Odd, seeing that most reviewers either ignored it or panned it. "Difficult questions of race relations and the accommodation of tradition to social change are swept aside under the carpets on which the casts dance," The Guardian wrote. "Every cliche of the sports drama and of the family comedy flow freely." Another reviewer thought it could have been trimmed down from a "generous two hours" to a "match-friendly" 90 minutes. The film has got unusual support from real life, if not from critics. Within days of its release, England’s football captain David Beckham broke his foot after it was bent impossibly in a tackle.
Her Best Foot Forward
finds itself in the odd position of becoming something of a real-life film after it was made. The story of a Punjabi girl secretly in love with football was followed by the story of a Punjabi girl living in Southampton who has made it to big-time women’s football in the US. That Aman Dosanjh is a goalkeeper and did not have to keep goal on the sly is another matter. It made a good story at the box office better. Bend It Like Beckham shot to top spot in Britain after its release, grossing two million pounds on the opening weekend and stayed number one the second week, understandably slipping marginally in the third.
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