My Son the Fanatic | Om Puri, Akbar Kurtha | My Son the Future Suicide Bomber?

My Son the Fanatic | Om Puri, Akbar Kurtha | Self vs. family . . .

DVDs:

My Son the Fanatic

	My Son the Fanatic Om Puri, Akbar Kurtha Miramax, 2000 average customer review:based on 16 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Academy Award(R)-nominee Rachel Griffiths (HILARY AND JACKIE, MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING) stars in a critically acclaimed story of unlikely love set against a clash of cultures and generations! Parvez is a cab driver who left Pakistan in search of a better life for his family. Now he feels that he is losing his only son, Farid, to the conversative beliefs he abandoned long ago. Meanwhile, Parvez befriends a compassionate woman (Griffiths) and finds the comfort, support, and tenderness he does not have with his own family. When the disapproving Farid discovers this relationship, however, an uncomfortable situation boils over as Parvez is forced to choose between the son he adores ... and the woman who understands him!

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My Son the Future Suicide Bomber?

Parvez was born in Pakistan and moved to London some twenty five years earlier. He has mostly assimilated into his new cultural milieu and considers religion to be a secondary aspect of his overall identity. So much so, our central character has become something of a part time pimp along with being a full time cab driver. Parvez's son Farid is a young man who is gravitating towards radical Islamism. Great Britain's secular society appalls him. The family seems doomed to be severely damaged by this conversion. Even Parvez's wife is joining the fundamentalists. He is so distraught that he seeks comfort from the prostitute, Bettina. Parvez's whole life is unraveling. Is there any hope?

I've read a number of the reviews of My Son the Fanatic and none of them highlight Farid's terrorist activities. He and his fellow Islamic ruffians even throw a molotov cocktail through the window of a whore house and don't hesitate to physically attack women deemed slutty. Nor did the reviewers refer to the young man's blatant anti-Semitism. At the very most, they pointed out his alienation and hatred of modern allegedly decadent Western Civilization. In many respects, the reviews seemed to suggest that Farid is no more threatening than the existentially troubled hippies of the 1960s. What accounts for such naiveté in 1997? Political correctness? One can easily imagine Farid eventually becoming a nihilistic suicide bomber. Yes, I strongly advise you to see this film. It should help you more clearly comprehend the motivations of the Islamic fascists within our midst. My Son the Fanatic was a warning we should have heeded.

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Self vs. family . . .

This thoughtful BBC film from writer Hanif Kareishi tells a complex story of a Pakistani taxi-driver, Parvez (Om Puri) in a northern British city, whose settled life comes apart as his only son Farid (Akbar Kurtha) rebels against his father's secular life and takes up with a cell of young Muslim fundamentalists. Obsessed with the presence of prostitutes in the neighborhood, the son and his friends, with the help of a bearded spiritual leader from the home country, attempt to drive them out. A problem for the father, however, is that he's become good friends with one of them, Bettina (Rachel Griffiths). Meanwhile, a sleazy businessman from Germany (Stellan Skarsgard) uses both of them to fill his off-hours with recreational activities.

In this short film, Kareishi builds the pressure on Parvez from every direction. A successful Pakistani friend is a constant reminder that he has not thrived materially in his adopted homeland. The German he chauffeurs around town has little respect for him, and a comic in a night club heaps abuse on him. His wife is distant and unhappy, finally accusing him of putting himself before his family. But most bitterly, his son is shamed by him and by what Parvez describes to a friend as the simple need for tenderness in his life. There's no happy ending here - just the facing of the truth and the making of hard decisions. There is both humor and sorrow in this film, with wonderful performances and an excellent script. Viewers may also be interested in Ken Loach's film "A Fond Kiss," which treats similar themes.

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What hapends when cultures colide?

The movie is funny, but also addresses a serious issue of clash of western values and islamic fanaticism. Is it funny and interesting, but also serious and sad.
It is good movie to use in 'movie-clubs' & classes. It can raise understandig for the dificult position of imigrants and their integration into completly strange land and stranger view of the world.

A Fine Little Film That Is Particularly Important Today!

MY SON THE FANATIC is a small scale film made in 1998 about the problems of cross culture assimilation between Pakistanis and the British - or rather between Muslim and Christian - that packs a powerful punch in the understanding of current clashes similar to the film's story that are so keenly in focus today. Based on a short story by Hanif Kureishi (who also adapted the story to a screenplay) and directed by the highly respected Udayan Prasad, this film is blessed with a fine cast of actors who make some of the more improbable aspects quite warmly credible.

Parvez (the always fine Om Puri) slept through his Muslim education in Pakistan and moved to England with his wife Minoo (Gopi Desai) where he has been a taxi cab driver for 25 years while his co-immigrants such as his best friend Fizzy (Harish Patel) have become rich entrepreneurs. Parvez and Minoo have a young son Farid (Akbar Kurtha) who is a bit unsettled as a Pakistani adjusting to life in capitalistic England and has found a girlfriend Madeline (Sarah-Jane Potts) who happens to be the daughter of the Chief Police Inspector Fingerhut (Geoffrey Bateman). Despite the fact that Parvez and his wife would prefer Farid marry a Pakistani girl they consent to an engagement party, a turning point for the politically tenuous Farid. When Farid observes how the Fingerhut family snubs his Pakistani parents and background he explodes and instead joins a fundamentalist Muslim group, pledging his life to stamping out porn, drugs, evil, etc.

Parvez attempts reconciliation with his wildly fanatical son but the only person with whom he can communicate is a hooker named Bettina/Sandra (Rachel Griffiths) who has a heart of gold and is only in the Profession to make enough money to become a teacher. Parvez is a driver for a pimp service and he is assigned to escort a wealthy smarmy German Schitz (Stellan Skarsgård) through a series of encounters, encounters that involve Bettina among others. But along the way Bettina softens to Parvez, listens to his anguish about his son, and eventually becomes Parvez' paramour. When Farid's fundamentalist group is attacking the brothel where Bettina works he discovers his father's situation and is enraged: Parvez, Farid and Minoo must come to an understanding - and it is this manner of coping that provides a very touching ending to the film.

The story holds its own as a movie, but the underlying content is pungent, intelligent, perceptive, insightful and very cogent. Each member of the cast is excellent but Om Puri proves once again that he can carry a film with a questionable character strongly on his shoulders. Not only is this a fine little comedy drama to watch, it also provides some serious food for thought. Grady Harp, March 07

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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