Bhaji on the Beach

A group of Asian 'sisters' go on a women's trip to Blackpool, only to be pursued and confronted by their menfolk. Plot and motivation are both contrived, but once the story gets going, first-time director Gurinder Chadha extracts maximum fun from her sedate matrons and wild teenagers let loose in a working-class holiday hell; she is, in fact, as comfortable with the bhaji as the beach. Segal is wonderfully wrong-headed as chief of the censorious aunties, and Ahmed delightful as the wistful shopkeeper Asha, who meets a camp old English actor (Cellier) and cavorts with him in Bollywood daydreams. The men - the stage villains of the piece - do the best they can.