Film Review

It’s a Wonderful Afterlife is this year’s must see romantic comedy. Released in the UK today, the film, by award winning director Gurinder Chadha, is a hysterical supernatural movie that certainly lives up to the hype.

The Bend it like Beckham director is back with another London based story, perfectly blending Asian traditions and cultures within a British setting.

Showing life in the Asian community of Southall, a suburb of London known as ‘little India’, the film is in English with a small amount of dialogue in Punjabi.

Desperate to match-make her daughter, an Indian mother’s obsession with marriage leads her to take the ultimate revenge; killing those who refuse to cooperate with her plans.

When marrying off her daughter, Roopi, (actress Goldy Notay) proves harder than expected, Mrs Sethi (actress Shabana Azmi) becomes a serial murderer, motivated by anger towards those who refuse her daughter.

Being a little over weight and with a broken engagement behind her, Roopi is subjected to cruel comments from the community and actions turn deadly when possible suitors refuse to get to know the woman behind the curves.

A gruesome list of unique murder techniques are revealed by the victims, who are stabbed through the neck with a chicken skewer, suffocated with naan bread and one victim is force fed curry until his stomach explodes.

With police officer D I Smythe (Actor Mark Addy) looking for a serial killer with exceptional cooking skills, attention soon turns to the Sethi family.

The Ealing comedy takes a ghostly turn when Mrs Sethi finds herself haunted by the spirits of her victims, who cannot ‘move on’ to their afterlife until their killer is also dead.

Being adamant that she cannot ‘rest in peace’ without seeing her daughter happily married, the ghostly group join forces with their murderer to find the right son-in-law.

Add to the mix, old family friend and police officer Murthy (Actor Sendhil Ramamurthy) and Roopi’s friend Linda (actress Sally Hawkins) whose new age beliefs means she can sense the ghostly shadows that surround Mrs Sehi, and you have yourself an outrageous ghostly comedy, blending the supernatural with a romantic, heart warming feel.

Overall the film is typical of Gurinder’s passionate portrayal of Asian life in Britain. This film has it all, tradition, culture, comedy, romance and gore and is sure to appeal to both the Asian community and other audiences.

So what are you waiting for? Head down to your local cinema and see this feel good flick. You won’t be disappointed.

The Bend It Films and Indian Films presentation, It’s a Wonderful Afterlife is released on DVD on Monday 16th August.