East Is East (film)

East Is East
Promotional poster
Directed by	Damien O'Donnell
Written by	Ayub Khan-Din
Starring	Om Puri Linda Bassett Jordan Routledge Archie Panjabi Chris Bisson
Music by	Deborah Mollison
Distributed by	Channel Four Films
Release date(s)	5 November 1999 (1999-11-05)
Running time	97 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English/Urdu-Hindi
Budget	£1.9m

East Is East is a 1999 British comedy drama film, written by Ayub Khan-Din and directed by Damien O'Donnell. It is set in a British household of mixed-ethnicity, with a Pakistani father and an English mother in Salford, Lancashire, in 1971. George Khan (played by Om Puri), the father, expects his family to follow Pakistani ways, but his children, who were born and grew up in Britain, increasingly see themselves as British and reject Pakistani customs of dress, food, religion, and living in general, leading to a rise in tensions and conflicts in the whole family.

East Is East is based on the play of the same name by Ayub Khan-Din, which opened at the Royal Court Theatre in 1997.

Plot

Zahir "George" Khan is a Pakistani immigrant who has lived in England since 1937 and has been married to Ella, a British woman with an Irish-Catholic background, for 25 years, and has seven children with her: Nazir, Abdul, Tariq, Saleem, Maneer, Meenah and Sajid. The couple runs a popular fish and chips shop. George also has a first wife in Pakistan. The film starts with an arranged marriage of the eldest son to a Pakistani girl. The son, Nazir, finds himself unable to go through with the marriage. He runs out at the start of the ceremony in front of all the family and guests much to the chagrin of his father and distress of his mother. In retaliation, George disowns Nazir and tells anyone who asks about him that he is dead.

The next crisis to fall on George is the discovery that the youngest son Sajid was accidentally not circumcised as is preferred in Islam (and which comically sends the Muslim children in the mosque into a panic). Sajid is promptly taken to hospital to get circumcised. When Ella sees the pain her son has suffered from being circumcised we get the first insight into the conflict between her clear love of her husband and her inability to stand up to him. Left alone, the other children (barring Maneer) eat bacon and sausages, which is forbidden by Islam since they contain pork. When Meenah sees that her parents are coming back with Sajid she warns the others and they try to hide the evidence. Ella comes into the kitchen and smells it and keeps George away just long enough for them to get rid of everything.

Meanwhile, marriage is still on George's mind, and he accepts an introduction to Mr Shah, who is looking for good Pakistani bridegrooms for his two comically ugly and overweight daughters, Nighat and Nushaaba. Despite having seen the daughters' photographs (and shown obvious but discreet disgust), George still promises Mr Shah that Abdul and Tariq will marry them. George tells Ella his plans, and she openly disagrees, reminding George of what happened to Nazir, but George takes no notice, again insisting that Nazir is dead and the children have no right whatsoever to disagree with him. Sajid accidentally overhears the conversation, and during a skirmish with Tariq, Saleem and Meenah, he blurts it out.

The arranged marriages infuriate Tariq, who is already in a relationship with a local English girl, Stella Moorhouse, kept secret from both George and Stella's racist grandfather. He destroys the clothes and watches that his father traditionally buys for all his sons' weddings, despite the others' attempts to stop him. When George later sees the desecrated items, he assaults Maneer, ironically the only one who follows George's strict rules, for refusing to tell him the culprit. Ella stands in between the two, greatly angering and confusing George, who expected her to instinctively agree with him like a "proper Muslim wife". She tells him that his pig ignorance has caused the alienation of his children, the reason that they are so much "trouble" to him. George, however, does not understand this clearly and only hears it as Ella calling him a pig, a terrible insult to a Muslim. His uncontrollable rage turns on her and he beats her badly. In response, the children attempt to flee to Nazir in Eccles who, as it turns out, is gay, and living with a male partner. Nazir drives back to Manchester to confront George but leaves after his mother begs him to go as George will go mad. Nazir, desperate not to see his mother hurt, only leaves after she begs him saying that she can always come to him if she needs to. George briefly sees Nazir as he drives away, but appears remorseful rather than angry.

George sees his world around him collapsing and resorts to draconian measures. He is losing the control and respect of his family whom he is trying, with his best intentions, to bring up in an Islamic way, a tradition he sees as the only choice, where all are equal, a "special community" which he expects his children to continue. They see themselves as British, not Pakistani and they get increasingly frustrated with their father's attempt to mould them in his image. Tariq tries speaking to his father reasonably, but George does not listen, even threatening Tariq at knifepoint into obeying him. Tariq finally agrees, but hints at divorcing his ugly wife as soon as possible.

Mr and Mrs Shah finally arrive with their unattractive daughters (on a comedic note, the daughters are both obese, Nushaaba has an abnormally huge overbite and Nighat is simply ugly, and it is hinted that they speak very little English). Ella knows she has brought up her children well, but the snobby and rude Mrs Shah makes constant subtle attacks on Ella and her non-Islamic her way of life. The final straw occurs when Saleem accidentally drops his sculpture of a vagina on Mrs Shah's lap. Mrs Shah directly insults Ella and her sons, calling them "half breeds". Ella does not take this abuse lightly and angrily ejects the Shahs and their "inbred monstrosities" from the house. George, expectedly, puts the blame on Ella instead of Mrs Shah, but Ella stands her ground and labels George as the source of the family's misery. George attacks Ella once again but the children come to the defence of their mother and stop him. Now seeing that his tyrannical position has driven his family, even Maneer, away from him, George becomes a broken man, realising that his perceived best intentions have backfired dreadfully and he is no longer the man of the house. George quietly leaves the household and finds solace in the fish and chips shop.

Despite this, Ella still sees George as her husband, someone she will remain faithful and loyal to until the end. The film ends on George and Ella having a cup of tea together, a very British form of reconciliation, Tariq attempting to reconcile with an upset Stella, and the children playing together in the street.

Cast

• Om Puri - Zahir "George" Khan, the patriarch of the Khan family. Although he loves his family, he cares more for his own image and dignity than their happiness.
• Linda Bassett - Ella Khan, George's wife. An Irish-Catholic, she finds herself unable to stand up to George until he pushes her too far by abusing their children.
• Ian Aspinall - Nazir "Nigel" Khan, the eldest son. Following an unsuccessful arranged marriage and due to his homosexuality, he is disowned by George.
• Raji James - Abdul "Arthur" Khan, the second son. He seems to dislike conflict and does not rebel against George's authority until he abuses Ella.
• Jimi Mistry - Tariq "Tony" Khan, the third son. He is the most rebellious of the children and even attempts to flee to Eccles when he learns of George's marriage plans for him.
• Emil Marwa - Maneer "Gandhi" Khan, the fourth son. He is the only one who obeys George's rules and follows Islam, and ironically the only one who George beats.
• Chris Bisson - Saleem "Picasso" Khan, the fifth son. He seems indifferent to George's authority but stands by his mother and siblings when George goes too far. On a comical note, he is studying Foundation Art, while George believes he is training to become an engineer.
• Archie Panjabi - Meenah Khan, the sixth child and the only daughter. She also has a rebellious streak and frequently teases Sajid.
• Jordan Routledge - Sajid "Spaz" Khan, the sixth son and youngest child. The pain he undergoes following his late circumcision is what prompts Ella to rethink her attitude towards George.
• Emma Rydal - Stella Moorhouse, Tariq's secret girlfriend. Their relationship becomes somewhat strained once she finds out George has planned to marry Tariq off.
• John Bardon - Mr. Moorhouse, Stella and Earnest's grandfather. He has old-fashioned (perhaps bigoted) ideas about race and ethnicity, supporting controversial political figures like Enoch Powell, and does not know of Stella's relationship with Tariq, although he is frequently irritated by Earnest's friendship with the Khans, who openly dislike him.
• Gary Damer - Earnest "Pongo" Moorhouse, Stella's younger brother. Like Stella, he is friends with the Khans, being Sajid's best friend and harbouring an unrequited crush on Meenah. It is implied that he is somewhat weird and often abused by his grandfather.
• Ruth Jones - Peggy, Stella's best friend. She appears jealous of Stella's relationship with Tariq and tries desperately to find a boyfriend, but her overweight figure puts other boys off. In the end, she is implied to have a romantic fling with Saleem.
• Madhav Sharma - Mr Shah, a devout Muslim desperately seeking Pakistani bridegrooms for his two comically unattractive daughters. Though he appears amiable on the outside, he is actually rather mean-spirited and rude, shown when he scoffs Earnest Moorhouse for no reason and brands Ella as a disgrace solely for speaking back to his snobbish wife even when she insulted Ella first. On a comical note, his constant sweating is a sign of poor hygiene.
• Lesley Nicol - Auntie Annie, Ella's sister. She frequently helps George and Ella at the Chip shop and has an amiable relationship with George, although she advises Ella not to be too soft with him.

International exhibition and responses

US poster obscuring the film's British Pakistani character by featuring a blond woman.

East Is East was remarkably successful for a low-budget comedy (£1.9 million budget), grossing some £10 million in the UK and more than $4.1 million in US cinemas, plus being a big hit across Europe. In addition, when the film was released on video and DVD, it made £12.3 million in UK rentals alone.

Miramax, the film's US distributor, obscured the presence of South Asian characters in the marketing of the film: the poster features the face of a blonde woman, with the Asian characters appearing only in small windows.

In France, the film was called Fish and Chips: la comédie qui croustille! ("Fish and Chips: the crunchy comedy!").

Awards and nominations

The film won the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film at the BAFTA Awards, and was declared Best Comedy Film at the British Comedy Awards.

The screenwriter, Ayub Khan-Din, won both a British Independent Film Award and a London Critics Circle Film Award for his screenplay. He was also nominated for two BAFTA Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Carl Foreman Award for the Most Promising Newcomer, and for a European Film Award for Best Screenwriter.

The director, Damien O'Donnell, won Best Debut at the UK Empire Awards, won the Evening Standard British Film Awards and Fantasporto for Best Film, won the OCIC Special Award at the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema, won the Kingfisher Award at the Ljubljana International Film Festival, and received a number of nominations, among them a British Independent Film Awards nomination and a David di Donatello Awards nomination.

Sequel

A sequel, West Is West, premiered at film festivals in Toronto and London in the autumn of 2010, and was on general UK release from February 2011. A third film about the family is being planned.

External links

• East Is East at the Internet Movie Database
• A quick chat with the writer - Ayub Khan-din
• Roger Ebert review