West Is West

Ayub Khan-Din

The story: Fifteen-year-old Sajid (Aqib Khan) is bullied at school for being half-Pakistani. His father George Khan (Om Puri) decides that it is time Sajid learnt to be proud of his roots and takes the boy to Pakistan for a visit. Sajid’s English mother Ella (Linda Bassett) is worried about the trip because George still has a wife and family back in Pakistan.

In East Is East (1999), the clash between George’s strict Muslim upbringing and the more liberal Western values his children embraced took place in Salford, Lancashire in 1971.

Five years later, in this sequel, the stage is set for a reverse culture clash when George takes his youngest son back to George’s country of birth to give him a sense of his roots.

Actor-playwright Ayub Khan-Din drew on his own life in writing both films. Sajid is his alter-ego and newcomer Aqib Khan plays the role with spirit and charm.

At first, Sajid seems rather pitiful as someone who is unhappy at school and angry at home. But though initially resistant and defiant, he soon begins to blossom in Pakistan.

All the acting out by Sajid – skipping school, shoplifting – is a cry for attention as he needs a role model in his life. Naturally, he meets a quirky wise old man (Nadim Sawalha) who nudges him along in the right direction. He also strikes up a friendship with a local boy, Zaid the goatherd (Raj Bhansali).

Apart from Sajid’s coming-of-age, several other subplots are worked into the film, including Sajid’s brother Maneer’s (Emil Marwa) search for a bride and the tangled past to be sorted out between George and his two wives.

There is a touching scene between the two women – Ila Arun as Basheera, the wife who was left behind, and Linda Bassett as Ella, George’s second wife – as they seek to communicate their complicated emotions despite the language barrier.

While the film loses some steam in the middle, the Pakistan in the 1970s evoked by the film is a colourful and entrancing distraction, even though the movie was shot in India. The original songs by Indian trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy add to the sense of time and place.

By the time the film starts to tie up all the loose ends, you have come to care for the large cast of characters, even the obstinate and bad-tempered George.

It is good news then that another chapter about the Khan family is being planned. The titles of the first two movies are taken from the Rudyard Kipling poem The Ballad Of East And West though it seems unlikely that they will name the third Never The Twain Shall Meet.

(ST)