Rating: R
Genre:
Comedy
Theatrical Release: 06/25/1999(USA)
Release Date: 01/25/2000
SubTitles: English
Dubbed: English
Sound: 5.1/2
Run Time: 87 min
Flags: Adult Language, Adult Humor, Substance Abuse (Alcohol, Drugs), Sexual Situations
Distributor/Studio: Miramax
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, All Movie Guide
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, All Movie Guide
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