POLITE SOCIETY : Tuesday 2nd May 2023.

I saw the M Rated 'POLITE SOCIETY' earlier this week at my local multiplex, and this British romantic heist action comedy drama film is Written and Directed by Nida Manzoor in her feature film making debut. The film saw its World Premier screening at the Sundance Film Festival at the end of January this year, was released in the UK, US and here in Australia last week and has generated mostly positive critical reviews. It has so far grossed US$1.5M at the Box Office.

Here, London schoolgirl Ria Khan (Priya Kansara) practises martial arts in order to become a stuntwoman - just like her idol Eunice Huthart. Ria practices her stunt moves for her online followers while being filmed by her older sister Lena (Ritu Arya), who has decided to drop out of art school and move back in with her Pakistani born parents Fatima (Shobu Kapoor) and Rafe (Jeff Mirza), because she doesn't believe she is good enough. Both Fatima and Rafe deride Ria for her career ambitions, saying she needs to concentrate on getting a proper job!

At school, Ria is inseparable from her closest buddies Clara (Seraphina Beh) and Alba (Ella Bruccoleri), but their disapproving teacher urges her to pursue a more 'serious' career, such as becoming a doctor which she volunteers Ria for on an upcoming work experience programme. Ria emails Eunice about a potential mentorship but these go unanswered, and she is later defeated by the school bully Kovacs (Shona Babayemi) when the two come to blows.

The Khan family is invited to join an Eid Mubarak gathering hosted by Raheela (Nimra Bucha), the leader of Fatima's social circle of Pakistani mothers, at her sprawling up-market mansion. Reluctantly the two sisters have to tag along and Ria realises the party has been arranged to find a suitable match for Raheela's son Salim (Akshay Khanna), a successful good looking affable geneticist in his early 30's, but is unable to stop Lena from agreeing to a date. Ria becomes more and more mortified as Lena is increasingly charmed by Salim and, after just four weeks of dating, agrees to marry him and relocate to Singapore - flying out on their wedding night. Despite their parents' support, Ria's refusal to accept Lena's choices, including abandoning her art career, drives a wedge between the sisters. 

Convinced there must be a more sinister explanation, Ria enlists Clara and Alba's help to spy on Salim. Ria concocts a plan that begins with 'Diplomacy' but when that doesn't work she turns to 'Dirt' whereby they devise an elaborate plan to steal his laptop, with Ria distracting him at his gym while her friends hack his computer, but they find nothing untoward. When this doesn't work they turn to a 'Smear' campaign where Ria forces her way into the mansion, and breaks into Salim's bedroom to plant several used condoms. She is caught red handed when Raheela walks into the room, and Ria later confronts Salim with a picture of his first wife, whom he explains died in childbirth. Furious, Lena berates Ria to give up the fantasies that her sister will ever change her mind about her pending marriage, or that she will ever become a stuntwoman.

Meanwhile, Ria has fallen out with her friends Clara and Alba after the 'Dirt' campaign yielded nothing and now they ignore her at school. Added to this she remains at odds with her sister and has given up on her martial arts training classes. She visits Raheela with a box of home made pastries to apologise and is dragged into joining her spa day, where Raheela reveals her true colours and tortures Ria with a waxing. Fighting off Raheela's staff, Ria stumbles into the mansion's secret lab and discovers that all the eligible women at the Eid Mubarak party were secretly scanned and tested using covertly taken DNA samples, and Lena was selected for her fertility. 

Smashing an upper skylight to gain exit, Ria escapes back home, but realises she cannot convince her family of the awful truth. She tells Clara and Alba, and after they reconcile their differences they devise a plan, persuading Kovacs to drive them to the wedding to rescue Lena in exchange for the girls completing her geography homework for the rest of the year. Ria distracts the guests with a traditional dance routine while Clara and Alba, disguised as waiters, successfully gain entry past the armed guard at Lena's door. They chloroform Lena and hide her inside a tea trolley and make their escape. Raheela however, captures Ria, and reveals she and Salim plan to impregnate Lena with a clone of herself.

Listening in on ear pieces, Clara and Alba are forced to return Lena. The friends are locked in the bridal suite as the wedding gets underway, but Kovacs comes to their rescue and knocks out the guard with a fire extinguisher. Taking his gun, Ria holds Raheela at gunpoint and exposes her plan, just as Lena and Salim where about to sign the marriage registry. This causes Lena to remember being drugged and tested by Salim, who admits that his first wife died carrying his mother’s clone. Raheela seizes the gun but is disarmed by Fatima, as Ria’s family and friends fight off the guests. Outside the wedding venue Lena subdues Salim while Ria finally masters a reverse spinning kick to knock out Raheela, and the Police sirens are heard approaching as the sisters drive off in Kovacs car, with Ria saying 'sorry I ruined your day' and Lena replying 'yeah you ruined my day . . . but you saved my life'. Reconciling with Lena, over a burger, chips and a milkshake in a diner, Ria receives an encouraging response from Eunice offering to meet over brunch, and the sisters celebrate together.

'Polite Society' defies genre pigeon holing as it is a gregarious mash-up of martial arts, coming of age, RomCom, family drama and female empowerment revenge flick all rolled into one, and somehow it manages to succeed meshing together into a reasonably coherent and entertaining first time feature for Director Manzoor. The cast are all spot on with particular credit going to Priya Kansara, Ritu Arya and Nimra Bucha, very ably supported by Seraphina Beh and Ella Bruccoleri who between them deliver some of best sight gags and one liner retorts in the film. The script, the performances from the principle cast, the action sequences, the production values and the soundtrack all coalesce into a tidy package that marks this Writer/Directors arrival onto the British scene earmarking her for a bright future. My only criticism of the film is that it goes off the rails in the third act lurching almost into absurdity, and all the times that Ria gets kicked, punched, thrown against something with force or lands on her face or back she gets up and dusts herself down with barely a scratch likes she's Wile E. Coyote. Nonetheless, this is a good fun movie that maintains the attention throughout its 103 minute run time.

'Polite Society' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-