The boys find out and for obvious reasons rebel against their father which leads the him beating his wife and one of his sons. The movie is about the family Khan, who lives in Salford, Machester, where the movie takes place. Ayub Khan Din takes to the stage with Jane Horrocks in his depiction of growing up in a mixed-race household in the early 1970s, • Sarfraz Manzoor: East Is East is back – and being a British Pakistani has changed, Thu 16 Oct 2014 23.00 BST But that is absolutely not the case! But that is absolutely not the case! The twitchy, Parka-wearing 12 year old Sajit (Michael Karim) tells his doctor that he hopes the Indians win “cause me dad'll be pissed off”.

It is set in Salford, Lancashire, (now in Greater Manchester), in 1971, in a mixed-ethnicity British household headed by Pakistani father George and an English mother, Ella (Linda Bassett). Khan-Din's fine script never resorts to cliche resulting in a funny, study of the clash between the old and the new. Seemingly made with a broad audience in mind it, nevertheless, takes up some serious issues.

You can also choose to be emailed when someone replies to your comment. East is East review – a complex and comic portrait of a man adrift. Towards the end of the film, in a moment mirroring this, he has the hood of his jacket unceremoniously ripped off and is finally exposed to the outside world, or as close to the outside world as George allows the family to get. But with great humour and real theatrical exuberance it explores generational tensions and gently suggests that, however much we revolt against our parents, there is a large chance that, eventually, we will turn into them.

© 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. 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. When the Khan boys, infuriated by their father’s attempts to marry them off, and his violence towards their mother, suggest that perhaps Ella should divorce George, they fail to recognise that in their own odd way these two people really do love each other. George, while not exactly an anachronism – he gets plenty of understanding from the like minded down at the local Mosque – is a man who cannot see that his children are not like him. It's a movie about rebelling against your parent's traditions and rules because they don't feel like they should apply to you because you're not of the same country as one of your parents. He wants the kids to learn Urdu but they refuse to study, his precious sons should marry into another Pakistani family of his choosing but they want to screw around with white girls and his wife refuses to show the respect that is demanded in a Muslim marriage. |

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. We find ourselves grinning indulgently at the childish joy with which he presents his wife with the dentist's chair he's found for their over-crowded lounge, and we look right into his heart as he tenderly arranges the wedding paraphernalia for his sons. This film is a great enrichment for the viewer and it is no boring stuff at all. Imagine that you are the producer of East is East, a fairly standard drama about a husband abusing his wife and children in 1970's Britain. There was a problem. In the end I don't think the script was strong enough to tie all this together, and the film suffered because of it. Get the best gaming deals, reviews, product advice, competitions, unmissable gaming news and more! Another film showing the Evil of Religion. Jane Horrocks and the rest of the cast in a terrific revival of East is East, East Is East, Trafalgar Studios, review : Jane Horrocks is terrific, You may not agree with our views, or other users’, but please respond to them respectfully, Swearing, personal abuse, racism, sexism, homophobia and other discriminatory or inciteful language is not acceptable, Do not impersonate other users or reveal private information about third parties, We reserve the right to delete inappropriate posts and ban offending users without notification. Perhaps O'Donnell felt that a deeper examination of these issues would detract from the theme of Asian/British identity and it's true that other British features have dealt with the subjects in greater detail. The epitome of 70's anglo/asian culture shock with real humour, It just doesn't get much better than this, Great portrayal of dilemma's & tribulations in a multiracial family. It's just a shame the filmmakers weren't willing to stick their necks out just a little bit further. Three teenagers are sitting in front of a TV, enjoying their large helpings of pork sausage and bacon. There's a fairytale like quality to the film heightened by the Bollywood-style primary colours that frequently contrast with the drab Salford landscape. Khan Din’s comedy doesn’t play to the disaffections of young British Muslims today, or an increasing need to define themselves by their religion. Oh, and as a bonus, it has a 'comedy' Asian father who may beat his wife and sons, but whose vocabulary is limited to comic obscenities. It was obviously deeply researched. Sally Bankes, sublimely funny as Ella's staunch friend Annie, drops brick after brick in a cheery effort to wreck negotiations. Then, I saw Om Puri's name as the lead. Having said that it might have been an idea to make a passing reference to the fact that racial prejudice, while not necessarily any more commonplace than today, was certainly seen as more acceptable. Though the subject matter is interesting and relevant, I didn't like the absurdly unrealistic character portrayal of the father. Towards the end of the film, in a moment mirroring this, he has the hood of his jacket unceremoniously ripped off and is finally exposed to the outside world, or as close to the outside world as George allows the family to get. East is East is an interesting addition to both the coming-of-age genre and the tradition of culture-class comedies. Hilarious! A revolt is clearly under way. The Middle Easterners have shown great strides with movies like "Bend It Like Beckham" and a few others. It's a real mystery. In practice, thanks to Khan-Din's spotless script and O'Donnell's skill at stitching it all together, what we see is a multi-layered whole. This movie is out to teach the viewer about how difficult it is to get two very different cultures to not only co-exist peacefully next to each other, but to merge them to create a new one. The viewer gets the impression of a different culture but he will recognize a lot of aspects of his own family life, too, what was aimed by the makers who brought in the personal experiences.

Another film showing the Evil of Religion. There's no standing on soap boxes or thumping of tubs: any tolerance message is delivered wittily, by sleight of hand, such as when Meenah kicks a football through a window that sports a big poster of Enoch Powell. The cast are uniformly excellent, but East Is East is primarily George's story, with Indian actor Om Puri (My Son The Fanatic) delivering an outstanding performance. this film extracts so much humour. I wish there were more movies about the different cultures in the UK. It's a nice moment, a teenage Asian girl kicking in Enoch's head with a soccer ball – What would Alf Garnett say? Even though the script might sometimes appear to be too ambitious – there are just too many characters all developing in a very distinct manner and all crucial to the movie – the movie can be recommended to anyone who is not looking for a standard comedy and is willing to have his views on life challenged.

The seven Khan children - - gay rebel Nazir, Tariq-the-lad, art student Saleem, daddy's boy Maneer, timid Abdul, tomboy Meenah and Parka-clad Sajid - - have all lived through the end of the Sixties and most are not heavily into the Koran. „East is East" is a refreshing inventive family story. He wants the kids to learn Urdu but they refuse to study, his precious sons should marry into another Pakistani family of his choosing but they want to screw around with white girls and his wife refuses to show the respect that is demanded in a Muslim marriage. This is, after all, essentially a comedy and it's frequently very funny indeed. While religion waves the banner of Love all it does is bring the Hate out in people. Again, however, this seems more to add colour and humour than for any other purpose. Perhaps blinders prevented me from really seeing "East is East", which I saw tonight at a local Indian film festival, for what it is.

In many ways, this is the flip side of `Fiddler' in that here the reluctant marriage partners are sons and not daughters. Meena's dance is wonderful and fun. Ayub Khan Din's wonderfully vivacious and penetrating autobiographical comedy about growing up as the youngest child in a large, chip-shop-owning Salford family with an English mother and a despotic Pakistani father started life in 1996 at the Royal Court and was made into a popular film three years later. The director has captured the emotional elements the script intended perfectly. The humour ranges from extremely broad – a scene involving the 'banished' sons new life as manager of a 'swinging' London Boutique and another involving a latex vagina could both have come from an 'Austin Powers' movie – to the grimly dark. Of course, despite the considerable attention to period detail, 'East Is East' lays no claim to painstaking factual accuracy. You will receive a verification email shortly. Later on the Pakistani father changes. This movie is out to teach the viewer about how difficult it is to get two very different cultures to not only co-exist peacefully next to each other, but to merge them to create a new one. I just saw this incredible ensemble movie - I was most struck by the amazing ensemble acting by the entire cast, mostly unknown to me (Archie Panjabi is an emmy winner for her role on "The Good Wife", and I have seen Linda Bassett in a few movies). „East is East" is a refreshing inventive family story. A lot has happened in the wake of 9/11 to make one wonder whether the equivalents of the Khan children now would more exercised about their identity. This movie is one of the funniest movies I have seen in a long time and I watch movies everyday. So the producer has the bright idea of introducing sub-American Pie slapstick (dogs attempting to rape girls, sculptures of vaginas etc) to bring it to a wider audience, while still 'staying true' to the original play. But the more intense moments are those where the viewer has to deal with outbursts of domestic violence or things like arranged marriages that seem so far away and cruel to Westerners. It's just a shame the filmmakers weren't willing to stick their necks out just a little bit further. Directly the first scene where two different religions and also two opposing views of life (namely the children's and the view of their conservative father) clash together. 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. East is East is an brilliant effort to convey a Father's dilemma's & tribulations in a multiracial family/community.From an asian perspective this movie could'nt be much farther than the truth of what's really happening. The work surely ranks among the very best in regional exposure along side the likes of "Kes" etc. It deals with the story of a family in England in the 1970s with a Pakistani father (multi-facetted enacted by Om Puri) who still believes in his Pakistani traditions and his Muslim religion and an English mother (great performance by Linda Bassett) who tries to give her seven children as much freedom as all of their "fully English" friends enjoy. Not enough is done with this to really justify it and how much more impact the conflict between George and Ella (Linda Bassett) would have been were she also Asian.