Customer Reviews

Bend It Like Beckham

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If you saw (and, no doubt, loved) "Bend It Like Beckham," you know that the music - a perfect blend of UK and Indian sounds and melodies - plays a big part in putting and keeping a smile on your face as your leave the theater.

That's not by accident. As director Gurinder Chadha points out on the liner notes, this music comes from her own personal music collection and "makes up the many different sides of me, and, therefore, my lead character 'Jess' and her world."

She concludes that "It's a great thing being a director sometimes because you can put the soundtrack to your life on film and CD to share with everyone."

Beautifully stated. And I'll go one step further: you can enjoy this CD *even without* seeing the film. It's a wonderful collection of songs.

But if you have seen the film, your level of enjoyment is far greater, especially with the kick of the interspersed dialogue, mostly courtesy of Shaheen Khan who, as Jess' mother, gets and delivers most of the best lines.

"I was married at your age. You don't even want to learn how to cook dahl!"

Fab movie and soundtrack. If you get the CD from Australia - it has 22 tracks including the Curtis Mayfield track - 'Move on Up'. Can be ordered thru chaosmusic.com in Melbourne - It will cost about $US17.00 including postage. May take a couple of weeks but is worth the wait.

I loved the movie and bought this soundtrack because of all the great music in the film, but especially because of a few certain songs: curtis mayfield's "move on up," the remix of "she's a lady" by tom jones, and two techno songs which may or may not be basement jaxx and baddest ruffest (i don't know).

I was very angry to find that all FOUR of these songs (in my opinion some of the best songs in the film) were NOT included in the soundtrack. Although the two dance songs are on the UK release, neither release has the mayfield or the tom jones. Although the other songs are very catchy and fun, these songs made the movie.

I bought this item used and the version I have doesn't seem to exist here (inside the booklet it says it's on sale in India only) because neither this or any of the imports available at Amazon match my track listing but there's a total of 21 songs, including "Move On Up" by Curtis Mayfield, which I remember a previous reviewer complaining about not being included in the mix. Honestly though, I could have lived without that particular piece, which happens to be the only one I skip. I also would have preferred the song they used when the girls were at a club in the movie by Melanie C, "I Turn To You", instead of "Independence Day". But before I start sounding all negative, those are minor flaws that I'm able to excuse because I don't want to dissuade anyone from buying this fantastic soundtrack. I found "Bend It Like Beckham" to be one of the better films to come out of 2003 but one thing I consistently took notice of was how great the music sounded. It blended in with each scene perfectly yet I could also tell it would be able to stand on its own and that's when I knew I had to buy the soundtrack. Cultures clash and come together and that is reflected in the music as well. Some guilty pleasure pop tunes by Blondie on "Atomic", Texas on "Inner Smile", and a former Spice Girl, Victoria, on "I Wish", whom also happens to be the infamous football (known as soccer in America) player's wife, meets modern world grooves that fans of Talvin Singh and Transglobal Underground will absolutely die for, with standout tracks being "Darshan" by B21, "Jind Mahi" by Malkit Singh, and the funky reggae dance beats of "Baddest Ruffest" by Backyard Dog, which reminds me a little of Basement Jaxx.

For those of you who were upset about several missing songs on the soundtrack, you might want to look into the imported Indian version of the CD. It has 21 songs on it, including the Curtis Mayfield track that everyone wants. It also has dialogue tracks form the movie.

After seeing "Bend It Like Beckham," I left the theater with several songs in my head. My head was spinning for hours afterward with a variety of musical and cultural treats. The next day, I got online and ordered the soundtrack from here. I just got it today and have been listening to it non-stop since. I'm happy to say that the soundtrack lives up to my expectations, but it doesn't exceed them. I was disappointed by the number of songs featured in the movie that somehow didn't make the cut.

Besides that one little flaw, this soundtrack is very close to being perfect. It has a great variety of upbeat tracks that will keep you awake and in a good mood. My favorite songs are "Inner Smile" by Texas (if I had to choose one, this would be it), "Kinna Sohna" by Gunjan, "Independence Day" by Melanie C, and "Hot Hot Hot" by Bina Mistry. All of the tracks are great though. I would highly recommend this CD to anyone else who loved the movie and wanted to take home a little bit of the happy atmosphere it created.

I totally agree with music fan regarding the absence of the Curtis Mayfield track "move on up", not only is it a great track, one of Curtis' Best and Most Uplifting Solo Trax, but the times (plural) that it is used it makes the scenes. It is a song about fulfilling your dreams and is used perfectly to demonstrate that same theme that drives the movie. overall the soundtrack is fantastic and the movie was beyond phenomenal. I'm going to buy the CD and have already been signed up to be notified as to the release of the DVD so I can buy it the DAY it comes out but like I said the soundtrack just isn't complete without the Curtis Mayfield track.
ps. I was especially surprised that it isn't even the import version of the soundtrack which does include alot of stuff left off the american release!!!

The ethereal Asian sound featuring Gunjan's exotic vocals introduces us to the atmosphere, the spice of director Gurinder Chadha and that of her character Jessminder, who in response to her mother being vexed at watching "this skinhead boy" during her sister's wedding, says, "Mum, it's Beckham's corner"

The thumping backbeat from Texas's "Inner Smile" is a mixture of Orbit-type sounds, electric guitar, early Madonna, and slices of R&B. The piano and backbeat singers going "yeah" creates a song of trying to find one's inner smile. Lead singer Sharleen Spiteri's husky pop-R&B voice is very much an asset here. One of the best songs here.

Malkit Singh's "Jind Mahi" is typical bhangra, which is Punjabi hybrid dance music with soaring vocals, exotic instruments, and which could be spiced with rap, jazz, or rock. At times, some male vocalists might accompanying refrain, which could be "hey hey hey hey" or "aha", like it is here.

"Noorie" is a good spotlight for Gunjan's lovely voice, supported as she is by Bally Sagoo's slow-paced semi-ambient Asian scratch music. This is mellower than many Bollywood music songs I've heard, and the R&B-like female backups help too.

Unfortunately, the next singer is not as talented as Gunjan. This is the wife of Jess's hero, Victoria Beckham, whose "I Wish" dips into Spice Girls leftovers, but demonstrates why her solo career got nowhere.

Gunjan again, and what a voice on "Kinna Sohna", which resembles Enigma-type ambient, without the monks of course. Does this woman have any solo albums out, that's what I like to know?

Partners in Rhyme's reflective ethereal string-synths and kawwali singer Nusret Fateh Ali Khan's soaring voice is magical in "Tere Bin Nahin Lagda". This is the kind of techno Moby veered towards on Play and 18, but done here, it's got that Punjabi flavour.

It's fitting that Melanie C, more vocally talented than the other ex-Spice here, does "Independence Day" here, as Jess and Jules, who go out shopping while this song plays, are embodiments of Sporty Spice in the movie. Churning guitars laced with phat beats and that familiar robust voice of hers make this a standout.

The next two are bhangra songs, of which Hans Raj Hans' "Punjabiyan Di Shaan" starts slow before going to a mid-tempo beat laced with string-synths. B21's shaking "Darshan" can really add some curry and paprika in any Sikh celebration.

Bina Mistry then does Arrow's calypso dance classic "Hot Hot Hot", which is the tune the cast and crew jam to in the outtake segments during the closing credits.

Blondie's "Atomic" needs no introduction, but it is the single edit version.

After the brief prelude of "Hai Raba", Tito Beltran does a satisfactory cover of one of Luciano Pavarotti's signature arias, "Nessun Dorma," which really mirrored the movie's triumphant climactic scene. My favorite song here, bringing out a lot of emotion.

In the liner notes, director Gurinder Chadha, on whom lead star Jessminder is based on, describes the songs here as describing the aspects of her character and that of Jess. That being said, the exclusion of other songs from the movie, such as Curtis Mayfield's "Move On Up", Basement Jaxx's "Do Your Thing", Melanie C's "I Turn To You", and Amar's Punjabi cover of Jennifer Rush's "Power Of Love" are excusable. Hopefully, those songs and remixes of songs here will come out on a More Music From Bend It Like Beckham soundtrack, yes?

A lot of the songs on here are ones you will recognize instantly if you have seen the movie, and the ones that are here are really good upbeat and well arranged Indian pop songs, but there are WAY too many songs missing from this cd. there are no songs from Shaznay Lewis and Curtis Mayfield, who contributed songs that were high points for me. There are many other wonderful songs that are actually on here that are mostly by Indian artists, but I don't know the names of the artists that aren't on this cd, and so I can't find them elsewhere.

Also, why is the mediocre song made by Beckham's wife on here? it is really pathetic and bad and pales in comparison to the wonderful tunes on the rest of the cd. its here probably because of some sort of record deal or something, I guess. oh well.

This captures only a part of the spirit of a movie that was extremely funny, uplifting, and was an all out party of a film. But leaving out the Curtis Mayfield song that was on the movie is simply inexcusable to me, seeing as it was so central to parts of the movie. Also, the dialogue bits on here are kind of annoying, even if they were funny in the movie. This is still a good thing to get, but you will be missing a lot. If you want the complete soundtrack, check out the imports, get whatever one has the Curtis Mayfield song on it. They are quite expensive, however, which is why I am so angry that they did a shoddy job with the playlist on this!

If I ever have 40 extra bucks lying around, maybe I'll get the import instead. But in the meantime I'll have to do with this incomplete yet often entertaining cd.

I bought an imported version because it has more on it, and it's a fantastic disc with amazing-sounding songs on it that compliment and add a wonderful dimension to the movie, but like a lot of people, I'm disappointed that it doesn't include other songs, so I've been looking for them. The one song that I can't seem to find anywhere is Dream the Dream by Shaznay Lewis. I havn't found it on any file-sharing networks or on the internet. I found out some copyright info about it, but it looks like it was only recorded for this movie but never released in any form. Most of the information I know about it I got off of IMDB.com [...]I know lots of people are looking for this song, so if anyone has it or knows where to find it, please let us know!! You'll definatly be very appreciated! Thanks, [...]