Gurinder Chadha
Sognando Beckham

If I tell you that a film like this has revolutionized my life, I'd be exaggerating. But to say that it struck me, and quite profoundly...that's true.

One sunny January day in the center of Genoa five years ago, I went to a small alley in the historical area to enjoy this beautiful comedy with two or three other spectators, directed by Gurinder Chadha.

  The protagonist is Jess, an Indian girl with the desire to become a soccer ace and a passion for David Beckham, but hindered by a family tied to tradition.

In the park she passes through every day, returning home from school, she stops to play soccer with some friends. And in one of these moments, she meets Jules, a girl who plays on a women's team and, noticing her talent, invites her to join.

From the moment she meets Joe, the coach, the plot begins; and when her parents find out she plays on a women's team, Jess faces some unpleasant and difficult situations to gain their "acceptance" (never complete, especially from the mother) and permission to go to America with a scholarship that allows her to attend a university and play on a women's team (in the overseas league). A beautiful ending is not only the departure of the two friends but above all, the blossoming of love between Jess and Joe, to the notes of "Inner Smile" by Texas.

This comedy lightly tells the difficulties that the second generation of Anglo-Indians faces between the culture of the country where they were born and the culture of their parents (something that also children of immigrants from our own country, in my opinion, have to face), the first generation having arrived between the '50s and '70s in London (and not only here). There is a positive atmosphere throughout the film, despite all aspects of this generation (homosexuality, the desire to detach from family culture, lesbianism, premarital relationships—some religions require chastity until marriage—and so on) being examined here.

Gurinder Chadha, an Indian-born director born in Kenya and raised in Southall, a neighborhood near Heathrow (note the passing planes over the houses), has been talking about Indians in England since her first film shot in 1992, from a personal but also cultural point of view (and this year another film under her name was released in England).

Parminder Nagra, the protagonist (born in 1976), here faces her first experience as an actress which, however, seems not to give her much afterward, except for this success and participation in the series "ER," which saw George Clooney.

Instead, two great actors who got their big break from here are Keira Knightley and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. Keira Knightley (nine years younger) was great, almost equal to the protagonist. If I fell in love with the film "at first sight," it's because I fell in love with her, and this love lasts five years (beauty? So-so. Brilliance? A lot). Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (only one year younger than the protagonist) every time I see him, I remember this film. 

When Keira Knightley was filming "The Curse of the Black Pearl," I wrote her a letter as one of the few possible admirers she might have boasted in Italy. At that time, in fact, she was unknown to us: from "The Jacket," things would change a bit. I still remember the ecstasy of the first letter, with a response being an autographed photograph. Five years later, a visit to the actress's old office (the "Drury House" on Russel Street 34-43 [in "Drury Lane," a small area of theaters in the city]) and some locations that made "Bend It Like Beckham" (excluding Piccadilly and Carnaby where I ideally resided because of the hostel), and to Southall and Hounslow (one of the more few places where the film was shot) a letter, more devoid of sentiment but not of emotions, would come out after remembering at Heathrow the love song by Texas (2000).

The day before departing, a GENOVESE (provincial) wanted to go to a "godforsaken" place but peaceful for the countryside there. Southall...Hounslow...southeast London neighborhoods where a tourist wouldn't easily set foot. But instead, I wanted to remember Jess and Jules. I didn’t find much, but the "Hounslow Central Station" tube is in a photograph. If the two girls met there, I will take home a place that reminds me, in my opinion, of one of the films destined to become a significant milestone in 21st-century cinema. It's not just the love for the two heroines that makes me say this: for me, this is a film that, for the author's ability to handle multicultural societal issues with skill and lightheartedness, deserves to be remembered, as for different reasons we remember "La Dolce Vita" and other films that masterfully depicted the society of their time (I mention Fellini to convey my perspective).

  Hounslow is a featureless suburb, but with the peaceful coexistence of English, Indians, and blacks. I gather glass shards to remove an obstacle from two people carrying a hand cart. I feel happy to have done a good deed where Jess and Jules train with the "Hounslow Harriers."

The bus 320 takes me to Southall where I first stop in the countryside and rest by a river. When I see the silo prominently displayed in the film, I shout "Genova...Genova!" from excitement and hum the closing theme "Hot! Hot! Hot!"

In Southall, a bit of fear grips me. The majority of the inhabitants are Sikh, a population from India whose men wear turbans. But also a good part of Islamic Arabs (in fact there is a Hindu center and a Muslim one). But the day is calm and I eat a curry rice with meat, salad, and onion. Everything went well. (Although the disappointment of having seen little is there, I’m happy. I have "discovered" (so to speak) another world. - In the preceding days, I enjoyed samosa (in the mythical tube with small shops) and a honey spiral dessert from a Middle Easterner, behind Piccadilly. The "aloo gobi" (spiced cauliflower and potatoes), at my house -).

The next day, the large, immense Heathrow Airport saw me humming the Texas song, and I was looking for Jess and Jules' boarding gate. Time would not have allowed me to find it. I recalled during those vacation days Curtis Mayfield ("Move On Up"), Mel C ("Independence Day"), and Bina Mistry (an "Indian" language interpreter of the film's final theme) of a long soundtrack (Basement Jaxx and Blondie and lots of Indian music).

"I left London in flight," I wrote to Keira Knightley. But more than that...I left a piece of my heart at Jess's house.