My Son the Fanatic

Plot

In a small city in the English midlands, a Pakistani immigrant named Parvez (Om Puri) works long hours driving a cab to provide modest comfort for his disapproving wife, Minoo (Gopi Desai), and better opportunities for his collegiate son, Farid (Akbar Kurtha). When Farid breaks off his engagement with the daughter of the city's white police commissioner, drops out of university and joins a cell of Islamic fundamentalists, Parvez must bide his time and hope that his son will come around to his own liberal, assimilationist views. Meanwhile, a monied German entrepreneur named Schitz (Stellan Skarsgard) arrives in town on business and retains Parvez's services as not only driver but navigator of the city's steamy underbelly. Parvez recommends the services of Bettina (Rachel Griffiths), a local hooker with whom he has struck up an unlikely but warm friendship. Schitz's callous treatment of both of his new employees soon, however, sickens Parvez. After his son convinces Parvez to let a visiting holy man move into the family home, the conflicts between Parvez's nocturnal activities and his home life escalate. The screenplay was adapted by Hanif Kureishi from his own short story, which appears in the collection Love in a Blue Time. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

Review

Although it finds a lot of humor in the collision between immigrant and native, liberal and fundamentalist, My Son the Fanatic is actually a bittersweet drama that resists easy resolution of its many well-delineated conflicts. Director Udayan Prasad and cinematographer Alan Almond deftly juggle characters and locales as they explore both the facades and the realities of an average Western city. Om Puri is terrific as Parvez, the Pakistani cab driver whose few pleasures in life include listening to old jazz records and watching his son grow up. Rachel Griffiths is similarly spot-on as Bettina, the prostitute who longs for new experiences and sees more than just a Paki cabbie in Parvez's grizzled but kindly countenance. Akbar Kurtha and Gopi Desai don't get as much screen time, or generate as much sympathy, as Parvez's dutiful wife and fundamentalist son, but even when Hanif Kureishi's script stacks the deck against these characters it never wholly dismisses their viewpoints and motivations; the film may poke fun at the ironies of an anti-capitalist Islamic holy man who watches cartoons, runs up Parvez's utility bills, and wants to immigrate to the "corrupt" United Kingdom, but Schitz (Stellan Skarsgard), the wanton, casually racist German businessman, helps portray the equally ugly extremes of Western liberalism. Fizzy (Harish Patel), Parvez's wealthy but judgmental friend, likewise represents the hypocrisy of immigrants whose loyalties are divided between profit and propriety. Posing more questions than it answers, this multifaceted film explores writer Kureishi's perennial themes with more nuance and depth than any before. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

Cast

Om Puri - Parvez; Stellan Skarsgård - Schitz; Gopi Desai - Minoo; Rachel Griffiths - Bettina; Akbar Kurtha - Farid; Bhasker Patel - The Maulvi; Harish Patel - Fizzy; Sarah Jane Potts - Madelaine

Credit

Colin Blaymires - Art Director, Sara Kane - Art Director, Simone Ireland - Casting, Vanessa Pereira - Casting, Mary-Jane Reyner - Costume Designer, Nick Laws - First Assistant Director, Udayan Prasad - Director, David Gamble - Editor, George Faber - Executive Producer, Anita Overland - Line Producer, Stephen Warbeck - Composer (Music Score), Charlie Gillett - Musical Direction/Supervision, Grenville Horner - Production Designer, Alan Almond - Cinematographer, Chris Curling - Producer, Adrian Rhodes - Sound/Sound Designer, Albert Bailey - Sound/Sound Designer, Hanif Kureishi - Screenwriter

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