An aspiring martial artist believes she has to save her older sister from her impending marriage. With the help of her friends, she must pull off the greatest wedding heist in the name of independence and sisterhood. A film by Nida Manzoor.

The story follows two sisters living with their parents in London, Ria Khan (Priya Kansara), a teenager who dreams of becoming a stuntwoman like Eunice Huthart (A real famous British stunt double whose clients include Angelina Jolie, Milla Jovovich, Uma Thurman, and Famke Janssen) and Lena (Ritu Arya), her older sister who recently dropped out of art school.

Ria adores her sister so much since Lena is the only person who understands her passion and doesn’t disapprove of her like her teacher and their parents do. Lena assists Ria producing martial art videos for her YouTube channel, she also watched all her videos.

One evening, Raheela (Nimra Bucha) the wealthiest and leader of the Pakistani moms group, invites the Khan family to her lavish mansion for an Eid Mubarak soirée (An evening party held to celebrate the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan). Ria soon realizes the party is just a façade, for the real purpose is to find a suitable wife for Salim (Akshay Khanna), a successful geneticist and the only son of Raheela.

Lena quickly falls in love with Salim and agrees to move to Singapore immediately after their wedding ceremony. Ria, however, is convinced that her sister must have been brainwashed, so she enlists her best friends, Clara (Seraphina Beh) and Alba (Ella Bruccoleri) to help her find a way to stop the wedding at all cost.

Unfortunately they fail to find any evidence that could implicate Salim. Ria’s diabolical scheme to plant false evidence has also gone totally wrong, and her erratic behavior upsets everyone including her sister and her best friends.

Ria decides to give up martial arts. Later, she visits Raheela to apologize for her wrongdoing. Raheela reveals her true face and tries to torture Rita with waxing as punishment. As she flees, Ria hides in a storage room and uncovers a hidden lab where she finds a computer containing fertility data secretly collected from all the eligible women who attended the party that night.

However, she knows that nobody’s going to believe her after that incident she made. She must find another way to sabotage the wedding ceremony and rescue her beloved sister before it’s too late.

POLITE SOCIETY is an action comedy film directed and written by British director Nida Manzoor, in her directorial debut. The film is family-friendly entertaining, it’s packed with action sequences, probably drawn inspiration from Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010). The film criticizes on the tradition of Pakistani people, the limited role of women in its culture, and the expectation of the parents.

Although the film feels a bit too long, especially in the middle part where things get kind of repetition and not much is moving forward. It takes too much time telling the same plot that has been told many times before; such as the scene where everyone doesn’t trust the protagonist even she begins to question herself.

Some scenes work really well, I love the heist scene where the protagonist disguises herself as a man to steal target’s computer from men’s locker room. But it just falls flat in another scene where the protagonist easily stumbles into a supposedly secret laboratory hidden inside a storage room. Not only there’s no lock on its door, the computer inside also doesn’t require any password, it’s just there for everyone to access the data freely.

The costume design is exceptionally beautiful accompanied by great selection of songs. The cinematography in Bollywood style helps elevate several memorable moments. I love the close-up shot of the villain’s wicked face and the protagonist’s exotic dance scene.

POLITE SOCIETY premiered at Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2023. The film was theatrically released in UK and USA on April 28, it became available on VOD on May 15.