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
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 2000 Mark R. Leeper
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