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Dom Robinson reviews
Film Four
- Cert:
- Cat.no: VCD 0045
- Running time: 92 minutes
- Year: 1999
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 17 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English, audio-descriptive in English
- Subtitles: English for the hard of hearing
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras : Scene index, Trailer, Dolby Digital Trailer, Behind the Scenes,TV Spots, Deleted Scenes, Director’s Commentary, Cast & Crew Interviews,Behind the Scenes, Audio Description for the Visually-Impaired
Director:
- Damien O’Donnell
(East is East, Thirty Five Aside)
Producer:
- Leslee Udwin
(TV: Eldorado)
Screenplay:
- Ayub Khan-Din
Music:
- Deborah Mollison
Cast:
- George Khan: Om Puri (Brothers in Trouble, City of Joy, The Ghost and the Darkness, In Custody, My Son The Fanatic, Wolf, The Zoo Keeper)
Ella Khan: Linda Bassett (Alive and Kicking, Beautiful People, Let Him Have It, Mary Reilly, Oscar and Lucinda, Spoonface Steinberg, TV: Far From The Madding Crowd, Luvved Up, Our Mutual Friend)
Tariq Khan: Jimi Mistry (Hamlet (1996), TV: City Central, Eastenders, Silent Witness, Thieftakers)
Saleem Khan: Chris Bisson (TV: Children’s Ward, The Cops, Coronation Street, Prime Suspect 5, Where The Heart Is)
Nazir Khan: Ian Aspinall (TV: Band of Gold II, Casualty, City Central, The Fragile Heart, Peak Practice)
Stella Moorhouse: Emma Rydal (TV: Small Potatoes)
East is Eastis a comedy/drama set in the Pakistani community of Salford, 1971, centringon the Khan family. The area chosen could’ve been any part of Manchester wherered-brick council housing dominates as the dwellings all look the same. Ifyou’ve seen the streets that surround Manchester City’s Maine Road footballground, you’ll know what I mean.
Part slice-of-life drama, part comedic-content, veteran actor Om Puriis George Khan, or “Ghengis” to his kids, the man who rules his family with aniron rod – and something an iron fist – as he instills his religious beliefsinto that of his disapproving family – who are shying away from the traditionalthings in life such as arranged marriages and avoiding eating pork – and hiswhite, second wife Ella (Linda Bassett) who does her best to stand byhim but it’s not an easy task.
The rebellion starts early as eldest son Nazir (Ian Aspinall), PC ColinJitlada in BBC1’s City Central), giving a definite no to an arrangedmarriage by walking out during the ceremony, despite his propsective wife beinga peach compared to the prune-faces to appear later on.
Next up to face the walk up the aisle are Tariq (Jimi Mistry, best knownrecently as gay Dr. Fonseca in Eastenders) and Abdul (Raji James).Tariq has other plans since he’s currently dating the dance-round-yer-handbag-typeStella (Emma Rydal, with a dodgy wig that takes the edge off herappearance in the Channel 4 sitcom Small Potatoes… (swoon :)She is followed round day and night by her best friend Peggy (Ruth Jones).
Saleem (Chris Bisson, currently playing Vikram Desai in CoronationStreet) hasn’t been fixed up yet but he’ll want to be out of the house assoon as he finishes his college course and his dubious ‘sculpture’ which isn’trevealed until the final scene.
The others that make up the Khan household are “Daddy’s Boy” Maneer (EmilMarwa) who doesn’t take to the “English” lifestyle like the rest do,Meenah (Archie Panjabi), a tomboy who’s out to defy her parents’ wishesand youngest son Sajid (Jordan Routledge), forever wearing his Parkercoat and belatedly suffering the indignity of circumcision.
Many of this film’s comedy moments are genuinely very funny, but perhapsit’s down to seeing plenty of them on TV beforehand that took the edge outof the film. That said, I also saw scores ofAmerican Pieclips before I watched that and still thought the same scenes were a hoot.
Both films had their slow scenes though and were both advertised as out-and-outcomedies, but that’s the mistake this one made. It has a number of momentspunctuated as anything but comedy, usually when ruler-of-the-house Georgeputs his foot down seriously or strikes out at his wife Ella.
Thus, I didn’t enjoy the film as much as I’d expect because it was difficultto accept the swinging changes in attitude at unexpected times. That said,one thing the film did get right which few films manage to do is thecharacterisation. Every character, even down to Ella’s nosey best friendAnnie (Lesley Nichol), is well-defined for what they have to do and leaves a lasting impression.
The picture quality is typical of most VCI releases: an anamorphic print,here in a 16:9 ratio, but it has a tinge of fuzziness throughout. Such issomething you won’t spot if watching from the usual viewing distance on thesofa, but you’ll notice it if you look close up. The average bitrate is asuperb 7.31Mb/s, but the bitrate graph over time varies wildly, but uniformly,throughout.
The sound quality is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and is very good.However, it’s not used for much apart from dialogue and tunes of the daysuch as The Hollies‘ “On a Carousel” and the much morerecent, “Moving” by Supergrass.
Extras : Chapters and Trailers :17 chapters, 16 for the film and one separate for the end credits. The filmisn’t that long but I never say no to more chapters. The original theatricaltrailer is included as is the Dolby Digital “helicopter” trailer, which canbe seen on the DVD,Dolby Digital Demo: We’ve Got The Whole World Listening.
Two TV Spots are included. These are brief TV adverts from when it wasbeing advertised as being at the cinema. They only last 10 and 20 seconds,respectively, but it’s nice to see VCI taking the bother to get them classifiedand adds to the collectable value.
Languages/Subtitles :English Dolby Digital 5.1, with subtitles in English for the hard of hearing.Also, as with VCI’sThe War Zone,this disc comes complete with a feature-length audio-descriptive track, readout by actor Joe Duttine, which details the scenes in terms of backdrop andwhat happens in the foreground. It seemed to be running ahead of itself bya few seconds as the action didn’t occur until a short while after it wasspoken, but perhaps, at times, this had to happen so as not to clash with thedialogue.
It’s very well done indeed and I hope more discs carry this feature in future.Occasionally there are errors, such as when it’s stated that Tariq isadjusting his sister’s sari, when it’s actually Saleem.
And there’s more… :Behind the Scenes is nine-and-a-half minutes in the life of the cast andcrew as they made the film, is more of a typical featurette that can be found on a DVD these days and incorporatesclips from the interviews I’m about to mention next.
The Interviews section last 17 minutes and seems to include all themajor characters apart from the one whose views I’d like to hear, EmmaRydal. Director Damien O’Donnell gets to comment on his film, asdoes producer Leslee Udwin, who I instantly recognised – although theyears haven’t been to her as kind as they might – as Joy from the ill-fated1992/93 BBC soap opera, Eldorado, despite throughly enjoying it!
The extras continue with four Deleted Scenes, each of which can beviewed with or without additional commentary from the director and were probablybest left out, although the first canal scene may well have had a place in thefinal cut as would the pub scene near the end, in which Abdul finally gets todo something majorly memorable.
The package is nicely rounded off with a feature-length Director’sCommentary.
Menu :The main menu is animated with clips from the film and musical accompanientfrom the aforementioned Hollies tune. The sub-menus are static andcontain more sombre music that I originally thought was lifted straight fromthat used for the recentThe War Zone DVD,but it wasn’t.
Options are available to to start the film, select a scene, or visit theaudio or extras menu.
Overall, the film could have benefitted from being advertised more as a comedy/drama,but it makes up for this shortcoming with a huge number of extras. Now, ifonly they’d reissue the soundtrack on an 8-track cartridge 🙂
N.B.: To see any of the menu pictures larger, just click on them.
DVD Trivia: To link Eastenders and Eldoradofurther, the second actress to play Danish export Trine, Clare Wilkie,is currently one of the few Di Marcos staying in the East End soap asSandra. A long way from her days working atDemon Internet, I’ll bet:)
Also, the actor who plays Vikram’s elder brother Ravi in Coronation Streetalso has a small part early on.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALLCheck outVCI‘s andFilm Four‘sWeb site as well as the OfficialEast is EastWeb site.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.