4.0 out of 5 stars
Bittersweet coming-of-age drama set in the 70s, January 9, 2011
"Anita and Me" was a fun yet poignant movie which explores the themes of coming-of-age and integration. Set in the 70s, the story centers on 12-year-old Meena Kumar (played brilliantly by Chandeep Uppal), a Punjabi girl who lives in a small town somewhere in the Midlands, England in the 70s. Her parents are Indian migrants who have worked hard to achieve a reasonable standard of life, yet find it a challenge to integrate themselves into English society, preferring the company of those who share their culture. Meena on the other hand, yearns to be blonde, eat Western food, and become a published writer for Jackie magazine.
When Meena meets her new neighbor Anita (Anna Brewster), a slim, blonde teenage girl, Meena is determined to gain her confidence and become her friend, even if Anita's friendship might cause Meena to do things against her better judgement. Anita is the polar opposite of Meena - she comes from a broken family as opposed to Meena's stable, loving family; Anita is not studious nor highly literate; and, Anita sees sex as a means to an end and as a way to cope with her own bleak life. I found it hard to accept Meena's infatuation with Anita because Anita is not a likable person - she is spiteful and can be incredibly mean. Perhaps it is Anita's carefree, wanton approach to life and her freedom to do as she wishes, something which is denied Meena by her overprotective parents. But even here I found some inconsistencies. As protective as Meena's parents are, they allow her to go about on her own at all times of the day and night, something which is not satisfactorily explained in the movie. The scenes with the Indian relatives and friends is fun to watch, but these characters appear stereotypical without much character development.
In spite of these flaws, I gave the movie four stars because the lead actress did an excellent job portraying the adolescent angst of a young immigrant trying to fit into a society which for the time was incredibly racist. The scenes where Meena is hoping to catch the eye of a Caucasian boy and instead loses out to an obese Caucasian girl are painful to watch, yet shows with some degree of realism, how things were back then. This is a bittersweet coming-of-age drama which might appeal to fans of the genre.
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1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Migrant Threat Comedy, September 5, 2008
A next movie of Indian migrants to the UK of the seventies, where a hard working teen newcomer outwits a native cute girl by preferring studying to a sex-enjoyment and manual jobs.
Moral: better watch "
My Beautiful Laundrette" , where people work together.
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