Why in the world...


Is Om Puri's character married to a British woman? I understand that this is supposed to be something of a light-hearted comedy about old fashioned values and assimalation, but it's rather insulting and almost ludicrous that they have a man with his sensibilities in such a relationship.

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whats insulting about it? insulting being married to a british woman? or am i twisting your words?
i believe he came to england with no money (and no thats not a generalisation he says it in the film) and fell in love. whats so weird about that?

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I think what rushin is saying is that it doesn't make sense that Om Puri who was so traditional married an English woman instead of a Pakistani.

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oh, i wasnt being defensive, i kinda got that, i just picked up the word "insulting" and i dont know why its insulting as such.

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[deleted]

The film is actually loosley based on a real family that lived in the Manchester area of England int he 70's. The father was Pakistani, the mother was English.....stop complaining

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Probably had his values change a bit when he was young and naive in a new country and fell in love. His uk wife being more open-minded allowed him to let his conservative guard down.

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Perhaps, it was for immigration purposes. My next door neighbor was a Pakistani man who married an American woman so he could get a "green card". He often lamented in front of my father that it was the biggest mistake of his life. He stuck out the marriage simply for the sake of their children.

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I think that he's just a run of the mill hypocrite. He fell in love and even though he was not only marrying outside his religion but also committing bigamy, he did what he wanted. Now when it comes to his children, he wants to prove that despite his English wife he's 'more Pakistani than thou' and doesn't care what they want.

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Polygamy is legal under Islamic law under strict conditions. They can marry up to four women. Bt the fact that all his children are with his english wife means he's probably more attached to her. He probably expected her to convert like the other christian woman in the film but she was too headstrong. That's part of George's anger with her. She takes his blows but refuses to be subserviant.

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He lives in Britain. He lives under British law. Therefore he has committed bigamy and his second marriage is null and void.

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I thhought he was divorced from his first wife.

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remember he was an illegl immigrant in the UK? Well back in teh days, men used to marry british people to get citizenship and that's why he married Ella.

PR1NC355
Jisebhi hum dekhle palatkar, usiko apna ghulam karle

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> Well back in teh days, men used to marry british people to get citizenship

Interesting. Still happens just about every day in Canada, even though it's illegal. Man, I hate those people who do that, whatever country they are from.

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remember he was most likely born when india(pakistan included) was in the british empire so he probably had a british passport. many immigrants from the sub continent and asians in africa moved to england post ww2 legally.

i'm smarter than you

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I found it interesting that in the opening sequence of the film, it says that George came from Pakistan in 1937. That was when Pakistan did not yet exist, so obviously the filmmakers mean an area that later became part of Pakistan. I think George is doing what a lot of immigrants do, being 150% committed to his ethnic identity even though he hasn't lived in his place of origin for years. Unfortunately, this means a lot of chaos and heartbreak for his English wife, whom he obviously really loves, and for his half-English kids.

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I think it's another way to bring to the surface the contradictions about this character. On the one hand, he is trying to show his children "a good way to live" and marry them to Pakistani women, and expressly says that "English girls are no good", then on the other hand -as one of the sons points out to him- he is married to an English woman and has adopted many things about the English lifestyle.

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Its his way to deal with his 'inadequacies' ... and he's definitely a 'do as i say, not as i do' person.

___________________________
Human Assembly http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1383243/

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As the child of a mixed Muslim-Christian marriage, I know plenty of families (including mine) where Westernised Asian men married a woman before returning to his roots.

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Interesting. So he married an English woman whilst he was young and more "liberal" but became stricter and more "traditional" as he aged.

That makes a lot of sense. Lets face it, a comparable situation is not uncommon amongst all cultures.

I actually let out a little bit of wee....

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This is a very interesing discussion. It is so true that many expats of Asian/Muslim descent are so liberal and happy in western culture when they first arrive there, but after a few years they start to 'rebel' and begin to hate it and everything it stands for because it is so different and 'wrong' to the culture they grew up in, so they become like a previous poster said 150% devoted to the culture they left behind.

And so this happens they marry a local western woman when they are still new and then revert to something more fundamentalist/traditional over the years and become ultra conservative, yet they are married to the same woman and horror of horrors their children are growing up to be one of the despised 'them' of the adoptive culture.

This creates a HUGE dilemma and sometimes these men 'kidnap' their still young children and go back to their country for good. The poor western wife is either left behind without her children or has to go to the husband's country as well for the sake of her marriage and children.

There is a blog called Suzie of Arabia which represents a very POSITIVE version of this scenario and the move Not Without My Daughter which is a negative version.

The other scenario is when the man marries a western woman for immigration purposes. This is a horrible act when the woman is unawares of the true motives of her 'husband'. Any man who brings children into such a marriage is plain evil and the poster above whos neighbour had done this deserves this 'biggest regret of his life' he should suffer.

These days such marriages are more of a business transaction when say an East European girl in the UK agrees to marry an Asian guy so he can get residency, but for a hefty sum of several thousands of dollars. This way they both win and never live together let alone have children.

I don't condone the latter but it is far better than a man totally deceiving an innocent woman and then bringing children into such a false bull of a marriage which he hates being in!

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