Namastey London [DVD] [2007]

This rather bland film with its paint-by-numbers romance and dodgy acting is really not worth anyone's time. Akshay Kumar's character comes off as rather an oaf, and Katrina Kaif, with her bizzarely american-ish sounding hindi is utterly unlikeable. The only good bit of the film is the rugby match, but you won't want to sit through this drivel just for that.

I'm an Indian man who has lived in the UK for 25 years. India is a magical country. I was born there and grew up there. I will always love India, but my home is here now. I have had a very good 25 years here on the whole and have made great friends of all races and backgrounds.

My sister and I were looking forward to seeing this film, but we found it so distasteful in its portrayals of British people that we were really angry and upset. According to the film, British people are racist, ignorant, indecent, cheap, vulgar, unprincipled, stupid... you name it. Not like decent, upstanding, religious, respectful Indians, of course!

Quite a few Hindi films include this sentiment, but none more offensively to me than this one. The part where an Indian Muslim guy is told he will not be allowed by a British family to marry their daughter unless he changes his name to "Emanuel" was ridiculous. I've never ever heard of anything like that here. However, in India I do know an English girl who had to legally change her name to a Hindu one and become a Hindu before she was allowed to marry an Indian man.

As for the speech given by Akshay Kumar (what's with the bright orange hair, by the way?), I've also seen inequality, racism, sexism, vulgarity, drunkenness, marital violence and other problems and injustices in India. India has its share of these, just like anywhere else. They aren't just Western problems, as films like this would have you believe.

Hindi films also show Western women as promiscuous and "cheap". However, as a teenager there, a good many of my Indian female friends under the age of 16 and from "good families" were sexually active. It happens all over the world. Yes, in India too. And frankly, if being a good woman is to be submissive and walk in her husband's shadow as a lot of Hindi films portray, how outdated a notion - dreamt up by men, of course.

Many Hindi films have patriotic themes running through them, but you can show love and pride for your country without ridiculing and denigrating others. That's not patriotism, in my books. It makes me cringe, just as it does when I hear people here make fun of the French, for instance.

There is a lot wrong with the UK, a LOT. I've seen racism, ignorance and much more besides here. However, when I was last in India in 2008, I heard people using the N word to describe black people, I heard derogatory comments about Chinese people. I remember a friend in India having huge problems because she was Bengali and wanted to marry a Gujarati man. Not to mention how I saw the poor being treated. There's bigotry and intolerance everywhere, in any country you go to. Sad, but true. It's certainly not just a British problem. Having lived equal halves of my life in each country, I find there is no more bigotry here than there. I don't tolerate it when I come up against it in my life and would not have bought this movie had I known what a horrid, ignorant, racist, little movie it was.

Namastey London is stuck in pre 1947 India. It's still "fighting the Raj". It's got a huge chip on its shoulder. My DVD copy ended up in the bin along with the BNP flyers that came through my letterbox.

This is a really good film it highlights differences between the generations and cultures. It is very tender and has a happy ending.