Anita and Me (2002) Movie Drinking Game
Down a Shot: each time the yeti of the woods makes an appearance.
Down a Shot: each time Meena’s papa ends up almost electrocuting himself or almost burning the house down.
By: Vidal D’costa (Four Beers) –
Anita and Me is a coming of age movie about standing out when you don’t quite fit in.
My first tryst with Anita and Me was when I read the riveting book by the same name, being a fan of comedienne and actress Meera Syal who penned the book as a semi-autobiographical account of her growing up years in a mining village in Tollington, trying to fit into her own community with only a handful of narrow-minded friends to keep her company. Based on that, I decided to give its movie adaptation a watch.
Our protagonist is the demure adolescent Meena, a second generation South Asian girl. She is quite detached from and slightly prickly about her own culture, something that is revealed to viewers quite early on in the movie as her family invites guests on over for a Diwali get-together that soon turns into a talent show and competition between a reluctant Meena and her cousins. While her young cousins opt to showcase their Indian classical music prowess and math skills, Meena can’t even speak her own language (Punjabi) without pronouncing each syllable with a Brummie twang (Birmingham accent), something that one of her haughty upper class aunties holds against her, but she can sure churn out a mean and groovy (as papa dearest puts it) rendition of ‘Gimme Dat Ding’ by The Pipkins and read out tales of brooding men and lustful affairs galore that would give E.L. James a run for her money!
She is very introverted, too, befriending only a ‘yeti’ who roams the woods, ‘yapping away’ with him in Morse code from her window. However, when she bumps into the blonde and invigorating Anita, she breaks out of her shell and finds herself wanting to be a path-breaker rather than just the scholar that her family and relatives push her to be. However, this also has negative connotations on the way she perceives her own culture and upbringing and also throws a spanner into her parents’ status in society.
A Toast
I won’t turn this into a ‘the book was better than the movie’ type of review like the other reviews of it out there, as I felt that this adaptation was quite good even if it didn’t push the envelope at times and wasn’t able to retain all the elements in the book that made it a must-read. I also don’t expect everyone to find this story to be a relatable one, as I feel it mainly caters to a certain strata- the second generation South Asian kids who grew up in the 60s-70s much like Meera Syal/Meena. Or maybe you’d relate a lot more to the parents in this, who, like a lot of desi parents today, are hard-working even if they are bound to be hard-wired by their customs and traditions.
There are many powerful scenes that will stay with you, one of which is the heartbreaking moment when Meena’s mother breaks down while her father tries to console her after a close friend falls prey to a racially motivated attack on the streets, as well as a scene that is mainly played for laughs at the local grocery store but which lays bare everybody’s prejudices against each other, be it the villagers’ spiteful view of the ‘foreigners’, towards the local clergy and their outdated views, towards the ‘hippie’ community, and even the classism prevailing among Meena’s middle class family and her upper class relatives who have a tendency to judge Meena’s ‘lowly accountant’ father who once had dreams to work as a poet and who prefers the countryside to living at an estate and who are also discontented by Meena’s rebellious, Western, ‘wayward’ ways.
The witty dialogues mouthed by the characters more than make up for the lackluster characterization and Syal’s prowess as a comedy writer shines through because the jokes do land, thus contributing to a majority of the chuckle-worthy moments. I just wish the dramatic moments had the same lasting impression as the comedic ones.
On the acting front, I felt that the adults did a better job at emoting than the child actors, but I can look past that considering a lot of the child actors in this were newcomers. Particularly a let down for me was Chandeep Uppal in the lead role of Meena as she is quite wooden when it comes to her facial expressions. Ayesha Dharker (who also featured in the stage adaptation) on the other hand is outstanding and delivers an effortless performance as the sarcastic and stern mum who only wants what’s best for Meena, even it means pushing her to her limits and limiting her interaction with Anita. Dharker’s background in theatre shines through in the aforementioned scene wherein she breaks down upon the news of a racially motivated attack and looks towards the heavens, breaking into a monologue wherein she contemplates whether this is the same sky that they share with their neighbours.
Sanjeev Bhaskar fits the bill as the less stern parent and the dreamer dad who lives to embarrass his daughter in front of her friend, but will absolve her of all her wrongdoings at the drop of a hat, despite his wife disapproving of it. Bonus points to Bhaskar for knocking it out of the countryside with his dreamy singing voice! Meera Syal and Omar Djalili add a comic touch and are a riot, albeit a tad hammy as Auntie Shaila and Uncle Amman, the upper class relatives. Lynne Redgrave and Mark Williams lend ample support as the ignorant and rigid grocer and the kind, innocent Reverend Alan respectively who are constantly at loggerheads over how charitable organizations work.
There were definitely a lot of eccentric characters whom I adored, especially Meena’s dagger-wielding feminist grandmother played by the late Zohra Sehgal who gets a special mention here as she not only enriches the storyline further with her presence but also influences young Meena in a strong and positive manner and she could’ve done with a lot more screentime.
Beer Two
However, I will say that some parts of the movie came off as paper thin, disjointed, and often make it feel like a product of its time. While the caricature-ish characters on display here feel right at home when they’re satirized rather than taken seriously on sketch shows such as Goodness Gracious Me, here the intent behind them felt a tad forced and mocking at times. Having seen regressive representation in mainstream Bollywood and some lackluster and basic cookie cutter desi representation in modern day Netflix shows, I guess I was hoping for much better, more flavourful, and varied representation and felt this movie could have still taken a stand against the serious issues it talks about without resorting to such caricature-ish representation.
The overly orange/turmeric tint that heavily saturates each frame doesn’t help matters, either, and only makes this movie look like it was filmed in a tandoor oven. The characterization of the villagers also feels way too generalized.
Beer Three
The script also lacked the punch required to take on important issues such as casual racist attitudes and prejudices and in my opinion, it could have worked much better as a TV series rather than one book compressed into a movie, considering the plethora of issues that it chooses to explore which are sadly left bottled up and are resolved hurriedly due to an unpolished screenplay. The weak climax also fails to evoke any sense of satisfaction either. A more layered representation of Indian diaspora would have led to a more sensitive, in-depth understanding and handling of the topics at hand and even led to a more structured, compelling narrative.
One moment in particular that gets buried away way too quickly is a scene wherein Meena’s father’s experience during the Partition is touched upon briefly during a dinnertime conversation after Meena brings up Anita’s father’s wartime exploits, but sadly this is another plot point that is not built upon nor divulged into again, which is disheartening because such a serious topic was enough to pique my curiosity in Meena’s home life and why her father himself is detached from his homeland.
Beer Four
Particularly, a let down for me was then-newcomer Chandeep Uppal in the lead role of Meena who is quite stilted with her facial expressions. At times, she looked like she couldn’t be arsed to deliver her lines and just wanted to break for lunch.
Verdict
Anita and Me may not be the refreshing and courageous trailblazer it sets out to be, but watch it with zero expectations and you’ll see that it is a coming of age film that’ll make you think about the culture clash and the problematic aspects of the seventies.
