Polite Society

I had a really fun double feature at the Broadway yesterday beginning with Polite Society.  I missed it at Sundance this year so I was excited to have a chance to see it now that it is in wide release.  Ria Khan (Priya Kansara), a Pakistani teen living in London, is a martial arts enthusiast who aspires to be a stuntwoman and her older sister Lena (Ritu Arya) wants to be an artist but has recently dropped out of art school and is at loose ends.  Their traditional father Rafe (Jeff Mirza) and social-climbing mother Fatima (Shobu Kapoor) disapprove of their career goals and would rather have them make advantageous marriages.  When Lena gets engaged to Salim (Akshay Khanna) after a whirlwind courtship encouraged by his mother Raheela (Nimra Bucha), Ria believes that it is a big mistake for her to abandon her art.  She enlists her two best friends Clara (Seraphina Beh) and Alba (Ella Bruccoleri) in escalating plots to stop the wedding and hilarity ensues.  This movie is an absolute hoot because it is such a fun mash-up of different genres including action, comedy, and social commentary (with a Bollywood-like musical number thrown in for good measure).  I loved all of the stylized action sequences, including a running gag where Ria attempts a reverse spinning kick multiple times, and a hilarious scene where Ria and her friends execute an elaborate plan to find incriminating evidence against Salim had me, and everyone else in my audience, laughing out loud.  I enjoyed the relationship between Ria and Lena because they are so supportive of each other as they push against the traditional roles and expectations their immigrant parents have of them.  The plot does descend into the absurd at times but it doesn't matter because the tone is so lighthearted and infectious.  Kansara is really endearing in the role and is equally adept with the both the action and the comedy but Bucha steals every scene she is in as an over the top villain with a maniacal grin on her face.  I had a blast with this and I highly recommend it!