Polite Society
Bollywood drama, superhero saga, kung-fu action movie.
A merry mash-up of bold action, sisterly affection, and parental disappointment.
Polite Society follows martial artist-in-training Ria Khan who believes she must save her older sister Lena from her impending marriage. After enlisting the help of her friends, Ria attempts to pull off the most ambitious of all wedding heists in the name of independence and sisterhood.
In present-day London, Pakistani teen Ria Khan dreams of becoming a stuntwoman, spending all her free time training at a martial-arts dojo and making backyard videos. Lena, Ria’s older sister, is the only person who believes in her and is happy to be her videographer.
After Lena drops out of art school, giving up on her artistic dreams, she decides to marry a charming bachelor, Salim Shah (Akshay Khanna). Ria immediately casts Salim and his mother (Nimra Bucha) as villains in her own imagined superhero-style origin story, and with the help of two loyal school friends, plots to rescue Lena from her own wedding day.
Polite Society is a thrilling mash-up of teen comedy, Bollywood drama, superhero saga, kung-fu action movie, and video-game adventure. It brings together people from multiple walks of life—Pakistani and English, Black and white, male and female—and puts a new spin on material many of us grew up watching.
Polite Society is directed by Nida Manzoor and stars Priya Kansara who plays Ria Khan, and Ritu Arya as her sister Lena. The fabulously embroidered costumes were designed by PC Williams.
