Bend It Like Beckham film a score of 85% based on 151 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The consensus states, "Inspiring, compassionate, and with a sly undercurrent of social commentary, Bend It Like Beckham is a lively feel-good movie that genuinely charms." Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" noted that the film "was really full of easy humor, an impeccable sense of milieu that is the result of knowing the culture intimately enough to poke fun at it while understanding its underlying integrity." "The Times of India" noted the film's social context, saying, "[it] is really about the bending of rules,
It girl film was planned as a special showcase for its popular star Clara Bow, and her spectacular performance introduced the term "It" to the cultural lexicon. The film plays with the notion that "It" is a quality which eschews definitions and categories; consequently, the girl portrayed by Bow is an amalgam of an ingenue and a femme fatale, with a touch of Madonna's latter day "Material Girl" incarnation. By contrast, Bow's rival in the script is equally young and comely (and rich and well-bred to boot), yet she doesn't have "It". Since the 1990s, "It Girl" or "It-Girl" has been used