East Is East Review
by "Murali Krishnan" (murali24 AT my-deja DOT com)September 2nd, 2000
Review: East is East (2000)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
[3.0/4.0]
The immigrant experience can be difficult for families where the parents adhere to the customs of one culture, while raising their children amidst another. This film is an exploration of this conflict, with the additional complication that the children are interracial.
The film is set in the early 1970's and begins by introducing George Khan (Om Puri), a Pakistani immigrant who 25 years earlier married a white Englishwoman, Ella (Linda Bassett). The couple, along with their 7 children, run a small fish and chips shop in Northern England. The large family is cramped in a small house in a working class neighborhood and manage a decent existence on their limited income. Their cramped quarters is often a source of conflict, but the main source of tension by far is the clash between George's desire for the children to strictly observe Islamic and Pakistani customs, and their desire not to.
The children are able to cope by meeting George's overbearing demands when he is around, and by doing what they want (drink, eat pork, date) when he is not, although some individuals rebel more than the others. The dichotomy between their actual existence and the one they present to their father, plus the difficult manipulations required to hold the two separate, provides much of the humor in the film. The children manage this dual existence, but only to the point when their father decides to arrange their marriages. This is one event where they cannot both placate their father and satisfy themselves.
The story of a domineering and sometimes abusive father, and the ensuing conflict is not particularly original. The interesting aspects of the relationships in this story are George's motivations and his apparent hypocrisy. George is clearly holding his children to a stricter standard when it comes to marriage choice than he held himself. Part of the reason is that he is proud of his own ethnicity, but he sees that without his overt control, his children's culture will diverge from his. George does not see his children as fully Pakistani, so he attempts to force them to be.
Another reason for George's behavior has to do with why the story was set in the 1970's. At that time, British residents of South Asian origin were subject to more overt racism, like a political movement for repatriation. Although there are some who will always be prejudiced against a differing skin color, others will only reject a person of a different culture. The Khan children have little trouble in their associations with their contemporaries because they are British kids just like their friends.
The story, written by Ayub Khan-Din and based on his original play, is built on a solid foundation, but could have gone further in its explorations. The conflict between George and his children exists only at a surface level, whereas George's internal motivations are more engaging. The film focuses more on the former, although Puri is able to express the character as more than just a brute, as the underwritten role might project. The relationship between George and Ella is also seemingly rich yet underserved. Basset is convincing as a woman who yields to her husbands demands not through fear or weakness, but through empathy and love. It is unfortunate that the plot focus so little on this dimension. The direction by Damien O'Donnell is capable but not particularly noteworthy. The film does manage to balance drama and humor, although its sense of humor can be quite crude and not all that funny.
Recommended. The story does not simply use the stereotype of the authoritarian immigrant father, and thus it presents an intelligent examination of the cross-cultural family. The clash of mindsets is used as both of source of conflict and of humor. The film would have been more engaging if it had delved further into the relationship between the parents, instead of spending too much time focusing on the children. It will be entertaining for a general audience, but it will have the most resonance with viewers familiar with the immigrant experience.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(c) 2000 Murali Krishnan
The Art House Squatter
http://ArtHouseSquatter.com
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.
