Polite Society

Ria Khan is at school and wants exactly one thing in the world: to be a stunt performer. When her older sister Lena gives up painting and agrees to marry a wealthy doctor, Ria treats it as an abduction and starts plotting with her friends to wreck the wedding. The subject is not the wedding but sisterhood. While trying to rescue her sister, Ria cannot accept the possibility that her sister has made her own choice, and that is precisely where the film travels. The form is deliberately hybrid: British Pakistani family comedy, martial arts film and heist all running at once. The fights are taken seriously, the cutting and sound effects respect the rules of the genre, and then the film mocks itself with the same seriousness. It is Nida Manzoor's first feature. Manzoor was already known for We Are Lady Parts, a series about a punk band of Muslim women in Britain, and the tone here comes from the same vein. The third act departs from realism entirely and goes into excess, a choice that split viewers. Priya Kansara plays Ria, Ritu Arya her sister, and Nimra Bucha the groom's mother. Who it is for: viewers who like genre mixing, fight choreography and sharp comedy. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a realist family drama; the film goes off the rails in its final stretch on purpose.