05/06/03’s illustrious band:

Juicy Juicy Mangoes

Brought to you by Bend It Like Beckham, a brilliant movie I saw over the weekend.

Bend It is the story of two young British women, Jules and Jess, who want to be footballers -- soccer players. Their families don’t approve. Jules’s blonde bimbo-esque mother wants her to wear push-up bras and get a boyfriend, saying, “There’s a reason Sporty Spice is the only one who hasn’t got a fella.” Jess’s tradition-minded Indian parents keep bugging her to put “playtime” behind her and become a proper, marriage-seeking Indian woman like her sister. It’s the story of anyone who has ever defied cultural and/or familial expectations to pursue her or his true passion.

Today’s band name comes from a scene in which a seamstress is measuring Jess for a sari to wear to her sister’s wedding. Jess has a very modest bosom, but the seamstress promises that with snug fitting, “Even these little mosquito bites will look like juicy juicy mangoes!” Jules has the same sort of moment early in the film while bra shopping with her mother. Mom wants Jules to put down the sports bra and get one with inflatable inserts that will lift and define her assets -- and, standing in the front window of the shop, she grabs them to demonstrate. Mo-ther!

The movie has much to recommend it, including a warm heart, a great sense of humor, strife, romance, excellent characters who avoid becoming caricatures, eye-popping color, a truly funky score, bloodless action sequences and more accents than you can shake a cricket bat at. So go see it. If you’re in town, take me along, because I’d love to see it again.

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