The film is a character study of Parvez (Om Puri) an immigrant taxi driver in a Yorkshire Town.
While his friends have become wealthy, he is still plying his trade as a cab driver.
Like Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, he seems a little isolated maybe even alienated, as he deals with the scummy strata of society. The late night drunks, drug addicts and those violent to prostitutes.
He is not outwardly religious, drinks too much and is only source of pride is his son who is engaged to the daughter of a police inspector.
The fact that she is white is not an issue for him and he does not notice that her father seems to be far from enthusiastic with this engagement.
Parvez in a sense is at home with the host society. You also feel that he has fallen out of lust with his middle aged wife although they have cordial relations.
However he notices that his son has changed. Farid has ended his engagement, turning his back on what he views as a decadent society and mixes with a fundamentalist crowd.
It is a clash of cultures which is an Everyman tale irregardless of culture or religion. The difference is here, it's the older man that wants to integrate while the son rejects it.
Parvez driving a German businessman around becomes friendly with a prostitute and has relations with her. At the same time his son and his gang wants to drive prostitutes of the streets.
At the end his relationship breaks down with his son. Farid accuses his father being a fanatic.
Hanif Kureshi based the story apparently on his family member who became a more devout Muslim. However you always have to take things with a pinch of salt when Kureshi makes such claims.
However it does identify with religious fundamentalism in the light of the Rushdie affair from 1988 and the attractions of fundamentalism to the young.
This is a thoughtful work from Kureshi who in his younger years was always trying to shock his audience to mask that the writing was not so good.
He is helped here by the director doing his best with a low budget but the cast which includes Stellan Skarsgard and Rachel Griffiths are very good.
While his friends have become wealthy, he is still plying his trade as a cab driver.
Like Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, he seems a little isolated maybe even alienated, as he deals with the scummy strata of society. The late night drunks, drug addicts and those violent to prostitutes.
He is not outwardly religious, drinks too much and is only source of pride is his son who is engaged to the daughter of a police inspector.
The fact that she is white is not an issue for him and he does not notice that her father seems to be far from enthusiastic with this engagement.
Parvez in a sense is at home with the host society. You also feel that he has fallen out of lust with his middle aged wife although they have cordial relations.
However he notices that his son has changed. Farid has ended his engagement, turning his back on what he views as a decadent society and mixes with a fundamentalist crowd.
It is a clash of cultures which is an Everyman tale irregardless of culture or religion. The difference is here, it's the older man that wants to integrate while the son rejects it.
Parvez driving a German businessman around becomes friendly with a prostitute and has relations with her. At the same time his son and his gang wants to drive prostitutes of the streets.
At the end his relationship breaks down with his son. Farid accuses his father being a fanatic.
Hanif Kureshi based the story apparently on his family member who became a more devout Muslim. However you always have to take things with a pinch of salt when Kureshi makes such claims.
However it does identify with religious fundamentalism in the light of the Rushdie affair from 1988 and the attractions of fundamentalism to the young.
This is a thoughtful work from Kureshi who in his younger years was always trying to shock his audience to mask that the writing was not so good.
He is helped here by the director doing his best with a low budget but the cast which includes Stellan Skarsgard and Rachel Griffiths are very good.