Movie: West is west
Director: Andy De Emmony
Cast: Om Puri, Linda Basset & Aqib Khan
Rating: ***1/2
There is so much common between “East is East” and “West is West”, apart from the fact that both these films were brought to you by the same writer. In layman’s words, the latter is a perfect follow up to the former. For all those who watched “East is East”, Ayub Khan, the writer in the sequel gives a glimpse into the past of the protagonist, the people he left behind before coming to England.
George alias Jahangir Khan is known to this world as the husband of Ella, the owner of a fish-and-chip shop who expects his family to follow his strict Pakistani Muslim lifestyle. Nobody, including his wife knows about his past or the faces to which he’s been funding all these years.
After 30 long years, George finally decides to pay his family back home a visit along with his youngest son Sajid, promising to return in 4 weeks to Ella. He reconnects with a family comprising his first wife, two daughters and eldest son Maneer, whom he sent to Pakistan a year earlier to internalize a lifestyle that he always wanted his children to follow. Cold waves are disrupted within the family, who get to see their father, husband after such a long time.
Meanwhile Sajid, a first-timer to a foreign land finds it unbearably hard to fit in; he begins to hate the place and people around him. Irked by this behavior Jahangir sends Sajid to the most scholarly individual in the village so that he could understand the culture better. Instead Sajid bumps into a hippie, from whom he learns life the old fashioned way, by exploring and seeing things around him through the eyes of his new mentor. What follows is how Jahangir wins the love of his long forgotten family and Sajid learns to understand life in spite of shortcomings.
Ayub Khan deserves a pat on his shoulder and some applause for bringing forth a film of such intense message. Based on a simple premise, family is as important as anything in life; the film connects two differently unique cultures together and proves to the world that no culture is difficult to live in as long as one shows the commitment to learn it.
Characters weren’t new to the viewers, except the few interesting ones in Pakistan, which makes the film more likable than its prequel. Om Puri and Linda give the film all that possibly a viewer could ask for. Scenes between Om and Sajid are a delight to watch; together they share a relationship any father would love to have with his son. Ella playing an over protective mother who doesn’t like her son to be shouted at for silly reasons brings to memory the picture of a typical household mom.
Om’s reunion with his family in Pakistan reminds one that families never forget their member come what may. What more could anyone possibly ask for in a film which already gives you a pinch of everything from humour to love; hate to benevolence and lots more? Music by Shankar, Ehsaan & Loy is a lullaby; one could happily succumb to it while slipping into oblivion. Album comprises of some of the best Sufi singers I’ve heard to.
“West is West” is one of its kinds, a film which will sweep through your heart leaving a scar that will always remind you that relationship is now or never but people in it remain forever.