In a martial arts wedding movie, the Polite Society gets kicked in the face

In action comedy Polite societyLena Khan (Ritu Ayra, Barbie journalist in Barbie) drops out of art school in London and returns to live with her parents Fatima (Shobu Kapoor, Linda Crosby in A discovery of witches) and Rafe (comedian Jeff Mirza). But she may not be home for long. Mom and Dad get the perfect opportunity to find Lena a dream husband when the posh Raheela Shah (Nimra Busha) invites the family to a party at her mansion in hopes of finding a bride for her son Salim (Akshay Khanna), a wealthy, handsome, successful geneticist. It's a parent's dream come true!

Lena’s schoolgirl and stuntwoman-in-training sister Ria (Priya Kansara, Miss Eaton in Bridgerton), however, is baffled, then alarmed, when she begins to believe that Salim’s family is up to no good. And she drags her friends Clara (Seraphina Beh) and Alba (Ella Bruccoleri) into a daring anti-wedding heist in the name of brotherhood and freedom. For the heist, they’ll need: chloroform, a bully-turned-getaway driver, waiter disguises and a choreographed Bollywood-style dance number (inspired by Madhuri Dixit’s dance in the film Devdas). Let the mayhem, comedy and kung fu moves begin.

Flow Polite Society on Showmax now.

Within the family struggle of Polite Society

Writer-director Nida Manzoor (best known for her film about a Muslim punk band We Are Lady Parts) reveals: I grew up loving the spectacle of action movies but I felt extremely excluded, so this movie is for my teenage years. I have to mix all the movies I grew up with Jackie Chan movies, Bollywood movies, The matrixand make it part of a wild movie about brotherhood that was so exciting.

Not every fight scene involves a flying kick to the face. I drew inspiration from my own relationship with my sister. It’s such a close, intimate, loving relationship, but when you’re fighting with your siblings, that kind of fighting can be the most brutal,” Nida says. “The action in the film really represents what it feels like to be a teenage girl and how painful and violent it can be when you’re fighting at school or when you’re fighting with your sister. We wanted to show that with our fight sequences.”

Brotherly love is just as intense. Ritu is really like a sister to me, confirms Priya. The jokes and jokes we make on screen are very close to the jokes we both would make off screen. This film is a love story between two sisters. As an artist, Lena chose to do something a little different, something that wasn't as accepted, but she followed her dream and went to art school. Ria admires her for this and really recognizes a lot of herself in her sister. Ritu adds, “And in return, Lena helps Ria in her ambition to become a stuntwoman. She is his biggest cheerleader and his biggest champion and it's beautiful to see two sisters doing their best to help each other. Priya and I had a great time together. I love it. »

A breathtaking wedding

The Shahs really push the boat out for Salim’s wedding. Nida’s team of production designer Simon Walker, costume designer PC Williams and makeup artist Claire Carter pulled out all the stops. “The wedding sequence is the big final act of the film, so I knew I wanted it to be big, over-the-top, wild and eccentric,” says Nida. Lena’s wedding dress weighed around 35kg and Ritu reveals: “It was really fun because when Lena is fighting all these women, she’s doing it wearing this really heavy wedding dress. I’ve never felt so badass in my life!”

For PC Williams, it’s Nimra, the groom’s mother, who steals the show, as Raheela would prefer! You can be really cool and fashionable while still having a religious background and staying true to tradition. I wanted everything she wore to make her feel powerful. I loved doing a monotone colour palette where every outfit is all gold, all red, all pink or all brown, says PC Raheela. The final boss’s wedding outfit had to be ready for her power move at the wedding when she does a Matrix-style flip through the air while fighting, which required close collaboration between PC, stunt coordinator Crispin Layfield and fight choreographer Rob Luck.

“As Ria, Priya, who did 95% of her stunts herself in the film, also worked with choreographer Nileeka Bose to perform her stunts and kicks in traditional attire, as well as her Bollywood dance number during the wedding. What was really important for us was to include Ria’s personality in the dance, because she is not a dancer, she is a fighter, so we had to incorporate her motivation behind the dance,” says Priya.

Crispin adds: “Ria wants to be a stuntwoman, so she had to train in different martial arts. So we had to incorporate all these different styles into her character. We used a lot of Keysi, which is hand-to-hand combat, and then we used kickboxing, karate and all sorts of other styles. Priya trained with Rob and Crispin for three months before we shot the film, so she was very familiar with Ria’s struggles in honing her skills, and particularly her struggles with a jumping kick that involves a 540-degree spin, which comes into play during the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon-style wedding between Ria and Raheela.”

It’s Rias’ signature move, Rob says. Ria spends the entire movie trying to do this fancy kick, but because she’s still learning her craft, she doesn’t always get it right, even though she’s gradually getting stronger. By the end of the movie, Nida wanted her to be able to jump, spin completely in a circle, then halfway back, and make contact with someone face-to-face. It’s pretty difficult.

Bridezillas, take note and start practicing!

Flow Polite society on Showmax now.