Challenging Traditions: A Soccer Dream

1. Plot Summary

Jesminder, ‘Jess’ is an 18-year-old daughter of Indian family which lives in London. She is the second daughter of the family. While her sister, Pinky, who preparing for an Indian wedding, Jess dreams being a professional soccer player. She is a really big fan of famous English soccer player, David Beckham. Sometimes she plays soccer in the park with her good friend Tony and the boys. She is really good at playing soccer, however, her family does not allow her to play because she is a girl. One day when she is playing in the park, Juliette,’Jules’ who plays for the women 's team of the local club see her and really impressed with her skills. She offers her to meet with their coach, Joe. On the first day, Joe impresses with

Mr. And Mrs. Bhamra are really strict parents. They are putting a lot of pressure on their daughter’s life.

Jess’s mother, Mrs. Bhamra is all about tradition, culture and keeping a good reputation. While Mrs. Bhamra has never approved of Jess playing football, and never has stopped not approving. Mrs. Bhamra’s behaviors push Jess to play soccer more and more, because Jess never wants to be like her mother or her sister. At the end of the movie, just like Paula (Jules’s mother) she starts to accept the fact that all Jess wants to do and that it is the only thing that is going to make Jess happy. At the end of the movies she says, “at least I taught her a full Indian dinner, the rest is up to God”.

Her father, Mr. Bhamra was a bit of a closed book, at the beginning of the movie he wasn’t very significant. At first he didn’t want Jess playing football with the boys in the park, or with the girls in the proper football team, not only because of Mrs Bhamra’s reason; but because he didn’t want Jess to be hurt the same way he was. He is still stuck in the past and he must open his eyes to the modern world, where everything is changing and that religion and race can be accepted these days. He comes to understand that Jess is a fighter, a strong and determined girl. He changes in a way himself and at the end of the movie Mr. Bhamra became proud of his