It’s a Wonderful Afterlife (12A), 2010

“Korma Blimey!”

Try to imagine five gruesome murders by a charming, middle aged Indian lady; add five outrageous, ghostly characters as her constant companions; throw in a white ghost-like dog wearing eyeliner and you have the essence of “It’s a Wonderful Afterlife (“IaWA”), a light-hearted comedy-horror from Gurinder Chadha and the makers of Bend it Like Beckham.

Set in the London suburb of Southall, the story centres on the increasingly desperate lengths to which an Indian mother, Mrs Sethi (delicately played by Shabana Azmi ) will go to ensure the happiness of her only daughter, Roopi, ( Goldi Notay).Using her considerable culinary skills as weapons of mass destruction – I particularly liked death by tandoori kebab and suffocation by naan bread - Mrs Sethi wreaks a diabolical revenge on anyone daring either to upset or jeopardise the happiness of her forever-eating first born.

Her victims, awaiting reincarnation, follow Mrs Sethi around, initially resentful and angry but eventually, recognising the purity of a mother’s motives, become understanding and even helpful. The police, led by Mark Addy as D. I. Smythe, bumble around in a constant state of confusion and are reduced to introducing a plant into the household, Detective Sergeant Murthy (Sendhil Ramamurthy), who, rather too conveniently, just happens to have been a childhood sweetheart of Roopi. Zoe Wannamaker as kindly next door neighbour, Mrs Goldstein (also murdered but this time unintentionally) and Sally Hawkins (Geetali) combining nicely as Roopi’s best friend and local psychic - both add to the general chaos.

The characters do their best with what is, frankly, rather limited material. Azmi infuses her role as over-anxious mother with dignity and grace gradually building an impressive screen presence. Notay’s role as an overweight, plain and independent-minded spinster is perhaps less than enviable but she too plays her part well. The rest of the cast simply make up the numbers appearing only to be fed the occasional one liner joke and then disappearing again into the background.

Refusing to explore or even touch on the cultural, social or sexual themes that helped enhance the comedy and humour of “Bend it Like Beckham”, IaWA is left to its humour alone and unfortunately, comes up wanting.

Verdict
IaWA might have worked well on the small screen as a 30 minute sit-com but on the big screen, it falls flat. Occasionally amusing. 4/10

Dick Morgan,
May 2010