Year of Production: 1998
Director: Damien O'Donnell (first feature)
Producer: Leslee Udwin
Screen Writer: Ayub Khan-Din
Director of Photography: Brian Tufano BSC
Leading Players: Om Puri, Linda Bassett
For the seven kids of George Khan - proud Pakistani and chip shop owner. Tomboy Meenah prefers playing footie to wearing a sari(Traditional clothes that Asian women wear), hippie Saleem pretends to be studying engineering when he’s really at art school, heart-throb Tariq has got a reputation as a local lover boy, his girlfriend that has a racist grandad, and Sajid hasn’t even been circumcised yet. For George Khan (, life is an uphill battle to get his family to conform to traditional Pakistani values. But this is Salford in the 1970s. George’s English wife Ella is, and his kids have got minds of their own.
With one very badly arranged marriage already in the family, Nazir fled at the house to become a milliner in Eccles and later turns out that he’s actually become gay. George plots to bring his next two sons into line by marrying them off to the daughters of Mr Shah, Master Butcher and proud owner of an extended home in Bradford.
Lists of all the main Characters in the film are:
- George Khan – Father.
- Ella Khan – Mother.
- Nazir – Oldest who runs away from the arranged marriage, his father later disowns him, he comes out gay after a while throughout the film.
- Abdul – Works in a factory with other workers that are most white.
- Tariq – Very outgoing and doesn’t want to be a Pakistani, he’s got a girlfriend called Stella; he rejects the arranged marriage most fiercely.
- Saleem – Student, studying Art secretly (His father believes that he’s going to be an engineer).
- Maneer – Quiet, a king of committed Muslim, like his dad.
- Meenah – Only girl in the family, like a Tomboy in the film.
- Sajit – The youngest in the family, always (even when he’s sleeping) wearing a coat for some unknown reason.
If we take a look at the themes of the film, I think that the main theme of the film is that it shows that the film is dealing with an immigrant’s experience, about moving across the world and coming up against different ways about the values of the old versus those of the young, and the film actually shows this by showing the Pakistani tradition and how they get their sons and daughters to marry other people that they don’t even know about or haven’t even met.
The surroundings of the film are around Salford in the 1970’s and it’s in a neighbourhood where there are terrace houses. The soundtrack at the beginning of the film and in the opening scene shows us that the film is going to be full of humour and its going to be funny because the soundtrack that they have chosen which is by “New Seekers – Glory, Glory, Glory”. This soundtrack goes well with the film because it’s a music that people would probably listen to in the 1970’s. The costumes that they use in the film help anchor the film in the 70’s e.g the dressing of Tarik’s girlfriend Stella, her father and everyone in the film’s dressing generally reminds us of the fashion in the 70’s. The recording of Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech in the film is one of the best ways in which the film has been anchored in the 1970’s, Enoch Powell’s speech gives us a sense of the social atmosphere in the 1970’s, and the racism against people who were non-British at the time,(Like racism against Asians) which help us to get a better understanding of the community in which the Khan family were living in, it also makes it easier for us to understand why the Khan children were the way they were; most of the Khan familys children not wanting to be Asian and actually feeling ashamed about their Asian background, the reason for this is because of all the racism that was going on in the 1970’s.
Scene: Opening Scene of East is East
Outline of Scene:
Row of terraces houses show at the beginning, then it starts with the Good Friday procession with Meena holding the crucifix, with most of the family in the procession except George because he’s at the mosque. After a while George returns down the alley, then Ella (mum) arrives and tells the children that George is back from the mosque, and then the children make a run for it down the alley way and return to the procession before George finds out that they are there.
Characters involved in Opening Scene:
- Ella
- George
- Tariq
- Saleem
- Maneer
- Meenah
- Sajit
- Annie
- Stella
- Peggy (Fat Girl, whose Stella’s friend)
- Earnest
- Vicar
Music/Sound effects:
The music that is playing is by New Seekers – Glory Glory Glory. The lighting that is used in the film is natural outdoor lighting because obviously the parade is on the street so they have to have natural lighting, with Dull, cloudy weather which is “Typical British weather”.
Camera Shots:
Aerial view of houses at the start of the scene and at the end of the scene.
Lighting:
Natural outdoor lighting, but looks Dull, rainy weather “Typical British weather”.
Body Language:
The body language that they use in the film are joyfull when they are marching but as soon as George arrives from the Mosque they start to get anxious because they want to get the children out of the parade so that George doesn’t find out that they were celebrating the parade with the Christians.
This scene tells us about the attitude to culture, background, religion and characters because if we look at the scene it shows that...
- Khan family’s children and there mother see themselves as they are in the white community, you can see this because, the children are in the Christian parade.
- George is trying to be a real Muslim by going to the mosque and trying to teach his children about Pakistani culture and religion.
- Children want to mix with the white British.
- George enjoys seeing Christians but wouldn’t want his children to join them.
- Ella (Mum) allows children joining in Christian activities but keeps it secret from George because she wants to keep everyone happy.
- George wants children to have Pakistani identity – but the children have Pakistani/British identity.
If we take a look at another scene, eg the second scene, the characters that are involved in this scene and the role they play is…
Scene: Scene 2 (Straight after the Opening scene)
Outline of scene:
Khan family’s members are preparing by wearing Pakistani traditional dresses for Nazir’s wedding (fixing their dress, hair, having a bath in the tin bath). George is giving Nazir the traditional watch with his name on it written in Arabic, and tells Nazir that he’s proud of him. After they are ready they get into a minibus that is decorated which is watched by neighbours. In the wedding hall, wedding ceremony begins and Nazir starts to panic and runs away from the scene, never returning from there until later in the film. After that George is devastated and ashamed because of what happened, and disowns Nazir.
Camera Shots:
The scene opens up with a close up photo of Sajid and then it ends with a fading photo of Nazir (which was disowned and so George took the photo off the wall) and then we see a comic view of Maneer getting ready to get into the bath but he snakes and we can see his butt, it seems that he’s peeing in the bath but actually he’s pouring hot water from the kettle, then we get a straight close up of wedding garments.
Lighting:
Looks like usual house lighting to make it look like it’s a normal house lighting, but it’s a dull day outside.
Music/Sound effects:
“Glory, Glory, Glory” carries on from scene 1(link), Asian classical music as Nazir prepares for the wedding is played as a background music. Asian pop music starts playing when they start to go to the wedding and start getting in to the minibus. The background music continues from that but then changes into quieter music, then building up.
Dialogues:
When Khan Family’s is preparing for the wedding they, argue, swear and grumble.
George – “You make me proud son”
Nazir – Silence as he puts his hand up just before he is given the traditional Pakistani sweet.
This scene tells us about the attitude to culture, background, religion and characters because if we look at the scene it shows that...
- Stella’s granddad is racist against the Khan family and others
- “Pickaninny’s fucking picnic” – which is an insult to African people.
- We can see that Meenah is a kind of tomboy, we can see that when she is being dressed the traditional Pakistani clothes and says that she hates those clothes, this also shows that she isn’t really from a Pakistani background although her dad is forcing the family to act/be like a Pakistani
- This scene shows that Tariq is not looking forward to the wedding that his father (George) arranged, and really gets angry about it, and even plans to leave him because of this.
- George is a really religious man and likes to keep his culture with the children but his son Nazir really made him disgraced because he ran out of the wedding hall, and then disowned him.
In East is East there are different national and individual identities represented and not just one single British or Pakistani identity represented. If we take a look at the family, they are like all individuals, e.g. Tariq who does not like the idea to marry a Pakistani girl, and in the film he uses word like “Paki” which is considered a racist word if it was heard through a white/black persons mouth, but he’s saying this in a way that he’s not like a Pakistani that follows their culture, or beliefs, and we can see Meenah who is more of a tom-boy who doesn’t obey any of her dads rules, which is not our typical idea of a Muslim, Asian girl from a strict background, then we can see that Nazir turns out to be gay and cannot return home after what happened and his dad disowning him. I think Maneer plays a quite big part in East is East because it shows how a Muslim’s son is taught to respect his father and follow his culture and religion. Stella’s dad represents a nationalist, and a typical racist, white man who doesn’t want his kids to have anything to do with non-white, British people. If we look at the mum, she is very stuck, in between her husband who is a very strict Muslim, and doesn’t like to be disobeyed by any of his family, and her children who are also in between of being British or Pakistani. This film really shows Britain as being very hard to live in because of the racism and it also shows that your children can change their culture quite quickly as we see what happens to Tariq, Nazir etc.
