After hearing about the terrible London blasts, which happened just a few days ago, the first thing which came to my mind was this movie. I watched a few years ago and loved it. Doubtless, I don't agree with B24: this is not a comedy at all, and it's nothing to share with "East is East". This movie is extremely forward-looking, not only because it somehow anticipated the "Clash of Civilization", but also because it gives you an extremely good description of all the difficulties that the first generation of Western-born people have to face.
The character has to face reality: he is sure that he will never be able to be a real British (Western) citizen: despite his father's efforts and open-mind, the guy is too young to realize that if you don't accept yourself first, you will hardly find out people ready to welcome you. This is why he finds it more convenient (and much easier) to be surrounded by other Pakistani people. Among all the characters, the portrait of the "Imam" is very good: he is shown as an hypocritical man, always ready to blame the West, but still living in the UK, where he can get anything he wants: women, sex, movies all those same things that he says are supposed to represent our flaws. But perhaps these people must forget something: despite their words, we're not afraid!
The character has to face reality: he is sure that he will never be able to be a real British (Western) citizen: despite his father's efforts and open-mind, the guy is too young to realize that if you don't accept yourself first, you will hardly find out people ready to welcome you. This is why he finds it more convenient (and much easier) to be surrounded by other Pakistani people. Among all the characters, the portrait of the "Imam" is very good: he is shown as an hypocritical man, always ready to blame the West, but still living in the UK, where he can get anything he wants: women, sex, movies all those same things that he says are supposed to represent our flaws. But perhaps these people must forget something: despite their words, we're not afraid!