Polite Society — British-Pakistani life gets a madcap kung-fu mash-up

Sometimes only violence will do: a high kick straight to the pretensions. Such is the lesson of Polite Society, the fizzy new comedy from first-time feature director Nida Manzoor. A madcap genre jumble of martial arts and Bollywood-style slapstick, the aggro is largely carried out by 16-year-old Londoner Ria Khan (Priya Kansara), an aspirant stuntwoman. On her YouTube channel, she styles herself as The Fury. At school, she and her pals are less respectfully referenced. “Virgins!” cry the other girls.

Manzoor is a filmmaker with no end to her own personality. Still, geeked-out friendships in residential London may also stir memories of Edgar Wright’s much-loved Shaun of the Dead. But where Wright loosed zombies in Crouch End, here Shepherd’s Bush hosts a giddy mash-up of kung-fu, coming-of-age and heist movie. The wider cultural context, meanwhile, is the stuff of British-Pakistani life, rendered as both thematically vital and — with the airy shrug of 16-year-olds everywhere — no biggie.

Tradition only looms into frame when Ria’s art school dropout older sister Lena (Ritu Arya) agrees to an arranged marriage. To Ria, the charismatic Lena must be victim of a marital mind cult, imperilling her future as a famous artist. To Lena, her little sister should really learn to mind her own. Profound dramas have been built on less, although here the short-term response is a sibling brawl in a box bedroom.

Until about now, the energy Manzoor whips up is wholly infectious. The cartoonish and authentic flow in perfect harmony. Eventually though, the film becomes both more conventional and a little exhausting: a Haribo romp. Still, even at its silliest, the gags have spiky wit, and the emotional heft of adolescence underpins the mayhem. Manzoor, Arya and Kansara are all here to stay, you suspect. Buy a crash helmet.

★★★★☆

In cinemas from April 28