Bhaji on the Beach

Certificate 15
Duration 101 mins
This is one summer trip you won’t want to miss, as director Gurinder Chadha and writer Meera Syal’s funny, frank and touching 1993 British comedy returns to the big-screen. Full of charm and packed with incident, the film follows a group of South Asian women as they cram into a minibus and hit the road, travelling from their Wolverhampton home to Blackpool for a day at the beach. However, what should have been a fun outing also brings with it its fair share of drama, with domestic abuse, teenage pregnancy, interracial relationships, marital frustration and the inevitable tension between generations all playing their part to ensure there’s never a dull moment (Chadha even throws in a few crowd-pleasing Bollywood flourishes).
Inspired by Syal’s own childhood trips to Blackpool, this is a big-hearted delight guaranteed to provoke nostalgia not only for the film itself (which was a groundbreaking favourite upon release, predating similarly-themed hits Bend It Like Beckham and East is East) but also for those memorable family holidays that maybe didn’t work out quite as planned.

#Film4SummerScreen

DJ from 18.45 | Paul Hanford
We’ll all be going on a summer holiday.