East Is East

I wish there were more movies about the different cultures in the UK. Not just the Anglo, but the Asian and West Indian perspectives. Even the Southeast Asian view. The Middle Easterners have shown great strides with movies like "Bend It Like Beckham" and a few others. This movie got away from me until recently. I saw in the library video section and decided to check it out. The box is very misleading. They put a young interracial couple, front and center on the cover when actually their subplot is very peripheral to the story. I guess the movie studio figured they'd get a wider audience interested with younger faces on the cover since the main characters look to be in their 50s.

George Khan (Om Puri) has left his native Pakistan to live in the UK with its soveriegnty ties. Though he has a wife back in his homeland (she is only mentioned, not seen), he marries a white Englishwoman, Ella (Lynda Bassett). They have 7 kids: 6 boys and 1 girl. Flash forward to the late 60s (where the movie actually begins) and we see his kids are truly English in behavior though he stresses that they must go to Mosque to study and worship. His oldest is to be wed in an arranged marriage to a woman he hardly knows. He runs out in the middle of the ceremony in fear, embarrassing his family especially his father who disowns him. This sets the tone of the movie. His kids are English-born and want to live like their friends in their working-class neighborhood but George wants to raise them as traditional Muslims, despite opposition from his wife, Ella, who only wants the kids to be happy. She tries to help them avoid run-ins with their father who despite his cheerfulness is quite an ogre when angered. The kids range in attitude and indifference toward George's attempts to introduce them to the traditional ways.

This is a decent introduction to immigrant life in the UK especially since it's set during a time when there was political strife over immigration of non-whites into Britain. Though it's an effective comedy, it also touches on the frustration immigrants of any culture go through to hold onto or reject their identity. The only thing marring this movie is a domestic violence scene that may bother some. Still a very good movie worth seeing.

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.

"East is East"- another boring film we have to watch in our English lesson. These were my first thoughts when I heard that this film will be the next topic our English class has to deal with. But that is absolutely not the case! This film is a great enrichment for the viewer and it is no boring stuff at all.

Ayub Khan-Din wrote a fantastic script which is perfectly put into action by Damien O'Donnell. The cast members did a good job by giving their characters influences to link them into the right direction. For example Om Puri who played his complex character "George Khan" with such a conviction and even the youngest cast member Jordan Routledge who has absolutely not to hide behind his co-cast members in his performance of „Sajid Khan". Also the setting in the 70's is a big success so that you get the impression as if you are living within this time. Mostly I liked the way the writers handled the difficult topic of the different lifestyles of Pakistani and British people without speaking in favour for one group. They used a lot of prejudices about both cultures but they converted it into funny scenes everybody has to laugh about. So a good balance between comedy and tragedy is created because of the spontaneous comic relieves. The film gives a good opportunity for watching it for entertainment but also for talking seriously about it, like for example the two generations and their different points of view: On the one hand we can see the young generation of Sajid who does not care if his friend Earnest is a Pakistani or not. And also Tariq who does not want to be a devout Pakistani and likes partying all night even if his father gets angry about it. But on the other hand, there is the older generation of immigrants George belongs to which is extremely influenced by their traditional values and it is hard for them to adapt to the British society. It seems as if especially George does not learn from his mistakes: After the failed arranged marriage of eldest son Nazir, he tries to plan marriages for his sons Tariq and Abdul who are strongly against it. At the end, left alone from his family, George seems to be contemplative and Ella goes back to him for reconciliation. But the viewer does not get to know whether George changes his behaviour or not but you can still hope it! And that's why "East is East" is such an intoxicating movie: Everybody can identify with one of the characters and so you suffer with Ella when she is beaten up by her husband, you laugh with the siblings when they are teasing each other, you want to give them good advices and most importantly, you think about what you would have done in their situation.

So I can really recommend watching this movie because of the good balance of comical and tragically effects, the great actors and not to forget, the fantastic story written by a man who collected his first experiences by creating this script which was such a success.

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