An aspiring stunt performer, Ria (Priya Kansara) has little support at home or at school as her parents and teachers all want to see her go on to become a doctor.  The only exception is her older sister, Lena (Ritu Arya), who helps her film videos for her channel and encourages her in her training.  Things change, however, when Lena is arranged to be married to Salim (Akshay Khanna), a fertility doctor who is preparing to open a practice in Singapore.  Not wanting to lose her sister, Ria attempts to sabotage the wedding, and in doing so discovers that Salim and his mother, Raheela (Nimra Bucha), may have some more nefarious plans at work. 

For her feature film debut, writer/director Nida Manzoor delivers Polite Society for Focus Features after its Sundance premiere.  The action comedy has a lot of heart about it and weaves in many of the tropes and themes from the Kung-Fu and Bollywood films that inspired Manzoor while still being an empowering narrative about family, sisterhood, and friendship all on its own.  At 103 minutes, the script sometimes has trouble transitioning between sequences and loses some connectivity, but because there is still an overall sense of what needs to be accomplished the lulls never last so long that audiences are left feeling abandoned by the narrative. 

Also making her feature debut, Kansara’s Ria is full of spunk and charisma.  She plays well as the entry point into an eccentric coming-of-age story as the de facto leader of her friend group – Clara (Seraphina Beh) the brains and Alba (Ella Bruccoleri) the jokester – as they navigate the halls of their school, trying and failing to narrowly avoid their bully/house leader, Kovacs (Shona Babayemi).  Kansara has a difficult challenge with Ria, the least of which is doing much of her own stunt work. As a character, she comes off as very abrasive, but as the lead she needs to warm audiences up enough for us to invest in her trials.  She benefits from a script that, for the first half at least, acts almost as an intersection of a Shakespearean wedding plot and a comedy of manners and offers her many chances to shine and plenty to do.   

The juxtaposition of traditional and modern values adds inherent comedy as worlds collide, but Manzoor’s script is careful not to ridicule too harshly any specific viewpoint while still making a strong case for independence and empowerment while maintaining respect for the past.  It sounds like it could be a wishy-washy stance that makes for stale and stagnant storytelling, but by wrapping the thesis in such popping style and bombastic humor, Manzoor is able to make a case for how modernity can lean on and be informed by tradition in a way that does not scrap it altogether, but rather, act as a natural evolution in-step with today’s societal norms. 

This idea is also represented in the craft of the film.  Edited by Robbie Morrison, the fight sequences have the same energy and stylization of Kung-Fu action films, and he does not cut too quickly away so that we can revel in Rob Lock’s choreography.  Shot by Ashley Connor, the film has incredible use of colors, and each location is given a distinct attitude and vibe which all leads to a vibrant and opulent wedding sequence that occupies much of the third act of the film.  It acts as a showcase for PC Williams’ wardrobe design with unique styles and themes for each character, and Mandy Sorrin’s set decoration which purposefully leans heavily into the so expensive its gaudy territory.  The massive sequence, with its many sublocations and multiple plot lines, has such frenetic energy to it, that it is impossible not to get wrapped up in the action.  Manzoor had already led her young cast on a heist earlier in the film in a very comedic set piece at the gym to lift Salim’s laptop from his locker, here she really gets to show off her skills at balancing a carefully constructed sequence that cuts between the various members of the ensemble in the hubbub of the wedding celebration. 

As for the story as a whole, it is a rather enjoyable and zany narrative that is overflowing with personal flourishes from the specificity of Ria’s passions to the posters that adorn her wall.  The breakdown comes in that most of the characters are not fully fleshed out and no one, even Ria, feels like a real person.  They are all elements of people and have clear relations with each other, but nothing is very deep.  The biggest example here comes from Ria’s sister, Lena.  She is impossible to track, and the immediacy with which she travels her arc from living with depression after – or, which caused her – quitting art school to a hasty wedding with Salim, while not impossible to fathom, is not very well thought out in the text.  There is some clear sisterly love, and that Lena is spending more time with her fiancé is a huge cause of strife for Ria, but there are missed opportunities throughout the film to better establish and contextualize their relationship so that the eventual reunion could have some more power and feel like it was grounded in something stronger than a shared roof.  It is the cardboard cut-out approach to all the characters from Ria’s friends and family that really holds Polite Society back from being one of the great modern comedies.  Still, that it was given a theatrical release from Focus, the independent arm of Universal, and they believed in making this unique story available to audiences is still a reason to celebrate as diversity at the box office is more important now than ever as cinemas seek to fill in the gaps between the tentpole releases. 

Even with the floundering in the second act, Polite Society is still a rapturous good time all around. It is bold, colorful, and unapologetic. Manzoor delivers a great first feature that allows Kansara to really flex and show her skills as an up-and-coming leading actress. The film touches on several genres from comedy to action and highlights some Bollywood elements that can hopefully serve as a bridge for curious audiences to discover the wide, rich world of Indian cinema. It is a large ask for a small film, and while Polite Society does step up to the challenge by wearing its influences on its sleeve, even on its own with the style stripped away, it has something to offer everyone because at its core it is a film about finding comfort in your friends and believing in yourself.