POLITE SOCIETY
*CUT TO THE CHASE*NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy
Chapter One: A Tale of Two Sisters
The film starts by introducing the Khan sisters. Ria (Priya Kansara) is an aspiring stuntwoman who practices martial arts and goes to a boarding school with her two best friends Alba (Ella Bruccoleri) and Clara (Seraphina Beh). Ria’s older sister Lena (Ritu Arya) is an art school dropout who is in a creative funk and is also depressed. She walks to a nearby shop and buys a whole rotisserie chicken to eat alone, and she is spotted by friends of her mother, Fatima (Shobu Kapoor). Despite this, Lena is Ria’s biggest supporter and frequently (albeit reluctantly) helps Ria film stunt videos for her YouTube channel.
Ria frequently writes to her idol, stuntwoman Eunice Huthart, for advice or a chance to learn from her. At school, her professor dismisses her aspirations, and Ria and her friends are mocked by bully Kovacs (Shona Babayemi). The two trade barbs with Kovacs antagonizing Ria’s ambitions while Ria brings up Kovacs’ criminal father, who is in jail for insider trading. This leads to a brawl in the library between the two girls, where Ria attempts to subdue Kovacs with a spinning kick, only to fall flat on her face.
Fatima is at an event with other women, including the wealthy Raheela Shah (Nimra Bucha), who has been trying to set up her son Salim (Akshay Kanna) with other women unsuccessfully. When the topic of Fatima’s daughters is brought up, the women mention Lena, and Raheela appears to form a sinister smile.
Chapter Two: Eid Soiree
Fatima tells the girls, plus husband Rafe (Jeff Mirza), that the family has been invited to a party to celebrate Eid, hosted by the Shahs. While the girls aren’t too thrilled, they arrive, and Ria talks to a friend, Jezah (Tia Dutt), as they both observe Salim talking to a group of potential female suitors. Ria then goes exploring around the mansion and comes across a room where she finds multiple photographs of different women, including Lena. When she goes back downstairs, Ria finds Lena chatting up Salim.
Lena begins to date Salim, thinking he is charming and that his work as a geneticist means he has noble intentions. However, Ria grows suspicious and disapproves of the relationship, calling Salim a “smarmy wanker”. However, Fatima tries to ensure that Ria doesn’t ruin things for Lena.
One afternoon, Ria comes home from school to find Lena and their parents gathered with Raheela and Salim. Lena then flashes a large engagement ring, and Ria is mortified at the news. When she tries to talk to Lena about how quickly she is moving with Salim, Lena tells Ria to stay out of her personal life.
Chapter Three: Operation Wifehunter
Ria enlists Alba and Clara’s help in digging up dirt on Salim. They find him at the gym, where they try to steal his laptop. Ria disguises herself as a man to get into the locker room and take the computer to give to Clara, who has hacking skills. When the job takes longer than expected, Ria undoes her disguise and has a smoothie with Salim to distract him, giving her friends time to hack into the laptop and give Alba an opportunity to disguise herself and plant the laptop back in his locker.
Back at home, Lena confronts Ria over her “bumping into” Salim at the gym, seeing it as Ria being more meddlesome than before. They get into an over-the-top fight, with Lena smashing Ria’s head against a mirror and throwing her through the door while Ria sinks her teeth into Lena’s arm before Fatima tells them to knock it off. Ria tells Lena that she is disappointed that she is giving up on her art prospects, but Lena tells her that she was never good enough for it anyway.
When Ria reconvenes with her friends, Clara tells her that they did not find any dirt on Salim and that maybe he really is as well-intentioned as he seems. Ria then suggests that they deliberately plant dirt on Salim, which Alba and Clara think is going too far. Ria tells them to fuck off for not supporting her, and the girls leave Ria alone.
Chapter Four: Assault on Shah Mansion
Ria sneaks into the Shah’s mansion at night while Raheela and Salim are watching TV, but they overhear the commotion. Ria makes it to Salim’s bedroom and plans to plant used condoms on his bed before she finds a box containing a picture of Salim and another woman. Raheela finds Ria and contacts her family. Lena and their parents arrive, infuriated by Ria’s actions. When Ria brings up the woman in the picture, Salim tells them that she was his last wife who sadly passed away, and the work he is doing is to prevent illnesses in other women like with his wife. Ria feels remorseful, but Lena will not speak to her.
Fatima orders Ria to go back to the Shahs to make things right. Ria brings muffins to Raheela, who invites her to a spa session. Things turn malicious when Raheela has her minions hold Ria down as they aggressively wax her body hair, and Raheela makes it clear that she does have big plans for Lena that she intends to see through. Ria breaks free and runs away, fighting off some of the goons before entering a lab full of strange mechanisms, as well as a computer showing files on multiple women, including Lena and Ria herself. She realizes that they were photographed at the Eid party and had information gathered on them. Ria escapes before Raheela can get her.
Ria runs back home and privately talks to Fatima about what she saw, urging her not to let Lena marry Salim, but Fatima thinks Ria is too delusional to believe her.
Feeling alone, Ria writes one last message to Eunice, saying that she is giving up on her stuntwoman ambitions since Lena gave up on her art career. Back at school, Ria finds Alba and Clara, who are still not speaking to her, but she apologizes to them and begs for their help in saving Lena after explaining what she found. After reconciling, the girls also speak to Kovacs and ask to borrow her car in exchange for helping her with his history class coursework.
Chapter Five: The Wedding
After extensively rehearsing their plans, the girls arrive at the wedding to try and kidnap Lena to save her. Alba and Clara disguise themselves as wait staff and make their way into Lena’s room and knock her out with a chloroform rag. Raheela catches wind of what is going on and finds Ria, engaging in a fight with her. Ria brings up the lab and the documents about Lena’s body, specifically her womb. Raheela reveals that the plan is for Salim to take Lena to an island in Singapore where he will inseminate her and create a clone of Raheela to live out the life that she never could due to the sacrifices she made for her son. Raheela captures Ria and orders Alba and Clara to bring Lena back if they want her alive. The girls relent.
Raheela gets Lena and takes her down to get married. Ria regains consciousness and fights off the villains with help from Alba, Clara, and Kovacs. They make it to the service, where Ria brandishes a gun to get everyone’s attention. When she reveals the Shahs’ plans, everyone laughs at her, but Ria tries to get Lena to listen to her. Raheela disarms Ria and makes her intentions known, ordering Lena to go through with the marriage. Lena realizes from vague memories that Salim was experimenting on her, which he confirms when he talks about how great her womb is, and even says his late wife was weak. Fatima then whacks Raheela with a chair and orders her daughters to run. Ria’s friends help hold off Raheela’s goons while the sisters make it outside.
Just as Ria and Lena attempt to get away, Raheela and Salim confront them. Salim holds Lena back while Raheela attempts to choke Ria out. When it looks like she’s knocked out, Ria gets back up and recites a line she has been quoting the whole time – “The gods whispered to the warrior, ‘You cannot withstand the fury.’ And the warrior whispered, ‘I AM the fury!'” With this, Ria finally accomplishes her spinning kick as she knocks Raheela out, and Lena kicks Salim in the balls. The sisters get away, and the police arrive to arrest Raheela and Salim.
Ria and Lena drive away, reflecting on everything that has happened, now reconnecting like true sisters. They get a bite to eat and then park somewhere to film Ria’s spinning kick move. Ria then gets a message on her phone from none other than Eunice. She encourages Ria to continue her stuntwoman aspirations and says Lena is a good big sister after what Ria wrote about her. Eunice invites Ria to her studio to train and get brunch. Ria is excited, and Lena records her doing another spinning kick.
Ria Khan is an aspiring stuntwoman, while her older sister Lena is an art school dropout who has fallen into a depression. Their family is invited to an Eid party by the wealthy Raheela Shah, who intends for her son Salim to be set up with Lena. After Ria discovers a room in their mansion with photographs of multiple women, including Lena, Ria believes the Shahs have sinister intentions. Making matters worse is that Lena quickly gets engaged to Salim.
Ria enlists her friends Alba and Clara to help get dirt on Salim, but he appears to be as well-intentioned as he seems. Ria's obsession with breaking up her sister's engagement drives a wedge between her and Lena, alienating her friends from her. When Ria tries planting dirt on Salim, she learns about his late wife and feels remorseful. When her mother orders her to make things right, Ria goes back to the Shah house and learns that Raheela truly is planning something sinister with Lena. Ria finds a lab containing info on Lena's biological makeup, but when she tries to warn her family, her cries fall on deaf ears.
Ria apologizes to her friends and even teams up with bully Kovacs to infiltrate the wedding and save Lena. Raheela fights Ria and reveals that the plan is to create a clone of Raheela by having Salim inseminate Lena, so that the new Raheela can live the life she never could due to the sacrifices she made for Salim. After the plan is revealed in front of everyone at the wedding, Ria and Lena's mother helps the girls escape. Ria knocks Raheela out with a spinning kick while Lena kicks Salim in the balls, and they are left to be arrested.
Ria and Lena reconcile, and Ria gets a message from her idol, stuntwoman Eunice Huthart, inviting her to meet to help her in her ambitions.