Culture clash comedy is a shtick often brought to the big screen, but its success depends heavily on the details. For "East Is East," the particulars lie in the U.K.-Asian community of Manchester,circa 1971. Focusing on first-generation Pakistani immigrant George Khan, his British wife Ella and their seven offspring, "East Is East" feeds on the ironies of assimilation.
Director Damien O'Donnell may be from Dublin, but he's working off a script by Ayub Khan-Din, whose Pakistani father owned a fish and chip shop just like George Khan in the film. Rather like Spike Lee's nostalgic "Crooklyn," "East Is East" is a humorous recollection of childhood in a specific time and place, as much as it is an exploration of family tensions and ethnic identity.
Veteran actor Om Puri ("Gandhi") gets the meatiest role here, and he lays into it with zest. As Khan, he's a patriarch with an attitude, dictating his own Muslim mores to his kids. At the same time he neglects to notice that he has led a nontraditional life himself, having married non-Muslim Ella (Linda Bassett) and relocated to the other side of the globe. His attempts to force his sons into traditional arranged marriages seem like denial.