Allelujah is a film adaptation of Alan Bennett’s original play – with an added writing credit for Heidi Thomas – which premiered at the Bridge Theatre in 2018. It revolves around the fictional Yorkshire-based hospital where a geriatric ward is threatened with closure, and the local community rallying around to save it. It’s ultimately a light viewing not to be taken with a serious film-making lens, at its best when depicting the northerners’ community and bringing the citizens to life.
Firstly, there’s an introduction to the doctor, who is played convincingly by Bally Gill. We’re shown a beginning depicting a video call with the Punjabi-speaking family back in the pind* (*village) and the self-deprecating nature of the immigrant having to sanitise their name to meet the Wakefield locals. “Doctor Valentine is what they call me, it’s easier to say” he tells the family instead of his name Valiyaveetil. We can only assume whether they’d have a go at saying Dostoyevsky.
Well then, the opening was promising despite the rehashed stereotypes of someone of south Asian heritage to be a doctor. There is one other south Asian character who is not deployed in the stereotypical nature, and he works for the local television station. We’re told of Dr. Valentine’ about caring for the elderly (shock horror, a trope about Indian diaspora is deployed here nature to care for the elderly). It feels like the family of Dr. V is used to forward the plot in no real ways, and that to me felt like it was a superficial inclusion and a missed opportunity. I mean, who’d have loved to see the fundraising efforts for lovingly nicknamed “Beth” from India? I know I’d certainly have liked that. A bit of reinventing the wheel would not have gone amiss!
We get a flickering of various narrative strands. These alternate between the characters who are given end of life care (one dies, which is quite sad as the build-up to their death gives us some common relation), as well as Colin Coleman – the management consultant played by Russell Tovey – though the depth of the investigation felt surface-level. The tonal shift towards the end was quite a surprise, and not what I anticipated for those who like a neat ending.
At its heart, Allelujah weaves together interesting-enough strands but ultimately fails to explore their full potential.
Its star casting is quite unremarkable in sheer honesty, with Judi Dench appearing to be cast for being quite simply Judi Dench as opposed to portraying an elderly northerner with conviction. I would recommend it for those people who clapped for the NHS during the Covid-19 pandemic, with its blatant homage to socialised medicine but ultimately felt rough around the edges despite its relatively feel-good nature.