East Is East

Three teenagers are sitting in front of a TV, enjoying their large helpings of pork sausage and bacon. Suddenly they hear a door opening and immediately start cleaning up all of the dishes and unsuccessfully try to get rid of the fumes of grilled bacon and sausages that billowed through the whole house. This is, of course, not depicting the normal life of three teenagers, but taken from the film "East Is East" by Damien O'Donnell. It deals with the story of a family in England in the 1970s with a Pakistani father (multi-facetted enacted by Om Puri) who still believes in his Pakistani traditions and his Muslim religion and an English mother (great performance by Linda Bassett) who tries to give her seven children as much freedom as all of their "fully English" friends enjoy. This movie was labeled as a Comedy both in theaters and on DVD or VHS, but anybody looking for light-hearted entertainment fitting for a Saturday night will be hugely disappointed. This movie is out to teach the viewer about how difficult it is to get two very different cultures to not only co-exist peacefully next to each other, but to merge them to create a new one. The script by Ayub Khan-Din, who also wrote the book and the stage version of this movie, does have its funny moments, and the whole cast, including the children, is in for some good laughs. But the more intense moments are those where the viewer has to deal with outbursts of domestic violence or things like arranged marriages that seem so far away and cruel to Westerners. The cast shows its brilliance in those intimate moments. Even though the script might sometimes appear to be too ambitious – there are just too many characters all developing in a very distinct manner and all crucial to the movie – the movie can be recommended to anyone who is not looking for a standard comedy and is willing to have his views on life challenged.

"East is East" tried to cover too many issues and genres in the one film. In the end I don't think the script was strong enough to tie all this together, and the film suffered because of it. Having said that I believe it was a strong performance from a talented cast.

In it's favour there were some hilarious scenes throughout the movie, and an insight into the Pakistani families and communities in England. Not the typical English stereotypes usually portrayed by Hollywood, nor the typical London lifestyle so often seen in movies today, which was a refreshing change.

Oh Yeah, this confirmed how dangerous and damaging religion has the potential to be. Definitely worth a look.

Engaging, well-made comedy based on the play by Ayub Khan-Din concerning the misfortunes of an Anglo-Pakistani family verging on the brink of change in early 1970s Salford. Traditional dad Om Puri is shocked when his oldest son (Ian Aspinall) runs away from an arranged wedding, and decides that from now on his family will be more respectful. Among his plans are the weddings of two of his other sons, both of whom are far from delighted with the idea. Khan-Din's fine script never resorts to cliche resulting in a funny, study of the clash between the old and the new.

Linda Bassett as superb as Puri's second wife, an English woman who straddles both camps between her husband's traditionalism and her kids' sense of rebellion while nonetheless attempting to keep her own dignity.

Fine performances from Chris Bisson and Jimmi Harkishin (Coronation Street) and Jimi Mistry (EastEnders) while little Jordan Routledge is great as the parka-loving Sajid.

However, it's Puri who shines as the complex father, desperately trying to hang on to tradition and finding nothing but rebellion from his family.

The ending could easily have been a familiar family seeks revenge on their overbearing father but what results is a refreshing change to the many TV movies that usually opt for an easy solution to a difficult problem.

`East is East,' something of a modern day version of `Fiddler on the Roof,' explores the culture clash that occurs in the context of a half Pakistani/half British family living in early 1970's England. George Khan is a Muslim who, upon immigrating to Great Britain in 1937, married a British woman despite the fact that his first wife still lives in Pakistan. Now, twenty five years later, the still happily married couple lives in a small apartment with their daughter and six sons all of whom have been raised to honor their father's religion and traditions. Yet, like Tevye, George is suddenly confronted with the fact that, as times change and the world moves on, the younger generation will no longer abide by the archaic rituals of an ancient age. In many ways, this is the flip side of `Fiddler' in that here the reluctant marriage partners are sons and not daughters. For indeed, George's ultimate goal in life is to arrange marriages for his teenaged sons within the accepted tradition of the Muslim faith. But culture is often a force that parents try in vain to withstand and these children, raised in the far more open and liberated society of `mod' England, are not about to take such dictatorial parental control lying down.

In the script based on his play, Ayub Khan-Din provides an evenhanded and comprehensive view of the situation. George is not presented to us as an inflexible or unreasonable ogre, yet at the same time, he will, in his frustration, strike out even physically at the children and the wife who seem to oppose him. We sense the fear that runs through him that, if his sons are allowed to exercise their freedom in this one crucial area, the family will sever that connection with the past which brings stability to their lives. Thus, without any traditions to anchor them, George dreads that he and the family will be cut adrift in a seemingly rudderless world that suddenly seems in the 1970's to be in such great and terrifying moral flux. Moreover, we are left to ponder the strange contradiction between George's own words and the choices he himself has made. After all, his opting to marry a British woman who does not share the tenets of his faith obviously went beyond the bounds of the very traditions he is now so dogmatically insisting his sons uphold. This type of ambiguity within the characters enhances their credibility, for indeed life and the people we meet therein come replete with such maddening inconsistencies.

Khan-Din and director Damien O'Donnell establish an effective balance between low-key humor and occasionally searing drama. The relationship between the husband and wife who comprise this interracial marriage is complexly realized and fully drawn; the obvious difficulties the two have experienced as a result of the nonconformity of their union has obviously strengthened their devotion to one another and they appear to greatly enjoy each other's company. She has undoubtedly made any number of concessions and compromises to her husband's belief system, yet she has retained her British feistiness and knows how far to let George go before she draws the line, especially when it comes to protecting the rights and happiness of her own progeny. In a similar way, we see, in thorough detail, the complexities that make up the two very different sets of relationships between the respective parents and their children. Din and O'Donnell have, wisely, chosen to limit the scope of their film by downplaying the broader theme of how a suspicious and prejudiced society deals with so unconventional a marriage and family. We see only bits and pieces of this in the form of bigoted comments uttered by a disapproving neighbor and a mere mention of a political rally intended to rouse the populace on the issue of `repatriation.' Instead, the authors concentrate almost exclusively on the internecine struggles taking place within this one family. This helps to keep the scale of the film life-sized, thus enhancing our identification with the characters and their universal parent/child conflicts. For, in a way, the Khan family is really not undergoing any crisis not already familiar to countless families the world over, as parents cope with children eager to cut the filial chords and establish life on their own terms and as children, likewise, deal with parents who want to determine the course those lives will take. The Khans just happen to provide a more heightened and intensified view of this subject.

`East is East' is a small movie but an absorbing one. Thanks to uniformly excellent performances from a gifted cast and a careful modulation between humor and drama, the film emerges as a compelling and insightful glimpse into a life that is, as for all of us, so full of both terrifying and wonderful complexity.

This film depicts ultimate realism for people who have grown up in multi racial environments. The graphic nature of the language only goes to reinforce the raw acceptance of the cultural influence of the times and area in which the film is set (70's Manchester, England). The director has captured the emotional elements the script intended perfectly. It was obviously deeply researched. The character portrayal of the dominant father is by no means stereotypical of the part, but is truly based on the difficulties encountered by the respected head of any multicultural family. His six sons and one daughter are experiencing the natural mix of eastern and western influence and putting their own spin on their existence, much to their father's dismay. The character of the mother portrays the natural ethnic blindness that should be much admired and is yet so common throughout the world. The humor is very real. Every family, if they look back on their own historical events would come to recognise the similarity of the situations encountered. The work surely ranks among the very best in regional exposure along side the likes of "Kes" etc. Well worth watching more than once