obedient wife. This is pulled off perfectly through her acting. She stands by her husband
and mostly goes alongside his decisions, whilst also trying to get the best for her children,
and give them what they want. Nazir is the eldest son, who at the beginning chooses not
to go through with the arranged marriage his father has set up, instead he runs off leaving
his father “disgraced” in the eyes of his friends. He is then disowned as his father
removes his photo from the wall of their home. Tariq, Jimi Mistry, who is the next eldest
son, periodically sneaks out of the house at night to go to night clubs, get drunk and flirt
with women. During the course of the film we learn that the father is making an attempt
to arrange another marriage for Tariq and his brother Abdul, Tariq is quick to defy his
father. Abdul, Raji James, is the good son who wants his father to be happy but also
wants to do what he wants with his life. He is not exactly happy about the arranged
marriage, but is willing to if it stops his father’s ire. Saleem, Chris Bisson, who has also
stared in Coronation Street, plays another of Om’s sons he isn’t interested in what his
father wants and will do what he thinks is fun, such as his piece of “art.” Mennah, Archie
Panjabi, is Om’s only daughter, yet when her father’s back is turned she acts like a lad
playing football with the other lads on her street. She is another defiant child and doesn’t
want what her father wants for her. Maneer, also dubbed as Ghandi by his siblings, is the
religious devout and the only one who would completely willingly follow his father. not
much is actually seen of his character. Finally the youngest member of the family, Sajid
played by Jordan Routledge, he doesn’t like his father dictatorship of his life and doesn’t
seem to want to accept he, only being young, has no real power to resist his father’s rule.
Events throughout the film is Om, the father, trying to arrange marriages for his
sons, each time his children resist his efforts. They constantly make this effort in the
attempt that he would eventually listen and come round to their way of thinking, and
lifestyle they want.
The main theme throughout this film is that of traditionalism and how parents make
the attempt to live their lives through their children, parallel to this theme is how children
do not wish to live their life like their parents and end up being the very thing that they
depise.
