Flick Flak: West Is West
West is West
Director: Andy DeEmmony
With: Aqib Khan, Om Puri, Linda Bassett, Robert Pugh
15, 103mins
Back in 1999 East is East enjoyed a fair bit of success and acclaim as a comedy which also dealt with some tough issues such as racism and culture clashes. Eleven years later and the same writer brings us a sequel which works on the same principles of comedy and drama, and is something of a mixed bag.
West is West picks up a few years after the previous film, in 1975, and Sajid, the youngest child of George and Ella Khan (who was seen in the last film hidden deep within his duffel coat) is now a teenager struggling with bullies and growing up half-Pakistani. Faced with his wayward behaviour, George decides to take Sajid on a trip to Punjabi Pakistan to stay with his vast family, including the first ‘Mrs Khan’ and their daughters, whom George left thirty years earlier to go to England. The story tries to cover a huge amount of ground: there’s Sajid’s coming of age story as he discovers his roots and learns your typical movie teenager lessons; there’s George’s relationship with his wife (or wives) and the culture clash around him, as he returns to Pakistan with his English ways; there’s the story of Maneer, who has lived in Pakistan for a year after leaving England to try and find a wife. Frankly there’s a bit too much going on, and with so many stories crammed in, none of them get the full attention they might deserve.
Another slight problem I had with the film was its tone. It’s not laugh-out-loud hilarious despite aiming to be a comedy (although most of the audience were laughing more than me), but the story is not cohesive enough for it to be a good drama. At times the film feels a little sentimental and a bit too obvious in terms of dialogue - for a film that seems to be aiming for realism (and it is based on the writer’s life, with Sajid his alter ego) I felt that more of the emotions could have been left unsaid, that it could have been played out with a bit more subtlety.
Maybe I’m being a bit harsh though. I was not bored at any point during the film; it was constantly charming and sweet and made me smile, if not laugh. The film is at its best when it follows Sajid, played by the cheeky and foul-mouthed Aqib Khan, meeting people who help him discover who he is. It does have the odd very funny moment as well, such as little surprises or just brilliant lines (“don’t make friends with the elephant keeper if you don’t have room in your house to accommodate the elephant.”)
When the film aims to be emotional it succeeds, largely through the decent acting of the older members of the cast such as Om Puri and Linda Bassett. Late in the film Ella arrives in Punjab to find her husband, as he has not returned home after his ‘holiday’, and the film reaches its emotional climax with some fairly moving scenes.
All in all West is West isn’t a flawless film. It could have been better; it could almost have been a television series of three or four hours. But I enjoyed it as it was charming, funny in parts, I liked the characters, and although their predicaments were not handled entirely satisfactorily, I cared about what happened to them. I can’t really remember East is East, but I think it’s fair to say that if you liked it, you’ll like this one.
West is West is released on Friday 25th February.
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