A decade since the beloved and BAFTA-winning East is East, the affectionate story of a traditionalist Pakistani father, his English wife and their seven unruly children in 1970s England, screenwriter Ayub Khan-Din brings us the follow-up West is West.
This time Khan-Din flips the script, taking this boisterous family from Salford back to rural Pakistan.
Manchester, 1975. The now much diminished Khan family continues to struggle for survival. Sajid, the youngest, is the resident teenager in trouble. He’s playing truant to avoid bullies at school, and aggravating his father with his Anglicised ways. George decides that a trip to Pakistan will sort Sajid out, and in no time at all, father and son are en route back to the first Mrs Khan and the family and lifestyle George left behind thirty years earlier. But they receive a frosty reception, and it’s not long before Ella (the current Mrs Khan) follows to see what’s what, with a small entourage from Salford in tow.
Though broadly played for laughs, the film, like its prequel, strikes some serious notes. In particular, the relationship between the two Mrs Khans is tinged with poignancy and layers of meaning. Director Andy De Emmony captures the verve of young and old and the convergence between east and west in what becomes a thoughtful and uplifting film about a family in transition.