BROTHERS IN TROUBLE
UK, 1996, 101 minutes, Colour.
Om Puri, Pavan Malhotra, Angeline Ball, Pravesh Kumar.
Directed by Udayan Prasad.
This interesting film did not get a wide release, which is a pity. Although it is set in England in the mid-60s, it is very topical for the United Kingdom, illegal migrants and work conditions in later decades. It deals with migrants, jobs and race debates. It is based on a novel by a Pakistani migrant and directed by an Indian who migrated as a child. Pakistani workers, who have sold everything to get to England, are met by agents who take their money, send them to the North for dirty factory jobs and hide them in flats, seventeen at a time. While one can often guess what happens, the human plight of the workers, their fears, their rejection are well presented and well worth thinking about.
1.The setting of the 1960s, a historical perspective on illegal migration from the subcontinent to the UK? The relevance to the 90s – and to later times? Issues of migration, workers, prejudice in the UK?
2.The visualising of the smuggling, the travel, the lodgings, life in the UK, work?
3.The issue of migrants from the subcontinent coming to the UK, their hopes? Illegal, paying money, paying for years to unscrupulous agents? The separation from family? No papers, hard work, the possibility of deportation, the struggle to survive? A foundation for families and the future of Indians and Pakistanis and Bangladeshis in the UK?
4.The title, Shah and his explanation, his speech?
5.Amir, the focus on his story? His peering at the beginning, often peering at people and situations? Smuggling, in the truck, arriving, the payment, the agent and the demands, the later encounter with the agents and his not being able to pay, having to pay a premium? The welcome from Sakib? The room, the loneliness on the first night, talking to the other man, with Sakib going to work, Shah and his supervision of the group, the factory, the pay, the hard work, the refuse and the wool, meals at home, going to the market with Sakib, going to the movies, the exuberance at watching the Bollywood films? The men lining up for the prostitute? His own experience with her? Getting letters to go back to Pakistan? Amir and his change, gaining more vitality? Mary, her presence, her charm? Everybody infatuated? Sharing with her, her telling off the agent for him? Mary’s marriage, the tension, the death of the old man from the factory, Shah and the fight with his nephew, Shah’s death? The police coming? Amir as typical or not?
6.Shah in himself, the leader, his own room, orders, providing for the others, the seventeen in the building? With Mary? The birth, Mary accusing him of not being able to feel? His decision to bring his nephew, the arranged marriage, the ceremony, the nephew drinking, with Mary, the fight, Shah’s death?
7.Sakib, young, in the attic, nice, studying, hard work, his buying the goods, infatuated with Mary? His helplessness at Shah’s death, the blood on him? His being put in the institution? Amir going to visit him, the walk in the garden, the uncle coming, taking him back to Pakistan?
8.The focus on the men, their personalities, their backgrounds, Islamic religion and its sustenance? The discussion about the arranged marriage and their religious principles? Going to the cinema, going to the prostitute, their chats with Mary? Ordinary way of life?
9.Mary, her back-story, her not being a tart, running away from home, sharing with the men? Her vitality? Love for Shah? Her pregnancy, telling off the agent, the difficulties of the birth, the woman coming to help, the men? Their care? Shah and his lack of feeling, the arranged marriage, her flirting with the nephew, the brawl? Amir later seeing her, with her child? Her being battered? Her hopes for the future?
10.The attitudes of the Britons towards the migrants, the hostile glares, the supermarket, the doctor, the bosses at the factory?
11.The significance of the film in its re-creation of detail, its impact of the life of the men, the changes in British society, the meaning of this migration and its effect on the UK?
