Nida Manzoor created We Are Lady Parts for Channel 4, a sitcom about an all-female, all-Muslim punk band; now, for her debut feature film, she brings serious levels of goof, wack and zane for a feelgood action comedy with a very incorrect adjective in the title. It stars newcomer Priya Kansara as a young girl from a British-Pakistani family: Ria, a year 11 martial arts enthusiast and wannabe stuntwoman on a desperate mission to sabotage her older sister’s marriage to a guy that somehow only she can see is a sinister creep.
Kansara does a lot of her own gonzo stunts and kickboxing moves, and the sheer energy and full tilt comedy she brings to them had me thinking of the young Jackie Chan in Drunken Master. Manzoor’s film also has bits of Jane Austen, Kevin Kwan and Gurinder Chadha, with a cheeky homage to the Chuckle Brothers in the sequence in which two people must carry a heavy box down the stairs.
