There are two new heroes on Amazon Prime Video, coming to you in a way and form that you wouldn’t expect…just some kick-ass babes who fight for what’s right, fall in love and discover a nefarious plot by people who are pretending to be something they aren’t. Polite Society takes a couple of sisters from their mundane lives. It throws them into a story of epic spy proportions, making these Khan sisters the new action heroes for women everywhere.
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Welcome to Polite Society
The film follows the Khan sisters, who have arguably taken on roles and career paths that no one expected them to. The older sister, Lena Khan (Ritu Arya, from Umbrella Academy), is an aspiring artist. In contrast, Ria Khan (Priya Kansara), the younger sister, wants to be a stuntwoman more than anything. For South Asian women, this isn’t exactly what their family had hoped they would be.
When Lena falls in love with a geneticist, Salim (Akshaya Khanna), the sisters’ lives are flipped upside down. Lena feels she has found the man of her dreams, and everyone seems happy for her except Ria. Just a few months after falling in love, Salim proposes to Lena and the two speed towards a wedding, a race that is spurred on by Salim’s mother.
Ria feels that there is something strange about Lena’s future mother-in-law. She is determined to uncover the plot and save her sister from getting herself into something that she doesn’t yet understand but thinks she will regret. Is Lena really marrying into the family of her conniving mother-in-law, or is Ria just jealous and heartbroken that she has lost her sister?
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Now, I know what you are thinking, “where does the action and hero part come in?” While the movie has a slow burn at the start, it soon comes to light that the two have more to fight for than they think, and their dresses and saris won’t hold them back from getting dirty in the fight. Don’t believe me? Check out the trailer!
What’s so heroic about this movie?
The film has been excellently written and directed by Nida Manzoor to subvert expectations and to include plenty of genre references from action, thriller, comedy, and even chick-flick movies throughout the last couple of decades, bringing audiences everything that they know has inspired this film, and not being shy about it.
This fantastic action-comedy has been called a perfect love-child between Scott Pilgrim vs The World and Ms Marvel, and no, it’s not just because the sisters it focuses on have the last name, Khan. The movie seamlessly blends action and comedy while introducing elements like subterfuge and espionage in a way that turns a situation that could have been mundane into a spy epic.
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Polite Society is a film that has a little bit of everything. It doesn’t just focus on the ethnicities we are used to seeing but broadens perspectives to more cultures; there is an incredible amount of female empowerment within the film without “attacking” men the way that Barbie had been accused of doing. Instead of just being a sappy old love story, it speaks to the bond and friendship between sisters.
Although this movie might have been missed when it came out in theatres in April this year, its arrival on Amazon Prime Video will surely bring it a second life that no one could have expected. You can now stream Polite Society on Amazon Prime Video or purchase it from Amazon if that is more your vibe. Be warned, you might need a VPN to access this one, as the movie isn’t available in all regions through the streaming platform.
TL;DR
- Polite Society is a lovable story about sisters who unwittingly become the heroes of their own story.
- The movie subverts genre expectations, blurs the lines between action and comedy so well, and makes you think that the sisters are superheroes in a spy thriller.
- You can watch Polite Society on Amazon Prime Video, but you might need to do it quickly while the movie is up!