The latest film from Gurinder Chaddha, director of the smash hit Bend it like Beckham in 2001.

(Edited highlights of the panel's review taken from the teletext subtitles that are generated live for Newsnight Review.)

PD JAMES:
It's a whirl of colour and dance and music, noise, of beautiful women. It's far more Bollywood than it is Hollywood. Of course, it is very true to the story. But of course it's not subversive and it isn't really critical. I found it rather odd to think that these were modern Indian women, because there they were at home, apparently waiting for their mother to find the right man for them, and we know very well they have jobs and careers. They may be quite happy with arranged marriages but they like to have a choice presented. The choice has to be theirs. These girls seemed not to be, oddly, of that generation, which I thought was a little strange.

BONNIE GREER:
I think this was a fabulous movie. What it's made to do is make you feel good. That's what Gurinder Chadha does. She is a mainstream film maker, probably the only one in this country. She understands the market and how to talk to people. I was in a theatre full of Asian kids today and they were loving it. It's just about escape, going there, have a good time. She is very clever as well, because she sneaks in her culture. Her Sikh culture is in there. She makes comments about this white guy. If you think about Bend It Like Beckham, her last movie, there's always a white guy who learns something from an Asian point of view. It's very subtle, but they always get told in her movies. I think it's brilliant. It really made me happy when I left, and that's what she's doing.

HARI KUNZRU:
I am the curmudgeon. I thought this movie was made up by the marketing department. It's one of those canny ideas that looks very good on the financials, 50% broad wave, 50% Bollywood. Cast iron plot, Jane Austen, tried and tested, worked the last three times, and so they run that. For the first five minutes, I thought it might be brilliant. But it has the same problem as her last film, which was very poorly scripted. The story kind of loses its way. It's not sharp or crisp enough and they haven't got any characters!

KIRSTY WARK:
Do you think this is a kind of new genre, as it were?

BONNIE GREER:
She has taken a story, a template, and put it where it works. How many movies do you see where all the money is on the screen and it's not blue-screen technology, it's not animation? She uses tonnes of people. The lead actress is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in years on the screen. She can sing, she can dance. She can act. She can do the whole thing. It is a movie where you are supposed to feel good, feel happy, and you do.

HARI KUNZRU:
I have no problem with saying she was red hot!

BONNIE GREER:
It's a fabulous movie and it was wonderful.