Review of a Production of East Is East

Review of a Production of East Is East

It must be strange being an immigrant, uprooting to another country in

the sure knowledge that you'll never fit in like a native-born

citizen. Having thrown yourself into this voyage, inexorably as a

continent you gradually drift away from your birthplace. In essence

your destiny is to become stateless, no matter how dutifully one

assimilates within the novel culture. Infants luckily appear more

resilient to these changes, absorbing them, while the adults around

them encounter internal barriers, as if their die is cast. Small

wonder that first-generation settlers often cling to childhood

teachings, solidity in a world of uncertainty.

East Is East presents Om Puri as a conservative Muslim immigrant

father in England. In this masterly portrayal, he is in constant

conflict with his mixed-race children, seven of them, born to his

liberal English wife, admirably played by Linda Bassett. The intense

family-drama is rendered as a thoroughly entertaining and farcical

comedy. Adapted from an autobiographical stage-play by Ayub Khan-Din.

It is the early 1970's, George Khan (Om Puri)is a man who is proud of

his Pakistani heritage. He moved to Salford near Manchester where he

married a local woman, Ella (Linda Bassett), had seven children and

opened a chip shop. George demands to be seen as the head of the

family and rules them with a rod of iron, as he wants them to be as

respectable and as proud of their race as he is. There is one flaw in

his master plan.... he is a hypocritical bully, and his children are

rebelling against his regime one by one. They are sick of being

cramped in their small ter...

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...sual stage-to-film pitfalls to turn

his play into a terrific movie packed with vivid, memorable characters

and situations. And a truly Important Life Lesson too.

Fundamentally East Is East is a film about tolerance for views that

rub against your own. It shows how George, unable to channel

frustration constructively, boils over into violence; a reaction

against his nature but realistic in context. It also shows how Ella is

torn between her love for George and her desire to protect and

encourage their children, another difficult position. The charm of

East Is East is its sympathy to the characters and their divisions, to

the reality that great emotional resolutions do not in practice occur.

Superb ensemble acting by the small-name cast ensures that you're

gripped from beginning to end by their full, warm performances.