Anita and Me

Anita and Me a work of excellence! A perfect combination of comedy and drama. This is the award winning movie of the year and is a must to see. It is based on the best selling autobiographical novel by Meera Syal who also stars in the film. The basic story involves Chandeep Uppal (Meena) and Anna Brewster (Anita), who have two completely different personalities which blend perfectly to form a fascinating friendship. The plot shows how Anita’s life is influenced both by British and Indian culture and this film also concentrates on friendship and culture at its most poignant!

The plot revolves around a typical Indian Punjabi girl “Meena” and her relationship with a white girl Anita. Meena is an imaginative character, with a wise head on young shoulders but one who retains a child like liveliness. Its part of the joy of “Anita & Me” to see these relationships and scenarios develop. Furthermore it is very uplifting to see a film that is so anti-race, and anti-religious. This idyllic existence of Tollington, where the film is set, is upset by the relationship between Anita Rutter and her dysfunctional family and Meena. Anita is 14, blonde and beautiful -exactly what Meena’s dream is to be.

Meena becomes part of Anita’s world, but events do not run smoothly. Meena’s growing up – and that brings plenty of changes. But is it going to go the way they imagined? There are many action packed scenes in the book which are transferred onto the film. During the film Meena’s grandma is attacked by a group of violent youths. This scene is amusing as the youths think they have the upper hand because they have a knife. Unfortunately, for them, Sikh women are taught to be prepared for such circumstances. She pulls out a huge sword, which scares the living day lights out of the boys and just to embarrass them more, she laughs in their faces.

Another comical example is during Diwali, a holy Indian traditional festival. Meena phrases a song by saying “I could just shag the arse off it”. Her relatives are mortified by her attitude. She is influenced so much by Anita that she uses these words to describe her feelings about the song. The director emphasis her families shock by doing mid shots to show the relationships of characters within Meena’s family of her Aunty Sheila, who is horrified and disgusted toward Meena’s behaviour. Consequently, there’s a lot of comedy in the film. This is shown in a scene where Meena performs “Gimme Dat ding” for her family.

This hilarious part in the film gets even more emphasized as the director uses an extreme close up of her Aunty Sheila (Meera Syal) as she screams in revulsion. At this point the film is exceptionally enchanting. The director, Metin Huseyin uses many close ups. One of my favourites is when the village is shown with a close up. It is cleverly done by Meena riding her bike around the village. This helps the audience visualize how the 1970s village would look like as it paints a vivid picture of the types of houses, the countryside and the village shop.

The setting of the village is very attractive in the 70s. Tollington has a row of terraced houses clustered around the crossroads, there are countless miles of flat green fields stretching as far as the eye could see, which is the center of attention in Tollington. In contrast to this, Metin Huseyin also uses extreme close ups quite often in the film. One of them is when Meena’s relatives come to visit them. Her Aunt Sheila steps on dog shit! The extreme close ups emphasizes the dog faeces as it is shown really closely. This also gives you a good laugh as you can tell it is on the theme of comedy.

It also then becomes more amusing as her Aunt uses rude language to express her feelings and thoughts. The audience would adore this segment of the film as it is a barrel of laughs! Skillfully, when Anita is introduced in the film the director Metin Huseyin uses a long shot and a slow motion to welcome Anita. She appears in a puff of smoke with romantic background music to indicate Meena’s admiration with this blonde beauty, like it was a magical, wish come true. The director has given a lot of thought to make this scene appear like a dream sequence. As Meena try’s to communicate, all of a sudden she disappears into a cloud of smoke

As well as using extreme long shots, the director Metin Huseyin also uses lighting in an effective and unique way. One of the ways he uses lighting is when Anita is going into the village shop. The lighting of Anita is incandescent therefore gives the impression that she is special to the rest of her gang, “The Wenches” of which are with her at the time. The audience can see this as the lighting on the other girls including Meena is dim and faded. These techniques help the director to create the effect he wants, this all adds to the successfulness of the film. The director has used teenage angst between the stroppy teenager and her parents.

Meena like other teenagers tries to fit in with them but this does not make it easy for her parents as they have to cope with her bad attitude. As her parents makes curry for her supper but Meena wants to eat fish fingers for tea as she is influenced by Anita. There are various examples of racial behaviour in the film. This is obvious to the audience when the Rutters say “Wog” and “Nigger”. Furthermore, there is a lot more, as shown in the film about the debate whether the church collection should go to Africa or a new church roof and the brutal attack on a close friend of Meena’s parents.

In the 1970s music played a crucial part in society. There is a combination of different types of music which includes of the 70s sound track, making the audience realize that this film is set nearly 40 years ago. The non- diagetic music creates a relaxing atmosphere at the beginning of the film. These techniques help the viewer to enjoy and relax whilst watching it. Meena’s family play a big part in the 70s style! In their house they have bizarre 70s wallpaper (insipid colours i. e. : Green, Yellow. )They call it fashion! The fashion, like the music, was very crazy.

For example Anita’s mum wears make-up to impress men. Also, they wear short mini skirts which were in fashion. Comparing the two family’s to two different cultures Meena’s family wear bright saris’ and Meena herself wears different colours of Asian salwar kameez, decorated with embroidery. The hairstyles are also a mixture of sixties hairdos and seventies flares. The crazy 70s theme adds to more hilarious parts in the film. The director uses specialist film terms For example: Meena’s constant voice over washes through scenes where agitation between the two cultures is explored.

For example: when Meena’s extended family arrives to visit and the white neighbours gather and stare. Meena is more interested in not being embarrassed by stray kisses from relatives and does not comment on the discomfort that her parents are experiencing. The director uses long shots to highlight the contrast between the working class community and Meena’s extended family. For example at the village fair when the bikers arrive the wide angled, long shot encompasses both the Indian extended family as well as the villagers.

Overall, this zany humorous film grabs your attention from the very start. It mixes in heartache with desperation and ups and downs of teenage emotions. This is most appealing to teenagers and young adults as it explores teenage emotion and teenage angst at its most poignant! This is one of the main morals in the film which helps teenagers to understand that they are not alone; it also helps parents to remember what their teenage years were like. Go out, buy, watch. Enjoy and relax, that’s an order!

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