You gotta watch this movie!!
Whats the thing to watch in this movie yaar? I think the movie is just stereotyping the image of British Pakistan that they have a pathetic way of living! And when they are forced to follow Islam or Pakistani culture the kids rebel.
I mean a gori being beaten up by a Pakistani husband in Britain, I mean come on yaar! Why wasnt Om Puri arrested for domestic violence?
Whats so great about eating pork that the kids love eating sausage and ham and all of that crap. They were just trying to show in that movie that those kids were doing everything against Islam and our culture but yet scared of there father. I think in real life in Western desi communties it is the other way around!
No you don't! It's not for the faint-hearted! And you have to be in the right mood and frame of mind to watch it.
I actually laughed throughout the movie when I watched it, and surprisingly the cinema was just full of whites!! It was like that for every show apparantly, full of goraz! Don't know why they enjoyed it so much!
Afterwards though, my non-desi friends were making references to the movie and I didn't like the assumptions they made. That's what ticked me off.
still haven’t seen it…will watch it when i have the time (heard enuf bout it)
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~ It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow… ~
it's really funny wen ur watchin it, but latz wen u think bout it, there juz takin the micky of pakistani's, bout arrange marriages, strict muslim father, but also the father avin a wife in pakistan and keep referin 2 her wen he has an argument with his current wife, we had more white ppl takin bout this movie then asians
There is also a british comedy 'Goodness graciouse me' in which the take the micky off asians and whites, now thats wat i find funny
I have always believed that if one does not have the ability to look at the most serious matters in life with light-hearted satire and humor then he/she does not deserve to laugh at anything else either. Religion and culture are on the top of those serious matters.
Domestic voilence happens everywhere. In American, British, or Pakistani households, there are no exceptions. That's too much of a close-minded statement that a Pakistani family is being stereotyped. It's about time people stop wrapping things under the rug and look at things more lightly and openly. Good and bad customs are practiced on every inch of the globe, no need to get so uptight and defensive about it.
I see Pakistani people making fun of Western culture all the time. We always condemn their drinking, pre-marital sex practices, eating ham, and rest of the blah blah blah. If you cannot laugh at your own self then you have no right to laugh at others as well, or even more truly, to laugh at all.
When I see people making comments like these, the only thing comes to mind is that they are conscious of how their culture looks to others. Well, that's a sign of pretty screwed up inferiority complex, get over it.
Watch the movie with open mind and the tone it carries, not with your warped up defensiveness and minute details.
I saw it - loved it - Roman - you gotto watch this film in Bradford!!! ** Bradistan ** The atmosphere is totally different
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and I dont know why people fuss so much over the negative side of it - It was just too funny
DM, Watch it, it will leave you in Stitches.
Mem,
yeh I remember the Bradistan scenes. I was in stitches during the scene when the whole family goes to Bradford and they are all looking out the window from the van at these herds of desis shopping around and the little kid says in amazement, 'There are hundereds of 'em!'
I was so amused by the performances of every single character in the movie. Everybody did a great job. Archie Punjabi, who played the character of Meenah, kinda mockingly danced so well on inhi logoN nai lay leena dopata mera. It was so funny and amusing.
You can always find little anomalies here and there in a movie. Movies are never true picture of reality, and they are not supposed to be to begin with. You'd be bored out of your entertainment wits if you'd to watch most movies without the necessary cinematic fiction and dramatic elements. But the art is how well a cinematic exaggeration is adopted without losing the constant tinge of reality.
[quote]
Originally posted by cat-woman:
Afterwards though, my non-desi friends were making references to the movie and I didn't like the assumptions they made. That's what ticked me off.
[/quote]
This is a great point. I watched the movie, had a great laugh an` all that, but when it comes to discussing the film with english people they seem to generalise, and think all our fathers are wife beaters and refer to us all as bastard, which is the only objection I had. However there are many fathers like that.
However i suppose this is their ignorance, which just adds to their stereotypical view of us anyway.
But Om Puri was excellent, as he was in the other like My Son The Fanatic which was actually more realistic and though provoking.
Mem, i reckon it would be an altogether different experience watching it in Bradford!!!
Roman,
I totally agree with what you say, I thought it was an excellent movie, saw it once in my home town and then we had some cousins in West Yorkshire ( not so far from Bradford) and they hadn’t seen it so I thought that WE HAVE TO go and see it in Bradford, one of my cousins with me found it flippin hilarious and laughed as much as I did – and her sister again found it offensive – I think some people just like to take things seriously and a lot deeper than what they are…
Yeah when the little one ‘saj’ peeks out the van window and says there hundreds of em – the cinema hall just roared with laughter
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Yup I think they all acted absolutely fabulously – Meenah’s dance with brushing up and her brothers laughing and enjoying was also done so well – really funny.
I mean – there are so many parts – like when the mosque van comes, when saj gets circumcised, Bradford, the rishthay, ( when the dad sees the pics and sweats like mad and says – ‘’sohni hai’’
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the whole thing was Fab..
I got Gizzy the DVD coz he hadn’t seen it -
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he didn’t like it so when I get a DVD player – I’m askin’ for it back !!!
mem
Great Movie, I laughed througout and when non desi friends asked me "you must have hated it" and I said I enjoyed it and they just kept quiet. The sad thing is that there are people who wouldn't learn a lesson from this movie and will just carry on doing whatever they believe in.
Who said I didn’t like it..
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I did like it.. I got it on DVD which mem got for me.. And on the DVD you got a lot of extra stuff (which is normal for DVD’s).. That made it simpler for me to understand the movie a little more..
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Like ..
- there are deleted scenes which didnn’t appear in the movie,
- Cast & Crew interviews
- Behind the scenes footage
- TV ads
I like the light heartedness with which you all mostly taking it &feel distant from it.
I have been to Bradfard area & familiar with indians paki in leicster south hall etc.
I have seen Hanif kureshis "My beutifull Launderette" ,in which he makes the main character Gay,b/c what i learnt much later that sob himself is one.Its only b/c he is reconigsed as a writer inEngland,that he gets the oppertunity to make pakistani expatriate oriented movies.BUT ITS HIS DISTORTED PERCEPTION,that gets made & not TRUE pakistani expat. story.Hanif may be a different type of Rushdie ,who lived most of his life in England literary circles which is white male dominated culture.Like Rushdie ,he probably was married to white before he discovered his gayness.East is east & MY Fanatic Son either one of themis made by Hanif?right?
With my right to disagree, I certainly did not like both the movies: East is East & My Son the Fanatic. Both the movies seem chaotic and far from depicting the reality. Not that I am imbued with such patriotic feelings(although it would be good to have some) that I would hate a movie just because it is portraying a negative image of our homeland, but if I do a synopsis, I just find it based on blatant exxageration and misdemeanour.
And this guy who marries a gori(btw…did his mother take his rishta for him
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)…and now gets so narrow-minded to get his sons wedded off to women against their wishes…and this other My son the Fanatic, with hordes of maulvis attacking brothel houses…who is protraying the reality from where…Oum Puri’s acting, I could not figure out any difference in both the movies…with his agressive emotional behaviour showing up all the times…chaotic..I am close to hating these two movies…
[This message has been edited by Eros (edited December 17, 2000).]
i haven't seen this movie yet. Don't feel bad you guys who are afraid of what non-Pakistanis will think of us. What about show's like Jerry Springer? Those are real people. If some guys starts asking or inferring we are 'such and such' way because of a movie ask if they are all like the people on Jerry?
Time in and time out people will love it or hate it.
I personally loved it so much that I too had to buy the DVD. ohhh… Salam-o-lakum Mr.Khaaan.
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Listen people, it’s just a simple movie, showing people the bad part when you inter marriage in a muslim society.
Actually it’s the truth… yep… that type of stuff happens and HAPPENED. Might I remind you that Movie was placing itself in the 60’s, when it was known that many Pakistani’s were having trouble.
Hahahaha but sure.. they might have gone a little extreme in one or two places, but it was to make it more funnier than it already was.
Although if you guys are scared that the white people will think we’re all freaks. Let’s go to the local porno video shop and rent a white porno. ???
Case closed.. it was either damn funny or stupid, your choice.
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Originally posted by Eros:
**...and this other My son the Fanatic, with hordes of maulvis attacking brothel houses...who is protraying the reality from where...
[This message has been edited by Eros (edited December 17, 2000).]**
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Eros, this has happened a few times in England, in the place where the film was set,(Or was it in Birmingham, cant remember) My Son the Fanatic. Not sure whether maulvis were involved, but there were plenty of muslim guys, and i am sure it was from the instigation of the maulvis
As far as it being realistic, I think, in my experience it is very realsitic. The father of the boy is ok as long as he starts praying and goes to the mosque, but when he delves deeper ito the religion the father doesnt like it, because the son can then pick out his fathers faults.
Their culture and tradition is so close to them, that they wont even allow religion to take over it.
But the son also, doesnt seem to realise he is getting in the manipulative teachings of the maulvis and so it ends up that both father and son, though they believe they are doing right, are not.
It is very ironic, how religious "teachers" came to England from Pakistan for conferences, and were then asking guys to get them visas to stay here!!!
It showed the double standards and hypocrisy that exist within the "liberal" muslims and also the so called fanatics or religious people.
Eros my friend, you are not gonna believe the kind of hypocrite people I have met in my past 9 years life in US. And I'm not talking about just few instances, I'm talking about a large pool of people who want to date around with goris but when it comes to marriage, they think goris are not good enough for them and they want to marry a Pakistani woman who'd cook, clean, and raise their childeren the Pakistani way. And sure enough, it has always be ok for them to sleep around with goris but when it comes to their childeren, dating is absolutely haram and forbidden.
Same goes for those who did end up marraying goris but completely disregard the fact that in a mutlit-cultural marriage, just because they are fathers does not mean that their culture will have absolute dominating value in their households. And that's exactly what this movie is about. There is a scene in the movie between Om Puri and the son in which son replies to his father that he (the father) was born in Pakistan, not him (the son). I think that best depicts the whole conflict going on between the father and the childeren. By any measures, those childeren are more Britain than Pakistani, and the father completely fails to see that.
everytime i go to blockbuster to rent it, there’s someone else with me…and it just so happens that whoever is with me (everytime a different friend), has seen the movie
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so end up renting something else…sheesh…talk about luck
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~ It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow… ~