Cover Photo: A screenshot of Bend It Like Beckham with Jess (the film's heroine) in a soccer jersey and the girls in pink who sit on a bench
Screencap from 'Bend It Like Beckham'/Kintop Pictures/Bend It Films/Roc Media

The Women Who Don’t Bend in ‘Bend It Like Beckham’

The film contains a pantheon of archetypes, all of them represented in these Indian Panjabi women.

American Desi

Bend It Like Beckham

Bend It Like Beckham

Bend It Like Beckham


Bend It

Bend It Like Beckham

Being a child still but having fast-maturing body parts and sudden sexual responsibilities takes a different shape when you’re Indian. 

Never Have I Ever

Bend It Like Beckham

Nadya Agrawal is a Brooklyn-based writer and editor. She founded Kajal Magazine and hosts the Cardamom Pod on Earios Network.