O'Donnell has created a masterpiece on film; exploring racial tensions both
within the family and outside, showing the culture and religious clashes which
occur as offspring leave their expected heritage behind and are absorbed into
the fabric of a modern, English environment.The brutal reality of life and its events are wrapped in one of the
funniest screenplays written for a long time. But, for a film which was so
incredibly funny it also had its intensly darker side.
It didn't bulk at showing the violence which the head of a Muslim family may
deal out in order to keep his family respectful, in line and on the correct
path. Indeed this, and other racial issues, were the real plots of the film.
If the film has a failing, it is that it integrated the, unacceptable, domestic
violence, and racism, into what was, at the end of the day, a thoroughly
enjoyable, and amusing film. It was all to easy to ignore, or quickly forget,
the violence and racism and just see the funny side presented.
In its defence, the violence was condemned, it was shown to be unacceptable but
it was also explained as to why it arose. Our sympathies go to all parties
concerned, those trying to maintain their ways of life and those spreading their
wings and departing along different paths.
The film clearly shows overt racism. Not just from the English,
but from within the mixed race family itself.
The children don't see themselves
as Paki's any more as they embrace the English culture around them,
their father sees the English as wayward scum, exhibiting all the traits
he deplores, and their mother lets lose with a torrent of abuse as her ability
to bow down to her husband's righteousness against what she believes to be right
finally snaps.
The film was incredibly hard hitting, but it did cloak itself in humour. It also
offered us the vision of a world where respect between cultures existed and
showed that integration can be achieved.
It also made us question our own racial tolerance; when it's announced that,
"The Paki's are here", why did we roar with laughter ? Was it really
so amusing that a child of half-Pakistani origins has chosen to use the
same offensive, racial terminology that some non-Pakistani's have ?
If the humour had been stripped out, we would have had one of the hardest
hitting insights into racial conflict within a mixed marriage family ever
to have graced the silver screen. It would have been devastatingly brutal, it
may even have been seen as offensive.
This aspect seems to have been lost on some critics and the publicists of the
film itself. It may be the best comedy since
Shakespeare in Love but it isn't just a laugh a
minute film.
That such a powerful insight into racial conflict can be interwoven into a film
which remains so funny is a masterful achievement.
