Actors: Om Puri
Director: , Producer:



East is East

Directed by: Damien O’Donnell

Screenplay: Ayub Khan-Din

Starring: Om Puri, Linda Bassett

People have two reactions to “East is East”, based on the hit play by Ayub Khan-Din and directed by Damien O`Donnell: they either love it or hate it. The former love it for its witty comedy (of which there is plenty), the spirited acting, and its high-energy window on a unique, boisterous racially mixed family. Those that hate it, do so because they feel that it stereotypes Muslims, and especially fathers, as violent, unsympathetic, unwilling to listen to their wives or children, and, when they don`t get their way, loutish and brutally violent. A quote from the San Francisco Examiner about the movie reads, (“East is East”) "...may be the funniest movie about parental and spousal abuse ever made."

Din has responded to criticism that this is an autobiographical movie, meant to portray his own family life growing up in Britain. Given its box office success, and the fact that it deals with subject matter no one has really examined before, “East is East” is a landmark movie. Along with a slew of projects such as Goodness Gracious Me, Bhaji on the Beach, and Mississippi Massala, this is many viewers` first introduction to an Asian, or at least part-Asian, household. And as they say, first impressions always last.

George Khan (Om Puri), a Pakistani immigrant, has lived in Britain since 1937, and married Ella (Linda Bassett), his English wife, but he still wants to be respected, obeyed, listened to by his seven children in the manner of the traditional Pakistani father. Yet his six boys and one girl are unable to give respect the way George wants it, having been brought up in Salford, a low-income neighborhood in 1970`s Manchester. Their surrounding all-English environment, their English mother, ensure that they are not Pakistanis, but a hybrid of two cultures, and this creates all sorts of colorful conflicts, giving new meaning to the phrase "culture clash".

The movie strings its dramatic tension on the fact that George wants to arrange marriages for his grown-up sons; eldest son Nazir runs away on his wedding day, shaming the family. George doesn`t give up, and arranges two more marriages for his sons Tariq and Abdul to the daughters of Bradford butcher Mr. Shah (no relation to the author). Then there`s Salim, who`s pretending to go to engineering school but is actually an art student, Meena, who prefers soccer to shalwar kameezes, and Sajid, who at the age of 10, hasn`t yet been circumcised. Maneer is the only child who practices Islam; the others enjoy English girlfriends, beer in the pub, and plates of bacon and sausages.

Between the fast-paced dialogue, the colorful language (George affectionately calls all his children "bastard"), and the bruise`em up interaction between the six rambunctious kids still at home, Ella and George struggle to do the best for their children. For Ella, the best means trying to listen to them, understand them, and support them in their individual paths; her Western mind is immediately in sync with the minds of her children. For George, this means sending them to the mosque to learn the Quran, buying them watches that say their names in Arabic, encouraging them to participate in the Muslim community, and, in the end, get them married to good Pakistani girls.

Although in the beginning, the film shows a subtly loving relationship between Ella and George, where both have compromised a lot in order to manage the life they live with one another, the pull of stereotyping wins out in the end. This means that Ella is portrayed as a more sympathetic character, especially to Western audiences, caught in the middle between trying to get along with her husband and giving her children their independence.

George, on the other hand, is seen as the Pakistani patriarch who, in an attempt to gain some control over a difficult life in a foreign country, tries to exert his influence over his children’s` lives long after they`ve grown past the age of being told what to do. Though Asian viewers will understand exactly where George is coming from, with his fears of losing his culture, and losing control over his kids, the moment George raises his hand to his wife and son, the delicate balance is lost, to Western and Asian eyes alike. When George threatens Tariq with a knife if he doesn`t go through with the arranged marriage, the final nail goes into the coffin. The film, hysterically side-splitting, suddenly loses its steam, and scenes that are meant to be provocative look contrived next to the earlier, less dramatic but funnier ones.

The superficially controversial aspects of the movie - the Khan kids eating pork, drinking alcohol, creating peculiar sculptures, to name a few - did not jar as much as they might have. These are Din`s characters, after all, and he`s got artistic license to make them as controversial, and funny, as he wants. He succeeds brilliantly with the kids; they are natural and spontaneous on the screen. Meena`s imitation of an Indian dance sequence, Sajid`s reluctant circumcision, Tariq and Abdul hamming it up at the local disco will have you howling with laughter.

The controversial sight of George beating Ella and Maneer is harder to absorb, though. Yes, wife-beating goes on in Pakistani culture, as in every country and culture in the world. It would be foolish to pretend otherwise. Asians fear that Western audiences will walk away from the movie believing that George is the face of both Islam and Pakistan. Without any firm judgement of George`s character, the film raises but fails to resolve the question of whether George is representative of all Pakistani men, or whether this one individual character acts out his emotions violently when he is unable to express himself in any other way.

There is also no explanation or exploration of George’s double standards; Tariq asks why on earth George himself married an Englishwoman and now expects his children not to be English. However, George’s failure to answer this question is an accurate portrayal of most Asian parents’ reactions when confronted with this home truth by their Westernized children: that children are often, if not always, a result of their parents’ choices.

The ambiguity is reinforced when the movie ends on a triumphant note, with the ugly Shah girls banished from the Khan household, and the children sticking up for Ella against George. The loose ends are never tied up, though, and when life goes on as normal, Ella`s black eye and Maneer`s cut face regardless, you`re left wondering what everyone in the Khan family has gathered from this episode. Is this the way life in the Khan family really is? Does everyone just shout at each other, scream, our Dad takes a few swipes at our Mum and kids, and then everyone goes and plays happily on the street?

Regardless of whether “East is East” makes you take sides on the racial debate, or whether you regard it as pure nostalgic entertainment, it’s an unsatisfying conclusion, too pat and too predictable for a movie as intelligent, honest, and genuinely funny as this one.