DramaComedy

East Is East

- A comedy of families, a chip shop... and a very randy dog.

In 1971 Salford fish-and-chip shop owner George Khan expects his family to follow his strict Pakistani Muslim ways. But his children, with an English mother and having been born and brought up in Britain, increasingly see themselves as British and start to reject their father's rules on dress, food, religion, and living in general.

Release Date : 1999-05-14

Language :EnglishRussianUrduHindi

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : Assassin FilmsFilm4 ProductionsBBC

Production Country : United Kingdom

Alternative Titles :

Cast

Character Name : George Khan

Original Name : Om Puri

Gender : Male

Character Name : Ella Khan

Original Name : Linda Bassett

Gender : Female

Character Name : Nazir Khan

Original Name : Ian Aspinall

Gender : Male

Character Name : Tariq Khan

Original Name : Jimi Mistry

Gender : Male

Character Name : Meenah Khan

Original Name : Archie Panjabi

Gender : Female

Character Name : Sajid Khan

Original Name : Jordan Routledge

Gender : Male

Character Name : Saleem Khan

Original Name : Chris Bisson

Gender : Male

Character Name : Auntie Annie

Original Name : Lesley Nicol

Gender : Female

Character Name : Maneer Khan

Original Name : Emil Marwa

Gender : Male

Character Name : Abdul Khan

Original Name : Raji James

Gender : Male

Character Name : Stella Moorhouse

Original Name : Emma Rydal

Gender : Female

Character Name : Peggy

Original Name : Ruth Jones

Gender : Female

Character Name : Ernest Moorhouse

Original Name : Gary Damer

Gender : Male

Character Name : Mr Moorhouse

Original Name : John Bardon

Gender : Male

Character Name : Iyaaz Ali Khan

Original Name : Jimmi Harkishin

Gender : Male

Character Name : Priest

Original Name : Ben Keaton

Gender : Male

Character Name : Poppa Khalid

Original Name : Kriss Dosanjh

Gender : Male

Character Name : Mark

Original Name : Gary Lewis

Gender : Male

Character Name : Fat Twat

Original Name : Roger Morlidge

Gender : Male

Character Name : Abdul Karim

Original Name : Albert Moses

Gender : Male

Character Name : Helen Karim

Original Name : Rosalind March

Gender : Female

Character Name : Mullah

Original Name : Kaleem Janjua

Gender : Male

Character Name : Doctor

Original Name : Ralph Birtwell

Gender : Male

Character Name : Mr Shah

Original Name : Madhav Sharma

Gender : Male

Character Name : Zaid

Original Name : Saikat Ahamed

Gender : Male

Character Name : Bouncer

Original Name : Bruce McGregor

Gender : Male

Character Name : Trisha

Original Name : Margaret Blakemore

Gender : Female

Character Name : Ettienne Francois

Original Name : Thierry Harcourt

Gender : Male

Character Name : Mrs Shah

Original Name : Leena Dhingra

Gender : Female

Character Name : Nigget Shah

Original Name : Tallat Nawaz

Gender : Male

Character Name : Nushaaba Shah

Original Name : Sharmeen Rafi

Gender : Male

Character Name : Judy (uncredited)

Original Name : Enid Dunn

Gender : Female

Character Name : Nazir's Bride (uncredited)

Original Name : Preeya Kalidas

Gender : Female

Reviews

CinemaSerf

@Geronimo1967

2025-04-17

It’s early 1970s Britain and “George” (Om Puri) has been running his chip shop in Salford for many years since leaving his home (and wife) in Pakistan. Not long after he arrived after the war, he met and married “Ella” (Linda Bassett) and they’ve had half a dozen children, many of whom are now starting to become eligible for the marriage game. Though he has integrated, up to a point, he is determined to ensure that the traditions of his homeland and his faith are continued with his children. They, on the other hand, are British through and through and over the course of the next ninety minutes we see just how, in various fashions, they begin to rebel against their father’s increasingly puritanical and occasionally violent behaviour towards them and their mother. All against the background of Enoch Powell espousing his “rivers of blood” philosophy, things in this tightly knit family come to an head when the parents of prospective wives/daughters-in-law arrive for a family conference and the wheels all start to come off. It’s a very dark comedy this, and it captures the clashes of cultures and sexes entertainingly as well as quite potently at times. The actors playing the siblings deliver competently enough, but it’s the young snorkel-jacket wearing “Sajid” (Jordan Routledge) who steals the scenes as his youthfulness gives his character (and us) an unique observation point from which to watch his family turn from two adults with children into one all adults and just two children. It takes a swipe at arranged marriages, pride, snobbery and bloody-mindedness but it also pays respect to the older man’s traditions and illustrates with a degree of sympathy just how difficult he found it to adapt to the profound changes that were emerging around him and about which he had a frustrating lack of control. It’s not exactly laugh out loud funny, but it’s still an enjoyable and pithily scripted and delivered film that has more than a ring of truth to it.