Ayub Khan Din Movies
- 2009
The dysfunctional and multi-cultural Khan family returns to the screen in this follow-up to the 1998 hit comedy East Is East. It's 1976 in Salford, England, and life, as always, is chaotic in the home of traditionally minded Pakistani immigrant George (Om Puri) and his working-class British wife Ella (Linda Bassett). Their 15-year-old son Sajid (Aqib Khan) is a target for racist bullies at school and has been picked up for shoplifting, so George decides to take him to Pakistan to learn something of his heritage. Sajid, however, isn't at all interested in getting a crash course in Pakistani culture, and the visit to George's family is made uncomfortable by the presence of his first wife (Ila Arun), whom he hasn't seen in thirty years. Sajid feels like an outcast in Pakistan, but bonds with his big brother Maneer (Emil Marwa), who had been sent there a year earlier and his trying to balance his desire to find a wife with his obsession with Greek singer Nana Mouskouri. Just when Sajid's cultural confusion seemingly couldn't get worse, Ella and her best friend Annie (Leslee Nicol) arrive for an unexpected visit, prompted by George helping himself to their joint bank account. Directed by Andy De Emmony, West Is West received its North American premiere at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Om Puri, Linda Bassett, (more)
- 1993
Akesh Gill stars in this emotional drama about Sanda, a Canadian woman of Indian descent who falls in love with Patwant (Ayub Khan-Din), a well-heeled college student from India. When Patwant is forced to return home, Sanda throws caution to the wind and leaves her husband behind to follow him, bringing her daughter with her. But Sanda is painfully unaware of how strongly Patwant's culture differs from her own, and she finds herself rejected by his family and associates. The Burning Season was the first feature film for director Harvey Crossland. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ayub Khan Din, Om Puri, (more)
- 1992
In this austere, even arid retelling of the story from Feodor Dostoyevsky's novel, all the characters have been transferred to an Indian setting. The "idiot," or title character is an upper-class man who has been transformed by his experiences into someone who takes a close and minute interest in improving the lives of those around him. By the standards of upper-class Russian (or in this case, Indian) society, he has become an "idiot" and is quite literally insane. This unguardedly saintly behavior provokes a villainous response in several characters, who eventually succeed in destroying this very dangerous sort of man. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- 1988
This biographical costume drama from director Franco Zeffirelli covers the early life of Arturo Toscanini and stars C. Thomas Howell as the famous composer. When Arturo lands a job with the orchestra of Claudio Rossi (John Rhys-Davies), he soon finds himself bound for a tour of South America and lands in idyllic Rio. Arturo is given the task of convincing the famed prima donna diva Nadina Bulichoff (Elizabeth Taylor) to rehearse for an upcoming show with the orchestra, but in the process, Toscanini attempts to change the minds of both Nadina and her lover, Brazilian Emperor Don Pedro II (Philippe Noiret) on the issue of slavery. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi
- Starring:
- C. Thomas Howell, Elizabeth Taylor, (more)
- 1987
- R
In this alternately comic and grave reflection on the effects of Thatcherism on polyethnic England, middle-class liberals Rosie (Frances Barber) and Sammy (Ayub Khan Din) engage in an openly adulterous marriage while living in a lower-class neighborhood in London. When they're not hiding their troubled marriage behind a series of "enlightened" affairs, the couple associates with a social circle that ranges from leftist to radical and includes enigmatic street philosopher Victoria (Roland Gift). Sammy's long-lost father, Rafi (Shashi Kapoor), a South Asian politician, arrives for a visit just as rioting erupts in response to the killing of an innocent black woman by British police. Rafi decries not only the social upheaval that has transformed the country where he spent his halcyon university years, but also the lack of propriety on display in his son's marriage. Admitting that he's on the run for allegedly corrupt and violent political activities, the well-mannered yet manipulative Rafi uses his wealth to try to rein in what he sees as Sammy and Rosie's sexual and political excesses. Meanwhile, he tries to court Alice (Claire Bloom), the proper British lady he deserted decades earlier. The messy whirl of desire, resentment, and dogma that alternately throws these characters together and rips them apart ultimately reflects the confused and confusing society in which Sammy and Rosie live; soon even the unassailable Rafi must question his beliefs about life after empire. Sammy and Rosie Get Laid marked the second collaboration between director Stephen Frears and writer Hanif Kureishi; star Ayub Khan Din would go on to write another Anglo-Asian culture-clash comedy, 1998's East Is East. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi
- Starring:
- Shashi Kapoor, Frances Barber, (more)
After the death of his wife and his subsequent descent into alcoholic near-agoraphobia, a crotchety Pakistani intellectual convinces his shady entrepreneur brother to provide work for his son in this multi-layered portrait of the immigrant experience in Great Britain. Young Londoner Omar (Gordon Warnecke) isn't sure what he wants out of life, but his uncle Nasser (Saeed Jaffrey) provides a corrupt, capitalist role model as Omar graduates from washing cars for the old crook to running his run-down laundromat. After a chance meeting with Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis), an old school chum whose flirtation with fascism deeply wounded Omar's principled Papa (Roshan Seth), Omar hires the young thug to work for him. Soon, the pair begin a romantic relationship that remains as under wraps as the illicit drug-running and enforcement work they perform for Nasser's associate, Salim (Derrick Branche). On the domestic front, Omar must balance his knowledge of Nasser's long-running affair with posh Brit Rachel (Shirley Ann Field) with his own loyalty and attraction to Nasser's westernized daughter, Tania (Rita Wolf). After successfully transforming his laundrette into a vision of resplendent pastel suds and providing a bright spot in his otherwise squalid London neighborhood, Omar seems to have a bright future in Nasser's organization. The spectre of Johnny's past, however, combines with Omar's conflicted immigrant loyalties to threaten the sense of identity the young man has managed to stake out for himself. British-born, half-Pakistani playwright and novelist Hanif Kureishi won an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for My Beautiful Laundrette, which was originally filmed for BBC television. Kureishi collaborated again with director Stephen Frears on Sammy and Rosie Get Laid. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel Day-Lewis, Gordon Warnecke, (more)
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