Polite Society (2023) movie review

Polite Society is a 2023 British comedy movie; a satire on arranged marriages, a tradition prevalent in communities belonging to the Indian subcontinent. The first-time director Nida Manzoor who also wrote the movie, has made a personal film that’s fun, quirky and way funnier than expected. 

Ria Khan (Priya Kansara) is a British-Pakistani teenager who belongs to an upper-middle-class household, goes to an expensive school and not so secretly, aspires to be a stunt woman in Hollywood. And she works hard at it, always practising, and building up her profile by posting stunt videos on her YouTube channel. At times, she requires help from her elder sister Lena (Ritu Arya), who has recently dropped out of art school and moved back home. Ria worships her elder sister and sees her as a great artist in the making. She has many such grand illusions which may seem eccentric, but that’s how greater things are achieved.

Ria’s dreams are threatened when Lena suddenly starts dating Salim (Akshay Khanna), a successful geneticist who has been quite active in the arranged marriage circuit. As they get closer and Salim proposes to Lena for marriage, Ria decides to take matters into her own hands, seeing no other way out but to sabotage their plans. 

With a little help from her friends, Clara (Seraphina Beh) and Alba (Ella Bruccoleri), Ria sets off on her crazy mission. Every scene these three are in together is effervescent with charm and a highlight of the movie. Their acting chops give their friendship an authentic vibe. Along with playing friends, they are also playing children (which they are not) and capture the innocent but wild energy of being a teenager. As the confident and tenacious Ria, Kansara proves to possess the talent and skill necessary to shoulder the responsibility of the entire movie.

The movie resembles the goofiness of Edgar Wright’s Cornetto Trilogy with a dash of Bollywood and a pinch of kung-fu movies mixed in. The movie fails in the action department though as the fight scenes lack the authenticity which is present in the character’s relationships. Also, Ria’s parents seem reasonable enough to hear her reservations about Lena’s marriage to Salim. That exposition was necessary.

Apart from that though, the writing is extremely good despite the ridiculousness (Get Out kind of ridiculousness) of the plot. Even in the most progressive settings, women from some parts of the world lack the freedom of choice and feel pressure from their family and community to settle down and start a family. Set in the liberal Muslim world, a girl as confident and determined as Ria also feels the heat of those expectations. This is her battle against patriarchy, no matter how silly, but essential. Polite Society is a low-key feminist movie that hopes to tickle everyone’s fancy and it comes damn close to doing that.