ANITA AND ME

Year: 2002
UK: Icon Film Distribution
Cast: Sanjeev Bhaskar, Kathy Burke, Ayesha Dharker, Lynn Redgrave, Max Beesley, Zohra Segal, Mark Williams, Kabir Bedi, Christine Tremarco, Meera Syal, Anna Brewster, Chandeep Uppal, Alex Freeborn
Director: Metin Huseyin
Country: UK
UK: 92 mins
UK Certificate: 12A contains moderate language, violence and sex references
UK Release Date: 22 November 2002

Synopsis

As the daughter of the only Punjabi family in a small English village in the early '70s, Meena (Chandeep Uppal) is stuck with a foot in two worlds. Hilarious, saucy, witty and possessing a robust spirit, Meena is, much to her parents chagrin, no angel: she fibs, commits minor thefts and misbehaves, sometimes to the horror of her prim and proper aunties. She is alternately amused and embarrassed by her comically quirky family and their love of the traditional ways. At the same time she idolises local lewd flower, Anita Rutter (Anna Brewster) the most outrageous, sassy, beautiful blonde in town, who runs a gang called the "wenches". Meena wheedles her way into Anita's life, but the arrival of a baby brother, teenage hormones, impending entrance exams for the posh grammar school and a motorcycling rebel without a future threaten to turn Meena's salad days sour. ANITA AND ME paints a comic poignant, compassionate and colourful portrait of village life in the era of flares, glam rock and Jackie magazine.