Review: East is East (2000)

[Mark R Leeper]

EAST IS EAST
A film review by Mark R. Leeper

Capsule: An outwardly ideal Pakistani
family living in London is in fact having
troubles inside due to a father who takes a very
fundamentalist view of Islam and his authority
over his family. The family comes to realize
that it has gone too long without asserting
itself. The father wants to arrange marriages
for the older sons and they want instead to do
things the British way. Ayub Khan-Din's play
mixes comedy and some very powerful drama.
Rating: 8 (0 to 10), high +2 (-4 to +4)

In 1946, before there was a partition between Pakistan and
India, Muslim George Khan (play by Om Puri) moved to London, started
a business running a fish and chips shop, and took a second wife, a
non-Muslim English woman. He then reared six sons and a daughter by
the English wife. He raised his children to be good Muslims--better
Muslims than he could have afforded to be. They took little looks
at the English world around them, but they did what George wanted.
When they needed discipline, George did his fatherly duty and
corrected them. But overall life went fairly smoothly. That is
what happened for twenty-five years as George saw it. The seven
children, living in the same house but a different universe, saw
things quite differently. They wanted to assimilate into the
society they saw around them. To them Dad's presence was always a
hazard. He could catch them eating pork or marching in a Christian
procession. Generally they just pretended in his presence to be
practicing Muslims, the path of least resistance. Outside the house
they were living the new world of freedom that England and
particularly 1971 brought.

For twenty-five years their world views diverged more and more.
But there was no reason for a confrontation. The first sign that
things were not right was when the eldest son, in the middle of an
arranged marriage ceremony walked out and went to live in London.
George is bewildered by this strange behavior, but never questions
if perhaps he might be part of the reason. After all he did nothing
but fulfill his role as father as Islam seems it. The family
certainly could not fault him for that. It would be going against
Allah. But two of his other sons are now becoming a little too
English. It is time to bring them back to their religion by
arranging good Islamic marriages for the two of them.

The script follows the sons around showing the character of
each as they try and perhaps fail to be like the people around them.
The youngest son is picked on by each of his siblings and even his
father calls him by the nickname "Bastard." He frequently hides
from the world in a shed behind his house or retreats into his parka
which he wears day and night, on the street and even to bed. It is
his own portable cave to retreat into. When it is discovered that
somehow he is not circumcised his father gives not a jot of thought
to a little boy's fears, the religion says he must be circumcised
and, of course, he will be.

EAST IS EAST was produced for Channel 4 television in England,
following in the traditions of MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDERETTE, and SAMMY
AND ROSIE GET LAID. Those dealt with Indians fitting into London
lower-middle class Manchester neighborhoods, this film deals with
Pakistanis. EAST IS EAST is the most pointed of the three dramas
and by far the best story. Tensions between George and his family
mirror those between the Pakistanis and their neighbors, many of
whom espouse Enoch Powell's anti-immigration policies and use it as
an excuse for intolerance. (Enoch Powell's 1968 "Rivers of Blood"
speech argued against allowing non-white British subjects to
immigrate into Britain. His speech contained some rather dire and
fanciful predictions of a Britain in which the whites were a
persecuted minority. The speech did not end his career, but it
ruined it. A brilliant classical scholar but less than savvy
politically, his views were quickly exaggerated and adopted by a
racist minority who used his arguments as an excuse for racial
intolerance.) George faces the intolerance of a neighboring Powell
supporter and tries to break up the Romeo-and-Juliet relationship a
son of his has with the daughter of the neighbor.

The story finds an almost perfect ending in a very understated
but poignant exchange between George and a neighbor boy. This film
packs a great deal into a small space. I rate it an 8 on the 0 to
10 scale and a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.

Mark R. Leeper
mle...@lucent.com
Copyright 2000 Mark R. Leeper