IT’S A WONDERFUL AFTERLIFE

UK, 2010, 100 minutes, Colour.
Shabana Azmi, Goldy Notay, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Jimi Mistry, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Jamie Sives, Mark Addy, Zoe Wanamaker.
Directed by Gurinder Chadha.

No prizes for realising where this comedy (ghosts instead of angels!) comes from. This is 21st century Capraesque observing of human nature – a wry portrait with optimism.

The most important thing to note is that the setting is West London in Southall and Ealing. The majority of characters are of Indian origin living in England. And the director has made Bhaji on the Beach, Bend it Like Beckham, Bride and Prejudice, and Angus, Sandals and Snogging, all of which offer British Indian characters to the audience portrayed and to a wider audience which helps relationships between ethnic groups in the UK.

There was an immediate consensus amongst the reviewers when they saw that some of the film was made at Ealing Studies – they decided it was less like an Ealing comedy than a 'Curry On...' comedy! And there is more than a touch of Bollywood comedy, engagement parties, weddings and some dancing and music.

It's a Wonderful Life is not the only film referenced here. The director has alluded to Blithe Spirit. There is an extensive pastiche imitation of the bucket of blood sequence in Carrie. The ghosts also watch and comment on television like those in Truly, Madly Deeply. There is an allusion to the famous stomach scene in Alien. Placing this comedy in the movie tradition offers some smiles and laughs.

This is a film about Indian families' preoccupation (obsession) with getting their children (especially as they grow older and are less immediately attractive) engaged and married. Mrs Sethi wants her chubby daughter Roopi engaged so that she can die and join her recently deceased husband. We soon realise, as the police begin to investigate a series of murders (connected with Indian food), that she has not taken too well to criticisms of her daughter. The ghosts turn up, not yet re-incarnated, and decide to help her get her daughter married off (including Zoe Wanamaker as the Jewish next door neighbour and her poodle). The daughter is a down-to-earth woman and is exasperated at all this match-making.

The police (led by Mark Addy) assign an old family friend, the dashing D.S.Murthi (Sendhil Ramamurthi) to infiltrate because Roopi is the main suspect. There are further complications as Roopi's best friend, Linda, has had a trip to an ashram in India, changed her name, become spiritually psychic and is engaged to her assumed soul-mate (Jimi Mistry). She is played with her accustomed verve by Sally Hawkins.

It all seems a lot of good-natured nonsense, though her son tells his mother that her harping on marriage sounds like a broken record. He's right – the repetition and repetition does seem tautologically redundant.

With its broad comic style, it's not meant to be a cinematically literate venture. Rather, as the final credits show, it is all involved having a bit of fun.

1. The title, Frank Capra, expectations? Ghosts rather than angels? Opportunities for redemption?

2. The Indian flavour, the cast, the West London settings, clothes, language, food, customs? The appeal?

3. The British Indian audience – and beyond?

4. The ethnic groups in the United Kingdom, the contribution to mutual understanding?

5. The movie references and jokes, the opening explosion and Alien, the ghosts watching the television as in Truly Madly Deeply, channelling the spirits like Blithe Spirit, Linda and the humiliation like Carrie? The homages?

6. Southall, Ealing? The street, the houses, interiors, the temple, halls, police precincts? Real locations for a surreal story?

7. The cast and the blend of Indians and United Kingdom actors?

8. The opening murders, associated with food, the mystery? The visualising of the curry and the explosion in the autopsy? The police, the investigation, the links, connected with Mrs Sethi? DS Murthi and his knowing the family? Going undercover? Roopi as the main suspect? Interrogating her at her shelter? Going on dates?

9. Mrs Sethi, her personality, her husband dying, her grief? Wanting to die? The revelation that she did the killings? Her motivation, love for her daughter, wanting her married? The ghosts and their badmouthing her daughter? The Indian obsession about marriage, planning? The ghosts and talk about reincarnation? Her going to kill herself with the poison, Mrs Goldstein coming in, with her dog, eating and dying? More ghosts?

10. The ghosts and their personalities, the man and his exploding curry, his badmouthing Roopi? The older people? The man and the woman and their discussions about their own marriage? Roopi and her not seeing the ghosts, her love for her mother, weary about the repetitions about getting married? Mrs Sethi’s son, the DJ, he and his friend and the jokes to frighten her? The microphone placed under the table, listening in to Mrs Sethi and the ghosts watching and enjoying TV soap operas from India? The ghosts at the funeral?

11. Mrs Goldstein, Jewish, friendly, discussion about spirits, Jewish faith and afterlife? Her joining the other ghosts in the enterprise?

12. Linda, Roopi’s best friend, her verve, going to the ashram, coming back transformed, changing her name and dress, engaged, psychic powers? Her fiancé and his wariness? With her? His change of heart? The engagement party, the upset? His fascination for Roopi? Linda going back to her normal self?

13. The engagement party, the young brother putting the drugs in the food, Linda’s fiancé and his reactions, the hallucinations, the red contents of the bucket, over Linda’s head, the repetition of the sequence in Carrie, the ghosts and their reaction? Linda seeing the ghosts?

14. Roopi and Murthi, his attentiveness to her, her confidence in herself but her eating too much, the engagement broken off, meeting the former fiancé with his glamorous girlfriend, and her eye on Murthi? Her work at the shelter? The suspicions of the police? Smythe and his following through? The outing at Southbank, the kiss in public, at the party, the tape recorder playing up and Roopi being upset at what happened?

15. The chief, on Murthi’s back? The superintendent? The other police and their jokes?

16. The ghosts, their change of heart, their talk, plans, learning?

17. Smythe, his looking in the window, Mrs Sethi catching him, the shears and his death? And having the shears in him as a ghost?

18. Murthi, his confession of love for Roopi, her accepting it? The wedding and the happiness? The ghosts – and their possibility for disappearing either for an afterlife or reincarnation?

19. Audience empathy with the characters, observing them – or feeling that it was still a bit drawn out and silly?