama. This is a heart warming little film.
I am not into sports films as much as others, but I have enjoyed a fair few- Mean Machine, The Longest Yard(original), Hoosiers, Remember the Titans and this film. The footballing storyline can get predictable, such as the nail-biting finish resting on a penalty kick, and some of the romance is rather fluffy. However, there is much to praise about Bend it Like Beckham. It does have an opportunistic title, which is interesting in itself, while the concept is original and has the flavour of East is East in a way. The script does have its comical and heart-warming moments, and there are a lot of them, the pace is efficient, the direction is solid and the football is great to watch. I also liked how Bend it like Beckham was filmed, and the soundtrack which was exhilarating and drove the film even more. And the acting in general is very good, Parminder Nagra puts a lot of spirit into her title character and shows a considerable amount of skill as an actress and as a footballer, while Kiera Knightley is decent enough. My favourite though was Juliet Stevenson, who was a sheer delight as a Hounslow mum. Overall, very enjoyable and recommended. 8/10 Bethany Cox