Film Review: My Son the Fanatic

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Film Review: ‘My son the fanatic‘ 9th.June.2012 Parvez (Om Puri) is a taxi driver from Pakistan who has lived in London for 25 years. While he has adapted many English customs, his wife (Gopi Desai) and son Farid (Akbar Kurtha) remain more attached to the old ways. Parvez is shocked when the boy turns to Islamic fundamentalism and invites a conservative spiritual teacher and his followers to stay in their home. They begin a movement to clean up neighborhoods infested with prostitution and drugs. The movie, which takes place in Northern England in an area, inhabited largely by immigrants from Pakistan centers on Parvez, a middle-aged man who drives a taxi for a living. A hard-working fellow who puts in twelve hours a day, Parvez tries to make ends meet by hooking up rich clients (including tourists) with prostitutes in the area. He founded a friend in the prostitute Bettina, whom he recommends to a prosperous German businessman, Schitz (Stellan Skarsgard). Though in some circles Parvez could be considered a pimp, one who goes so far as to arrange orgies as well as handle the driving, we in the audience see him as a decent, earthly Muslim who has largely integrated into the British culture. Nonetheless, in one embarrassing instance he is taunted by a racist stand-up comedian. He cannot count on his home life for relaxation: his wife Minoo does never „love" with him and though she wears conventional South Asian dress she complains that Parvez never takes her anywhere. What is more disturbing is that his 18-year-old son, Farid, has just broken off his engagement to the daughter of the chief police inspector and has joined a Muslim fundamentalist group which preaches against "white and Jewish propaganda that there is nothing to our lives but the empty accountancy of things." Larger questions of social class are also raised, with
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