Search - East Is East on DVD

Chris Bisson
Jimi Mistry
Raji James
Ian Aspinall
Lesley Nicol
Gary Damer
John Bardon
Emma Rydal
Ruth Jones

Let me start by saying that this film is terribly mislabeled as a comedy when it is, in fact, very much a drama. Yes, there are times when I laughed out loud but I chose this film because I was in the mood for a comedy. Had I been in the mood for a drama I am sure I would have scored the film much higher.

"East is East" is the story of a Pakistani father, Zahir Khan, his Caucasian British wife, Ella, and their seven children. The acting is superb, the writing is excellent, and the soundtrack is wonderful. Having said all of that, I do have a few issues with the film. (SPOILER ALERT) First, the oldest son, Nadir, just kind of disappears for a while without any explanation. Did he run away? Did he kill himself? Where did he go? We find out about halfway through the film when his father pronounces that he is dead. This leaves the viewer wondering how one could have missed such an important event, but a few minutes later we realize that Nadir is only dead to him. In fact, we discover, albeit something I guessed in the first ten minutes of the film, that Nadir is gay. This is all the more reason for his Pakistani father to call him dead.

My second issue with the film is that I really liked all of the characters, even the strict and traditional Zahir. Ella is charming the way she can talk him down from almost any argument with typical British humor mixed with a few choice swear words. The kids adore their mother and, although they disagree with him, they love their father. This led me to believe that the film was going to be a "Dad is a strict traditional man, kids and mom are not, so this is the story of how everyone changes Dad." (SPOILER ALERT) Unfortunately, the story became, "Dad is an abusive and closed-minded asshole and starts beating on anyone, including mom, who dares to defy him." I just don't understand why the story had to change this way. I left the film wishing Ella would leave her bastard husband and raise her kids on her own. We went from the tenderness of how Ella would ask Zahir if he would like some tea and he would reply, "just half a cup", to Zahir calling her a bloody bitch and giving her a black eye. Why?

My final issue with the film is the ending. (SPOILER ALERT) We are left with nothing changed in the family other than the children discovering that their father isn't just strict, he is cruel. I just feel incomplete after watching "East is East". I get that the Pakistani culture is very different from British culture and that, particularly in the 1970's, the west was not very open to accepting this new group of immigrants. What else came of this story? I don’t feel warm and fuzzy toward this culture if Zahir is a shining of example of how the men truly behave. Why did he choose to marry outside of his own culture if he hates it so much? Why raise children with a mother who is not Muslim and not from Pakistan if you are just going to teach them that it is unacceptable to marry anyone who is not from Pakistan? I feel like I got a glimpse of a very dysfunctional family who will never see a happy ending and that is just not why I choose to watch films. I watch films to learn something new, or to laugh, to perhaps cry a little, but overall, I watch films to have a few hours of enjoyment. I watch films to forget my own problems for a while. After watching this, I just feel like I would have been better off calling my own family back home and hearing about their issues and problems.