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...Lane. In England, displaced from their country, Bangladeshi immigrants try to recreate what they have left behind, but their English-born children are influenced by the only country they know. The older folks want things to remain the same, but the younger generation wants to experience life for themselves and they want to fit in with their peers. This is a universal and age-old conflict, but it is perhaps more pronounced when a group is displaced and has the influence of another culture to contend with as well. The older Bangladeshis in the London community are appalled by the way their children dress and by their experimentation with drugs and alcohol. The younger generation looks at their parent's inaction in the face of great social troubles with disgust. The older people see their culture being destroyed, while the younger ones simply see it changing. The cycle will continue, as evidenced by Karim who criticizes both his father's generation and the generation of adolescents coming up after him.
My Son the Fanatic is a story about a stable family man whose life comes unraveled all at once. It doesn't matter that these things rarely happen in reality because it's so tantalizing to wonder what it would be like to wake up to a new life - to wake up as a new person.
Directed by Udayan Prasad and written by Hanif Kureishi (My Beautiful Laundrette and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid), My Son focuses on the marginal world of Parvez (Om Puri), a Pakistani living in a grimy English city. Though he has been in England for 25 years, Parvez has risen no higher than a cab driver. But his son, Farid (Akbar Kurtha), is engaged to the daughter of the local police chief, much to the delight of Parvez and his traditional wife Minoo (Gopai Desai). They believe the union will signal their final acceptance into English culture.
But Farid unaccountably breaks off the...
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