Film: West Is West
Director: Andy De Emmony
Cast: Aqib Khan, Linda Bassett, Jimi Mistri, Ila Arun, Vijay Raaz, Om Puri, Leslie Nicoll
Rating: ****
An NRD (Non Resident Desi) tumble down the rabbit hole into Pakistan, West is West is something of a nostalgic fairy tale that tells us we do not need to speak the same language to communicate; just listen with an open heart. This is a film for the alienated, culturally skewed Peter Pan in all of us, who would love to take a plane to a lost paradise and return somehow a bit more whole.
Meet the Pakistani/English version of the Royal Tenenbaums, a family of quirky antiheros who can’t live with or without one another. Aqib Khan plays brilliantly, the brooding BBCD (British Born Confused Desi) Sajid Khan, son of the conflicted George Khan (Om Puri). George discovers his son is ashamed of his heritage, and decides to take his son to homeland soil, so as to absorb some culturally wholesome values.
The reluctant Sajid is initially repelled and alienated by the usual banes of foreign visitors; cows, beggars, and public defecation, but forms a bromance with a lively Zaid played by Raj Bhansali (look out for his endearing mujhra) and begins to have fun. With a little help from a local sufi (a kind of Pakistani Gandalf/Cheshire-Cat), Sajid begins to feel comfortable in his Pakistani skin while his father is forced to confront his own cultural demons. Puri plays his role with subtlety and bewilderment, as he stumbles along trying to make sense of his role in the life of two families.
Watch out for some stellar scenes with the ex-army dean of Sajid’s British school, (played by Robert Pugh) who warns him not to linger in the loo too long “lest he go blind”, speaks Urdu and warns him of the “wrong sort of mosquito” that can get you “elephantitis; testicles that swell up to the size of mangoes and explode.”
Leslie Nichol is a comic treat and delivers much enjoyed giggles as the British Auntie Annie, who farts balefully after an orgy of kebabs. Linda Basett brings her soft hearted yet explosive character back in full force from East is East, as George Khan’s second (British) wife. She forges a brilliant chemistry with Ila Arun, who plays a luminously expressive Basheera Khan, the first (Pakistani) wife, as they lock horns and resolve issues surrounding the man who has both nourished and made a wreckage of their lives.
There are moments when the script pops with snarky grin-worthy dialogue and moments where the sentimentality may drag on a bit languorously for some tastes. As in most cross-over films, there is sometimes a sense that there is too much overclarification of what is going on in the plot, so as to be inclusive of every possible ethnicity of the viewer.
For the same reasons that The Darjeeling Limited was misunderstood by some Indian audiences I expect a slight cultural disconnect for some Desi viewers who look for familiar emotions and realism in representations of India and Pakistan. This genre of film is told using a very British flavour of cinematic story-telling, and creates a myth of reconciliation using the cultural tropes that would be relevant through a diasporic lens.
This is not a film about some objectively credible place or family, but a film about the process of belonging and looking through a lens of alienation at a landscape that has come to life for second generation Desi immigrants through tales like The Jungle Book, Bollywood cinema, and the reminiscences of the older generation.
It is a light film, in the sense that it never comes on too strong, and tries to take an innocent, childlike approach to issues that are controversial and extremely relevant to British Born Desis. Just because an issue is familiar to us does not mean it goes away: The question of where a person is “from” remains a perplexing one, as one may seem to be from both place and neither place all at once.
At the same time there is a latent parable there for Desi parents as well, as they stride the gap between the “then” of their childhoods and the “now” of their children’s worlds; Do not take out your anxiety about cultural changes on your kids. If you can accept how their lives are now a bricolage of shifting identities, they can enjoy connecting to the roots that bind you with greater pleasure.
A balmy, tender film, full of lyrical design, cinematography, and music, it was clearly crafted with a great deal of love for its subject matter. I am certain that generations of scattered desis will add it to their collection of classic confused desi cinema. A family film or an adult film meant to be experienced with childlike pleasure (and popcorn), This film is made to be seen with the heart and shared.
| Edited By: Tara Chowdhry |Source: DNA |Updated: Nov 21, 2013, 01:44 PM IST
