East Is East (1999)

East is East is an brilliant effort to convey a Father's dilemma's & tribulations in a multiracial family/community.From an asian perspective this movie could'nt be much farther than the truth of what's really happening. Om puri,the seasoned actor that he is,carries the film on his shoulder with excellent support from Basset and others.One scene in particular,When he sees the photographs of his would-be daughters-in-law,he contemplates between the word he has given and family honour, and decides hastily lest he should lose his face.Throughout the movie he shines in many scenes, which only a great actor can do justice. Basset in the confrontation with mother of the brides, performs brilliantly in suppressing/bursting with anger.The children, all of them have made the movie what it is,with each one of them excelling in one way or other.Neighbours and friends support the films appeal/message very well.

Fmovies: Call me biased but British comedy is unbeatable for it's freshness and depth of character. In the ranks of British comedy east is east is in the top rank. While making serious comment on the community and personal problems of race mix in working class england around 1970 (has anything changed?) this film extracts so much humour. I am just in awe of the talent on both sides of the camera. Don't miss this masterpiece

This film depicts ultimate realism for people who have grown up in multi racial environments. The graphic nature of the language only goes to reinforce the raw acceptance of the cultural influence of the times and area in which the film is set (70's Manchester, England). The director has captured the emotional elements the script intended perfectly. It was obviously deeply researched. The character portrayal of the dominant father is by no means stereotypical of the part, but is truly based on the difficulties encountered by the respected head of any multicultural family. His six sons and one daughter are experiencing the natural mix of eastern and western influence and putting their own spin on their existence, much to their father's dismay. The character of the mother portrays the natural ethnic blindness that should be much admired and is yet so common throughout the world. The humor is very real. Every family, if they look back on their own historical events would come to recognise the similarity of the situations encountered. The work surely ranks among the very best in regional exposure along side the likes of "Kes" etc. Well worth watching more than once

East Is East fmovies. Excellent film of interracial family, traditions versus the contemporary and chartering somewhere in the middle ground. I was somewhat dubious about the way EAST IS EAST was touted as a comedy, seemingly about horny teenagers and adolescent rebellion against parental authority. I thought, Oh Lord, the Americans have a lock on this type of flick, and now the British want in, too. Then, I saw Om Puri's name as the lead. I have been a longtime fan of this amazing actor, and thought, well it's worth a look.

Wow! What a captivating, interesting and at times, humorous film. I found it unpretentious and unflinching, and marvelously human, which is where the humor rested. The mingling of cultures, and those becoming an amalgamation of the two, lead to uproarious clashes sometimes. The wishes, well in this case, the demands of the draconian father for his children, and the reality in which they live clearly head for confrontation. The screenplay by Ayub Khan-Din is a great slice of life; it's certainly wasn't hard to tell that he might have culled some of the notions included from life experience. It's not meant to be exacting, as some have criticized. No more so, than Laura Ingalls Wilder's "LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE" was meant to be a strictly historical factoid on pioneering life in the early western US. It's meant as a slice of it, of one persons vision or interpretation.

EAST IS EAST is extraordinary, a marvel to watch, and one that simply gets better with each viewing. Don't miss this one. Highly recommended.

A bitter-sweet comedy with some moments of truly stark drama, this is a high-class movie. Yes, there are randy dogs and fat, ugly girls - but the piece is a class act because it mixes those "laugh-out-loud funny" comic set pieces with great drama so cleverly.

Very much a period piece, the movie is set in Salford in 1971 - a telling time for a part-Pakistani family with Enoch Powell's shadow never too far away and the break-away of East Pakistan (Bangladesh-to-be)unravelling as the film goes on. The poverty of 1971 Salford with the outside toilet, bedpans and tin bath is excellently portrayed. And at a more mundane level, the constant sight of a bright orange space-hopper and its comedic demise is truly nostalgic, especially to this reviewer whose own space-hopper suffered a similar fate around 1971.

Superb acting performances all round - Linda Bassett used to be one of the better-kept secrets on the UK stage, but now I suppose the secret is out. Highly recommended movie.

„East is East" is a refreshing inventive family story. Directly the first scene where two different religions and also two opposing views of life (namely the children's and the view of their conservative father) clash together. With the funny way of telling which is typical for the whole film, nevertheless the problems are shown in their graveness. The cast represents every member of this Pakistani family as an individual but the good relations between the siblings and their mother is shown as realistic as the problematic relation between them and their incorrigible father. The viewer gets the impression of a different culture but he will recognize a lot of aspects of his own family life, too, what was aimed by the makers who brought in the personal experiences. All in all, this movie is an evening-filling enrichment for the viewer.