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EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: *** 1/2
Twelve years have passed since East Is East, the cult film on the
blithe angst of the Asian diaspora in England, was made. In the sequel, which,
let me quickly add, is a decent engaging and warm follow-up to the original
film, the time-passage is condensed into a far more manageable time frame.
The captivating device whereby we suspend our disbelief about the characters`
ageing process and look at them 12 years hence as though just four years have
passed, works gloriously to the narrative`s advantage.
So here we have the insufferably boorish, selfish and intolerant Pakistani-Britisher
Jahangir alias George Khan (Om Puri). For those who came in late, George, who is
married to an English woman, has sent his eldest son to get culturally
accustomed in Pakistan. Now it`s the younger son Sajid`s (Aqib Khan) turn.
The younger Khan boy Sajid`s incredulity, bafflement, disgust, disbelief and
slow acceptance of life in rural Pakistan -- the film was actually shot in rural
Punjab in India -- comes across in scintillating spurts of cultural humour.
Admittedly Aqib as the young British-Pakistani boy Sajid brings oodles of
unhampered naturalness into the picture. There`s no playing-for-effect here.
Aqib plays Sajid as any culturally-challenged boy brought up in the West now
faced with acres of unploughed Pakistani land and the ungainly sight of his
eager-to-belong potbellied father trying to show skills with the bull.
It`s a terrific occasion for humour on the malady of cultural displacement.
Director Andy deEmmony milks most of the situations in Ayub-Khan Din`s clever
script for all that they are worth. Many situations, such as that quietly
explosive `dialogue` between George`s British and Pakistani wives where neither
seems to understand each other`s language and yet knows what the other is
saying, are so empathetic and expressive in their undercurrents that you forgive
the excessive zeal shown by the art-director in creating the bazaar-like bustle
of the large joint family.
Often you feel the production design and the characters border on the touristic.
The accents range from the strange (Vijay Raaz) to the strained (Om Puri). The
actors playing Sajid`s rustic chum and the village seer seem straight out of
Rudyard Kipling`s imagination. What redeems the awkward slices of storytelling
is the overall warmth and sincerity of presentation.
Agreed some false notes are stuck. But the final tune of life strung in vibrant
verses singing about a man trapped between two incompatible worlds rings true
and melodic.
The dilemma of a man caught between two worlds, cultures and wives is caught in
an arresting arc across the characters. The performances are uniformly
compelling.
Om Puri takes up the role that he left behind 12 years ago without missing a
beat. The Pakistani-British accent could have been a little less pronounced. But
Puri plays the bigoted cultural anomaly with relish. His two screen wives Angela
Bassett and Ila Arun confer a comforting credibility to the goings-on.
Ila has some brilliantly-written scenes which she digs into with carnivorous
passion.
But it`s young Aqib Khan as the free spirited, rebellious but good-hearted
British boy discovering the joys of rural Pakistan in the company of a local
boy, who could do with lessons on how to avoid imbibing bravura from cheap
Pakistani films, is the prized discovery of the show.
Some of the locational details are tenuous - Why is the Bollywood hit `Piya tu
ab to aaja` from 1971 playing on the soundtrack of Pakistan in 1975? Why do the
locals speak in English? And why does the village seer behave like Saeed Jaffrey
in recession?
The overall sincerity of the storytelling doesn`t allow us to dwell on trivial
incongruities.
West Is West provides an endearing slice-of-life entertainment even
if you haven`t seen the other film.