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'East is East' Keeps It All In The Family
The New York Post
April 14, 2000

A huge hit in Europe - and winner of a British Academy best-picture award - "East Is East" is "The Full Monty" of 2000, a fresh, funny and poignant film filled with sparkling performances.

Adapted by Ayub Khan-Din from his autobiographical hit play of the same name, "East Is East" shuns the whining, sentimental clichés so common in plays and movies that deal with the experience of children growing up in South Asian immigrant or mixed-race families.

Instead, you get a subtle, multilayered depiction of love, pain and generational conflict among superbly written, utterly believable characters.

Set in the poor but amiable working-class town of Salford in 1971, the film depicts the havoc caused by a Pakistani father's attempt to marry off his sons to good Muslim girls even though his wife is English and his sons are mostly very assimilated and secularized - and one of them is gay.

George Khan (the celebrated Indian actor Om Puri, in a wonderful performance), has long forced his six sons and one daughter to learn Urdu and attend the mosque, but they live in - and prefer - their world of discos and soccer and sexual experimentation with neighboring kids.

George's English wife, Ella (the terrific Linda Bassett), tries to keep the peace between the irritable husband she adores and her beloved but rebellious kids. Unfortunately, George's desperate need for respect from the Pakistani community, and his refusal to accept the free and easy morality of this place and time, makes him capable of cruelty that could undermine even her devotion and loyalty.

First-time helmer Damien O'Donnell directs this film with the dexterity and eye for detail of a bold master surgeon. He elicits uniformly excellent performances from his fine cast, but (along with Bassett and Puri) Jimi Mistry stands out as Tariq Khan, heartthrob of the Salford disco scene and the most rebellious of the Khan clan.