Described as “My Big Fat Greek Wedding meets Shaun of the Dead” and with a pun-tastic reference to Frank Capra’s classic, It’s a Wonderful Afterlife is the fifth feature from British film-maker Gurinder Chadha. The film is a laugh-out-loud comedy centred round Mrs Sethi (Indian megastar Shabana Amzi), an overprotective Indian mother and her self-imposed mission to marry off her plump daughter Roopi (theatre actress Goldy Notay). Mrs Sethi’s determination to secure a happily-ever-after for Roopi leads her to kill anyone who mocks or disrespects her beloved offspring and the action develops as the spirits of her victims come back to haunt her. The film, set amongst a British Asian community and shot on location and at Ealing Studios in London, opens in cinemas across the UK on 21 April.

From The Ladykillers to a Killer Lady

With the gist of their gory plot and the two main characters already figured out, Chadha and co-writer Paul Mayeda Burges were looking for the right tone and genre to wrap their story. Both fans of the Ealing Comedies, the classics produced by Ealing Studios in the 1950s, it soon became clear It’s a Wonderful Afterlife was to feel like a film from that period: “The tone for us was always: how do we keep these characters real and emotional and also have fun with them. Essentially the mum is a murderer and these spirits are people who are waiting to move on to their next life but you like them all, you want to feel throughout the film that they become better people because they learn that they must do good and therefore begin to help Roopi”, explains Burges.

To ensure the comedic tone of the story shone right through, Chadha called upon a cast comprised of established British and Asian performers to support Amzi and Notay, including Golden Globe winner Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky), who plays Roopi’s psychic best friend, TV comedian Sanjeev Bhaskar (The Kumars at No. 42), as one of Mrs Sethi’s victims, and Sendhil Ramamurthy (Heroes), as the policeman investigating the murders and Roopi’s love interest.

It’s a Wonderful Afterlife, which is set in the British Asian community where Chadha grew up, started filming in March 2009 in Ealing and Southall. West London-based writer-director Gurinder Chadha is no stranger to shooting in the capital. Scenes in Bend it Like Beckham – the film that shot her to fame – as well as Bollywood-style musical Bride and Prejudice and her previous feature Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, were all filmed on location or in studios in London.

More Than Laughs

Former BBC reporter Chadha, who was awarded an OBE in 2006 for her services to the British film industry, is well known for her efforts to portray British Asian culture on screen. Her latest film stays true to that same spirit: “I started making movies because I wanted to see more people that looked like me or my community on our screens and It’s a Wonderful Afterlife represents me taking those images and putting them into a genre we, as Asians, could never imagine we could see ourselves in”, reflects Chadha.

Zoë Wanamaker (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone), who plays Mrs Sethi’s Jewish neighbour and friend explains: “It’s really the situations that make the comedy. How human beings react to these crazy situations. And genre-wise, it’s a real amalgam. That’s why Gurinder is so clever. It’s about being Indian in England, and what’s great is that Britain has to accept that India is part of our culture. We are now multicultural and that’s why I like this script and the film.”

It’s a Wonderful Afterlife is distributed by Icon and it opens in cinemas across the UK on 21 April.