Gurinder Chadha

Director

January 10, 1960 (66 years)

Nairobi, Kenya

Biography

Gurinder Kaur Chadha (born January 10, 1960), is a Kenyan-born British film director. She was brought up in Southall, West London in a Punjabi Sikh family. Most of her films explore the lives of South Asians living in the United Kingdom. She is best known for the hit films Bhaji on the Beach (1993), Bend It Like Beckham (2002), Bride and Prejudice (2004) and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008).

Filmography

5.5

Homemade

Acclaimed filmmakers from around the world channel their creativity during COVID-19 isolation with this diverse, genre-spanning collection of short films.

6.3

Bend It Like Beckham

Jess Bhamra, the daughter of a strict Indian couple in London, is not permitted to play organized soccer, even though she is 18. When Jess is playing for fun one day, her impressive skills are seen by Jules Paxton, who then convinces Jess to play for her semi-pro team. Jess uses elaborate excuses to hide her matches from her family while also dealing with her romantic feelings for her coach, Joe.

6.8

Paris Je T'aime

Olivier Assayas, Gus Van Sant, Wes Craven and Alfonso Cuaron are among the 20 distinguished directors who contribute to this collection of 18 stories, each exploring a different aspect of Parisian life. The colourful characters in this drama include a pair of mimes, a husband trying to choose between his wife and his lover, and a married man who turns to a prostitute for advice.

6.5

Bride & Prejudice

Mrs. Bakshi is eager to find suitors for her four unmarried daughters when a family friend introduces them to handsome American Will Darcy. A Bollywood-style modern adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel.

6.5

Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging

Georgia Nicolson is fourteen, lives with nosey parents who don't understand her, an annoying three year old sister and has to wear a beret to school. She would, however, rather be blonde, have a smaller nose and a boyfriend. Revolving around her hilarious journal entries, prepare to be engulfed in the world of the soaring joys and bottomless angst of being a teenager.

7.0

Beecham House

On the cusp of the 19th century in Delhi, we follow the fortunes of the residents of the titular mansion. The story begins as handsome and soulful former English soldier John Beecham has acquired the house to start a new life for his family and a business as a trader.

6.9

Blinded by the Light

In 1987, during the austere days of Thatcher’s Britain, a teenager learns to live life, understand his family, and find his own voice through the music of Bruce Springsteen.

5.1

Christmas Karma

In contemporary London, miserly British-Indian businessman Eshan Sood is compelled by three ghosts to reflect on his life and to consider the needs of those around him.

6.6

Viceroy's House

In 1947, Lord Mountbatten assumes the post of last Viceroy, charged with handing India back to its people, living upstairs at the house which was the home of British rulers, whilst 500 Hindu, Muslim and Sikh servants lived downstairs.

5.3

Bhaji on the Beach

A group of South Asian women try but cannot escape their problems on a day trip to a British beach resort.

5.7

What's Cooking?

Four families of different ethnicities prepare for a potentially explosive Thanksgiving dinner.

4.8

It's a Wonderful Afterlife

Indian mother Mrs Sethi's obsession with marrying off her daughter turns murderous. With jokes that routinely miss the mark and cringeworthy slapstick, this black comedy farce shouldn't work. Somehow, though, it does.

4.0

Rich Deceiver

Ellie and Malc Freeman are a working-class couple in their forties who live in a terrace house in a poor district of Liverpool. Ellie has a part-time job as a shop assistant; Malc is a warehouseman in a dead-end job. Ellie is convinced that Malc can do better. One day Ellie wins £1.5 million on the football pools. Resisting the temptation to spend all the money on herself, she invests it in a local security firm - on condition that they give Malc a job as a salesman... and that they don't reveal how he got his big break. But does Ellie like the man that her husband has turned into?

6.5

A Nice Arrangement

Documents an Indian-English family's attempt to give their Briticized daughter a traditional Indian arranged marriage, with as much photography as possible.

9.0

What Do You Call an Indian Woman Who's Funny?

What do you call an Indian woman who's funny in 20th Century Britain? A British performer? A Black comedienne? An enigma? This humorous and comedic documentary, brings the laughs and dreams of four Indian women cabaret performers while posing the questions: What is comedy and who defines it? Is it culturally specific, or can anyone enjoy the joke? Who makes it into the mainstream and why? Does comedy always have to come from a white perspective in Britain to be taken seriously? What -- ultimately, do you call a funny Indian woman?

N/A

Pashmina

Pashmina is a fantasy and adventure story that follows Priyanka, a first generation American of Indian descent, as she explores her family history with the help of a magical pashmina.

7.0

Acting Our Age

This humorous and thought-provoking film documents the residents of a South Asian home for the elderly in Britain. Director Gurinder Chadha assists the residents in directing their own video. The result is an examination of politics, ageism, and cross-cultural communication in contemporary British society. Interview subjects range from people on the street to Members of Parliament.

7.0

I'm British But...

I'm British but... uncovers a defiant popular culture, part Asian, part British, against a backdrop of fading English nationalism. The rhythms of Bhangra and Bangla music set the pace for this lively collage of interviews with British Asian youth. Mixing archival footage with present day street scenes of Asians in England, this film chronicles the role of race and cultural identity in the formation of modern day British society. I'm British but... is an engaging critique of nationalisms of any sort and a celebration of cultural diversity and hybridity.

5.5

India's Partition: The Forgotten Story

In this documentary, British film-maker Gurinder Chadha, director of Bend It Like Beckham and Viceroy's House, travels from Southall to Delhi to find out about the Partition of India - one of the most seismic events of the 20th century. Partition saw India divided into two new nations - independent India and Pakistan. The split led to violence, disruption and death. To find out why and how it happened, Gurinder crosses India, meeting people whose lives were torn apart by Partition and talking to historians who explain the motivations behind the split. Along the way, she discovers that Partition was caused by politicians who were more interested in their own power than in Indian unity, and finds out that the British also played a major role in the Partition.

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