Anita and Me (film)
Encyclopedia
Anita and Me is a British
comedy-drama
film released in 2002 based on the book Anita and Me
by Meera Syal
. It was released during a period of popularity for British Asian films, alongside films like East Is East
, and Bend It Like Beckham
.
girl, is living with her family in a predominantly white, working-class, fictional mining village of Tollington in the Black Country
in 1972. It is then that Meena meets Anita, a white, 14-year-old girl, who Meena comes to idolise. However, Meena finds it harder and harder to fit in, as her Indian
heritage keeps on resurfacing, and Anita's new boyfriend proves to hold strong racist
attitudes towards those he regards as "darkies". The film is semi-autobiographical, based on Syal's upbringing in Essington
, Staffordshire
.
Despite being set in the West Midlands, sizeable parts of the film were shot in the East Midlands
, notably the Derbyshire
town of Draycott
.
reports the film as holding an overall 67% approval rating based on 6 reviews, with a rating average of 6/10. The film holds a rating of 6.3/10 at the Internet Movie Database
.
from The Guardian
commented that "There are zany vignets and comedy Indian relations galore, but the whole thing is very cardboard and stereotypical. Louise Keller from Urban CineFile Australia describes the film as "a sweet chapter in the life of a young girl battling to identify with her roots and environment". David Edwards calls Anita and Me "a well-meaning but uneven film". Vince Leo from Quipster has described the film as "a perfect example of a coming-of-age film". Rich Cline of Shadow on the Wall describes the film as being "enjoyable and funny, but there's not that much to it".
and DVD
format. The DVD was released in the UK on 26 May 2003 by Icon Home Entertainment
. It was also released on DVD on 8 August 2006 by Image Entertainment
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
comedy-drama
Comedy-drama
Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...
film released in 2002 based on the book Anita and Me
Anita and Me
Anita and Me is Meera Syal's debut novel, and was first published in 1996. It is a semi-autobiographical novel which won the Betty Trask Award....
by Meera Syal
Meera Syal
Meera Syal MBE is a British comedienne, writer, playwright, singer, journalist, producer and actress. She rose to prominence as one of the team that created Goodness Gracious Me and became one of the UK's best-known Indian personalities portraying Sanjeev's grandmother, Ummi, in The Kumars at No...
. It was released during a period of popularity for British Asian films, alongside films like East Is East
East is East (film)
East Is East is a 1999 British black comedy/drama film, written by Ayub Khan-Din and directed by Damien O'Donnell. It is set in a British household of mixed-ethnicity, with a British Pakistani father and an English mother in Salford, Lancashire, in 1971...
, and Bend It Like Beckham
Bend It Like Beckham
Bend It Like Beckham is a 2002 comedy-drama film starring Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Rhys Myers, Anupam Kher, Shaznay Lewis, and Archie Panjabi first released in the United Kingdom. The film was directed by Gurinder Chadha...
.
Plot
Meena Kumar, a 12-year-old SikhSikh
A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...
girl, is living with her family in a predominantly white, working-class, fictional mining village of Tollington in the Black Country
Black Country
The Black Country is a loosely defined area of the English West Midlands conurbation, to the north and west of Birmingham, and to the south and east of Wolverhampton. During the industrial revolution in the 19th century this area had become one of the most intensely industrialised in the nation...
in 1972. It is then that Meena meets Anita, a white, 14-year-old girl, who Meena comes to idolise. However, Meena finds it harder and harder to fit in, as her Indian
Non-resident Indian and Person of Indian Origin
A Non-Resident Indian is an Indian citizen who has migrated to another country, a person of Indian origin who is born outside India, or a person of Indian origin who resides permanently outside India. Other terms with the same meaning are overseas Indian and expatriate Indian...
heritage keeps on resurfacing, and Anita's new boyfriend proves to hold strong racist
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
attitudes towards those he regards as "darkies". The film is semi-autobiographical, based on Syal's upbringing in Essington
Essington
Essington is a village and civil parish in South Staffordshire, England. It is considered by the Office for National Statistics to be part of the Wolverhampton Urban Subdivision, and is within the West Midlands conurbation....
, Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
.
Despite being set in the West Midlands, sizeable parts of the film were shot in the East Midlands
East Midlands
The East Midlands is one of the regions of England, consisting of most of the eastern half of the traditional region of the Midlands. It encompasses the combined area of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire and most of Lincolnshire...
, notably the Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
town of Draycott
Draycott
Draycott may refer to:* Draycott, Derbyshire** Draycott and Breaston railway station * Draycott, Gloucestershire* Draycot, Oxfordshire* Draycott, in Rodney Stoke parish, Somerset** Draycott Sleights, a nearby SSSI...
.
Cast
- Meena Kumar - Chandeep UppalChandeep UppalChandeep Uppal is a British actress best known for her critically acclaimed starring role as Meena Kumar in the film Anita and Me.-Career:...
- Anita Rutter - Anna BrewsterAnna Brewster-Acting career:Anna has appeared in the films Anita and Me, Mrs Henderson Presents, Hippie Hippie Shake with Sienna Miller and Cillian Murphy and How to Lose Friends & Alienate People...
- Mr Kumar - Sanjeev BhaskarSanjeev BhaskarSanjeev Bhaskar, OBE is a British Indian comedian, actor and broadcaster, best known for his work in the BBC Two comedy series Goodness Gracious Me and as host of The Kumars at No. 42...
- Mrs Kumar - Ayesha DharkerAyesha DharkerAyesha Dharker is a British-Indian actress. She is known for her performance in the Tamil Indian film, The Terrorist , for which she was awarded Best Artistic Contribution by an Actress at the Cairo International Film Festival and nominated for a Chlotrudis Award and National Film Award for Best...
- Deirdre Rutter - Kathy BurkeKathy BurkeKatherine Lucy Bridget Burke is an English actress, comedienne, playwright and theatre director. She is best known for her portrayals of Perry in the Harry Enfield film Kevin and Perry Go Large, and of Linda La Hughes in the British sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme...
- The Yeti - Kabir BediKabir BediKabir Bedi is an Indian television and film actor. His career has spanned three continents including India, the United States and many European countries in three mediums: film, television and theatre. He is noted for his role as Emperor Shah Jahan in Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story...
- Uncle Amman - Omid DjaliliOmid DjaliliOmid Djalili is a British Iranian stand-up comedian, actor, television producer and writer.-Personal life:Djalili was born in Chelsea, London to Iranian Bahá'í parents and is a Bahá'í himself...
- Auntie Shaila - Meera SyalMeera SyalMeera Syal MBE is a British comedienne, writer, playwright, singer, journalist, producer and actress. She rose to prominence as one of the team that created Goodness Gracious Me and became one of the UK's best-known Indian personalities portraying Sanjeev's grandmother, Ummi, in The Kumars at No...
- Mrs. Ormerod - Lynn RedgraveLynn RedgraveLynn Rachel Redgrave, OBE was an English actress.A member of the well-known British family of actors, Redgrave trained in London before making her theatrical debut in 1962...
- Reverend 'Uncle' Alan - Mark WilliamsMark Williams (actor)Mark Williams is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter and presenter. He is best known as one of the stars of the popular BBC sketch show The Fast Show, as well as for his role as Arthur Weasley in the Harry Potter films....
- Sam Lowbridge - Alex Freeborn
- Hairy Neddy - Max BeesleyMax BeesleyMaxton Gig Beesley Jr. , known simply as Max Beesley, is an English actor and musician.Beesley rose to fame for his role of Andy Simpson in Every Woman, Every Man from 1993 to 1998, and has since appeared in a variety of television shows including Bodies, Hotel Babylon, London Ink, Survivors and...
- Nanima - Zohra Segal
- Sandy - Christine TremarcoChristine TremarcoChristine Tremarco is a British television actress.Educated at St Cecilia's Infant School and then Holly Lodge Girls' College, she was spotted in a school play and invited to a new dance and drama school...
- Brenda - Lucy PargeterLucy PargeterLucy Kate Pargeter is an English actress. She is best known for playing Helen Raven in Crossroads and Chastity Dingle in Emmerdale.-Early years:Lucy trained at the Central Junior Television Workshop...
Reception
Anita and Me opened to theatres on 22 November 2002 and earned £1,753,880 to 226 theatres in the UK by 29 December. At the end of its opening weekend on 24 November, the film earned £453,613 and by the 29 December, it had only earned £42,446. Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reports the film as holding an overall 67% approval rating based on 6 reviews, with a rating average of 6/10. The film holds a rating of 6.3/10 at the Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
.
Critical reception
Anita and Me has received mixed critical reviews. Peter BradshawPeter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw is a British writer and film critic. He was educated at Cambridge University, where he was President of Footlights.Bradshaw is a film critic for The Guardian...
from The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
commented that "There are zany vignets and comedy Indian relations galore, but the whole thing is very cardboard and stereotypical. Louise Keller from Urban CineFile Australia describes the film as "a sweet chapter in the life of a young girl battling to identify with her roots and environment". David Edwards calls Anita and Me "a well-meaning but uneven film". Vince Leo from Quipster has described the film as "a perfect example of a coming-of-age film". Rich Cline of Shadow on the Wall describes the film as being "enjoyable and funny, but there's not that much to it".
Home Video
The film has been released in VHSVHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
format. The DVD was released in the UK on 26 May 2003 by Icon Home Entertainment
Icon Films
Icon Films is an award winning British independent television production company that produces factual programmes for broadcast by networks both in the UK and US...
. It was also released on DVD on 8 August 2006 by Image Entertainment
Image Entertainment
Image Entertainment, Inc. is an independent licensee, producer and distributor of home entertainment programming and film & television productions in North America, with approximately 3,000 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 250 exclusive CD titles in domestic release, and approximately 450...
External links
- Anita and Me at Yahoo! MoviesYahoo! MoviesYahoo! Movies , provided by the Yahoo! network, is home to a large collection of information on movies, past and new releases, trailers and clips, box office information, and showtimes and movie theater information. Yahoo! Movies also includes red carpet photos, actor galleries, and production...