East Is East Review
by Gary Jones (gary AT bohr DOT demon DOT co DOT uk)December 11th, 1999
East Is East (7/10)
Set in 1971 in Salford, East is East concerns the mixed race Khan family in which George, the Muslim father of the family, struggles to maintain the traditions of his native Pakistan while running a fish and chip shop with Ella, his English wife. George's children refer to him as Ghengis and are intimidated into conforming with the expectations of Pakistani culture, a culture which they feel as foreign. Apart from one son who takes his Islamic instruction seriously, this next generation of Khans sees little value in dietary restrictions, circumcisions and arranged marriages, but is instead attracted to bacon, visits to the local disco and snogs in the back alleys. Although we are aware of the racial tension conflict between the Khans and some of their neighbours, this never threatens to overwhelm the story - we are more concerned with the struggles within the Khan household, and this saves the film from being overly worthy.
Adapted by Ayub Khan-Din from his own play, the film centres on the patriarchal George (Om Puri) and the no-nonsense Northern housewife Ella (Linda Bassett). Both lead performances are excellent. George is at once a monster, capable of beating his wife and children, and a victim of his fear of betraying his cultural heritage. The situation is not one that obviously lends itself to comedy, and we are always aware of the grimness of the family's situation, but much humour is found in the daily routine and conflicts in the Khan household, and in George's efforts to arrange a suitable marriage for his sons.
Partly a harrowing social drama and partly a comedy of family life, the film never quite stands out as either. It is nevertheless encouraging that the British film industry can make films that are very much home- grown product in the tradition of socially-aware British film-making, and provide the distribution and marketing to make them commercially successful, at least in the UK domestic market. It will be interesting to see how the film performs elsewhere.
--
Gary Jones <[email protected]>
Homepage: www.bohr.demon.co.uk
PGP public key available from servers (DH/DSS key ID: 0x11EAE903)
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
