Hem and Football

This is one of the most extraordinary fictional works on sport that I’ve seen and certainly on women and sport. The principal character is called Hemprova Mitra, or Hem for short. She’s a Bengali girl from Calcutta who is chafing at school and family restrictions, and she decides that her school should have a football team. She’s a gay woman, and she leaves her husband who she’s married to as a result of an arranged marriage. She rejects her family and takes a female lover, and football seems to propel her and give her confidence as a character moving through life. It’s a much more interesting story than Bend It Like Beckham was, which some might compare it to.