Bend It Like Beckham

Rating:
Summary: Clean and serene
Review: A Review
The story is about an Indian girl whose name is Jesminder. She is nearly 16 years old and she loves playing football. She fancies her idol David Beckham because nobody can cross or bend a ball like him. She also falls in love with her coach- Joe. But because of her religion and the beliefs of her family she isn't allowed to play. Her mother tells her not to show her bare legs in short football trousers like her friend Jules does. Her parents think that football isn't good for the behaviour of a real Indian woman. But for Indian women it is necessary to learn how to cook real aloo gobi and how to make round chapattis. The older Indians think that something like that is more important than having fun with sports.
After all the story is about untypical teenager problems, another religion, football and the hard way to tell the truth.

We both think that the book is well written and easy to understand. The vocabulary is explained on the bottom of every page that is why you don't have to learn anything for understanding the book without problems. We think that the story is interesting and good to read for boys and girls. A nice theme for boys is the football and many girls are interested in the small love-story of Jesminder, Jules and their coach, Joe.
If you want to learn something about the culture and the traditions of Indians the book will please you.

Benjamin, 16 & Sandra, 15 Germany

Rating:
Summary: You can reach everything you want
Review: Bend it like Beckham - Review

We think it's good that we are told something about the problems of young Indian people. The book deals with prejudices many people have about them. We can also learn much about the Indian culture. The main actor is a young Indian girl called Jess. She wants to play football in a professional girls team, but her parents don't like that because it's against their culture. She doesn't want to disappoint her parents but she attain her wishes.

The film is a good possibility for young people to realize that everybody can reach his or her aims. In our opinion it is advantageous that the film shows reality and not the science-fiction-world.

We think it's better to watch the film first and then to read the book. We don't like that the book was written after the film was already in the cinema. In our opinion Narinda Dhami could have put some new things into the book. The book is funny and dramatic at the same time and you can read it easily.

(Birte and Andrea)

Rating:
Summary: Girl Power
Review: Ok. Bend it Like Beckham is exceedingly well done in its performances by the actors. Translation= that movie was awesome. Not only does it show the drive of many girls today but it added music and a hot coach. It is absolutely a good movie for soccer fans out there. It needed work on showing more soccer scenes but all in all it's a movie worth seeing.

Rating:
Summary: Clean and serene
Review: This book is about an Indian girl(Jess) who likes to play football. One day an English girl sees her playing and asks her to play for a real girls side. But Jess must fight against the problems between the two different cultures, because her parents won't let her play football.
We liked the book, because the feelings are very well impressed with words. The discussions about the problems between two different cultures are very interesting and are good to understand. Because we were interested in this book, we liked to read it and understood everything well and when we had problems, we looked at the vocabulary aids at the bottom of every page. The football scenes are well described in the book, but they aren't shown very well in the film. But the best thing of the film is the music, which is suitable to every scenes. It doesn't matter if you read the book or watch the film at first. We think it is enough that you read the book OR watch the film, because it both have the same content.
We think, it could be a real story, because the problems of the teens are like our problems.

Rating:
Summary: "Hollywood-Style"
Review: Well First of all I love the book but the movie gives more details then the book. I woulden't say it is bad or great but I would prefer you to buy the movie then the book better. Also I would say the guy in the book I imangine him to be cute but in the movie I think he is so much hotter. But anyways Have fun reading it and also for me I would think a 10 to 16 year old would like to read it. THE BEST MOVIE BETTER THEN THE BOOOK!!!