East is East (film)
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East is East is a BAFTA award-winning British comedy film released in 1999.
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[edit] Overview
The film is set in a mixed Pakistani-English household in Salford, Manchester in 1971. George Khan expects his family to follow his strict Pakistani Muslim ways. But his children, with an English mother and having been born and brought up in Britain, increasingly see themselves as British and start to reject their father's rules on dress, food, religion, and living in general.
[edit] Detailed plot
George Khan has been married to an English woman named Ella for 25 years, and has seven children with her. The trouble begins when Nazir, their first-born son, bails out of marrying the Pakistani girl his father has chosen for him at the last minute, leading to a bitter estrangement. But life marches on in the busy Khan household as the youngest son Sajid is discovered to be uncircumcised. The boy is horrified at his father's plans to have the ceremonial surgery carried out, and tries to resist, but in vain. Meanwhile, marriage is still on George's mind, and accepts to be introduced to a Mr. Shah, who is looking for good Pakistani bridegrooms for his two ridiculously ugly daughters. Despite having seen the daughters' photographs, George promises Mr. Shah that his second and third sons, Tariq and Abdul, will marry them. Sajid overhears George's plans, and spills the beans to his brothers, which sends the family spinning into a crisis.
George is a character both intransigent and violent, he is the root of the family conflict. Each conflict with each member of the Khan family occupies a different position along the fault line. Om Puri gives George paternal conservatism from which there is rich humour in his juggling act of trying to control the family by using Muslim values in a predominantly Christian society.
Nazir, the eldest, is gay and after fleeing an arranged marriage, he is disowned by his father. The multicultural homosexual aspect has links to another Channel 4 film production My Beautiful Laundrette. Maneer is religious and believes that his family will never be properly regarded as ‘English’. Saleem is an art student who pretends to be studying engineering to appease his father.
Slapstick visual comedy is used when tomboy Meenah kicks a football through Mr Moorhouse’s window. His angry face is framed by what remains of his Enoch Powell poster. This gives the impression that all racists are the same and that they all have the same motives. Moreover, Meenah playing football is against George’s beliefs that a woman’s place is in the household whilst wearing a sari.
Some of the humour comes from incongruity – from hearing a young man gilded from head to toe in Muslim wedding finery open his mouth and speak broad Salford – but beneath the easy laughs a stealthy intelligence is at work. Mr Moorhouse's silent hostility is comically undermined by the friendly overtures of his grandson Earnest, who longs to be part of the Khans' gang. And when his granddaughter Stella attempts to play Juliet to Tariq's Romeo – "I'll never let your father's colour come between us".
Sajid is permanently parka-clad and is mostly an observer to the unfolding family drama. Furthermore, Sajid being moved into an operating theatre in his parka also creates visual comedy.
[edit] Trivia
- Director: Damien O'Donnell
- Original play by: Ayub Khan-Din
- George Khan: Om Puri
- Music composed by: Deborah Mollison
- East is East was banned in Egypt.
- The original American poster had none of the ethnic characters depicted.
- On a $1.9m budget, the film grossed £10,099,216 at UK box offices.
