An Islamic Film - Movie Review Example

?An Islamic Film Review AE FOND KISS “Ae Fond Kiss” is a remarkable film by Ken Loach. The film appeared before its audiences in the year 2004. Beinga romantic drama by nature, the film had enough material to glue its audiences to the theatre seats. But the most essential part of the film is its critical reception and volley of controversy, which the story of the film evoked. At the outset, the film, “Ae Fond Kiss” might suggest about the generation gap where the older generation is unable to comprehend the feelings, sentiments and conventions of the younger generation; but a deeper insight of the film enables its audiences to understand that the director of the film, Ken Loach is actually trying to break many set conventions and stereotypes imposed by the society upon the young minds (Icon Film Distribution Limited, “Ae Fond Kiss”). Clare Stalder in the seminar paper bearing the title, “Ken Loach’s Ae Fond Kiss – A Multicultural Romeo and Juliet Story” describes that “When Ken Loach’s film, Ae Fond Kiss came to the movie theatres in 2004 review announced it as “a multicultural Romeo and Juliet” story or a “Romeo and Juliet” like plot. In Clare’s words, “The motif of a forbidden relationship and tragic, impossible love because the lovers come from a different cultural or family backgrounds is a popular theme that has been entertaining and fascinating readers for centuries” (Stalder 2). But this is not all; there are layers of interpretations when one truly focuses the insight into the multiple dimensions the theme of the film tries to evoke. Behind a forbidden love and hindered union of the couples from different culture, is a strong Islamic faith and fanaticism shown quite a number of times in the film. This essay intends to discuss the various Islamic issues inherent within the community and culture, which gets reflected through the film and gives it a religious dimension as well. AE FOND KISS: A FILM WITH RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL DISCOURSE Ae Fond Kiss is definitely a film that shares multicultural discourse and the issues, which might evolve from a relationship between people from different cultures. But the plot of the film, as framed by Paul Laverty, also presents issues of Islamic society, their perceptions and thought processes, which are integrally related with their customs and religion in the film. It is quite evident that the plot of the film, “Ae Fond Kiss” presents the religious issues in a very subtle way and the subtlety of the presentation is so intriguing that only through an in-depth focus on the intricacies of the plot would enable its audiences to find out the actual issues from religious paradigm that was developing the conflict inherent within the plot and pushing it to move forward and further. A tight lipped focus on the plot of the film would reveal that the protagonist of the film is a Muslim. Casim Khan is a Glaswegian DJ. He is from Pakistani origin and belongs to a Muslim family that is very staunch in the religious matter and is very devout. Casim’s father and mother, Tariq and Sadia have decided to settle off their son and with this vision they have arranged a marriage of their son with his first cousin Jasmine. Casim seems more or less reluctant with the arrangements. He feels this as a conventional part of his life and accepts the marriage. But the twist of the plot appears when Casim, played by Atta Yaqub, meets and falls in head over heels love with Roisin, who works as a part-time music teacher at the school where Casim’s sister studies. Roisin, played by Eva Birthistle, is an Irish catholic. They meet and fall in love and for the celebration of their love, Roisin books a small holiday for the couple, a recluse and a small escape. The real controversy and following conflicts arise within the plot of the film at this juncture. Casim’s parents turn against him and his relation with Roisin. But it was already decided between them that they would go to any extent for making their relation successful and would wait with all sorts of tenacity against all odds coming on the way of their relation. Casim’s elder sister and her engagement breaks after the news of his relationship with Roisin flashes; and in the meanwhile, Casim’s younger sister is found stuck in between the bully of some Scottish schoolmates and her Pakistani relatives. The dishonor and disappointment is not only prevailing from the side of Casim’s family. The disgrace or the communal rift is present in other communities as well. She loses her job for being engaged and living with a man from the Islamic community and takes a job into the non-denominational school. The ending of the film also takes a different revolutionary turn where Casim is seen relentlessly confronting his family for the sanctity of his relation, nagging and begging before them tirelessly to accept his lover before he finally returns to her. The ending of the film is more optimistic where a spark of a new generation , a small rebel in the form of Tahara’s plunge comes into forefront where Tahara is seen leaving her parents against their proper will to study journalism at the University of Edinburgh. Islam, as a religion, does not encourage any women to receive conventional education. And the Islamic fundamentalists, sometimes in the countries, those are solely Islamic by nature, condemn women to come out of their Burkha or step out of their household to explore their potentials and be established as professionals. So, the ending of the film where Tahara sets off for her further study and that too, with a socially alarming faculty like journalism, she sets a revolutionary example before the audiences to break or dare to break the parochial conventions of the Islamic society which does not provides space for enough exploration of sentiments or sensibilities. Marloke Jochimson in his seminar paper, “Deconstruction of Stereotypes in “East is east” and “Ae Fond Kiss” rightly remarked that “Stereotypes exist everywhere around us and are natural means to be able to talk about the world. However, they might result in prejudices and discrimination” (Jochimsen 2-3). Jochimson further remarks that “ Ae Fond Kiss can be interpreted as an example of postcolonial discourse and are attempt to break national or ethnic stereotypes and binary juxtapositions” (Jochimsen 3). The post colonial discourse is evident from the relationship between couples of different cultures and religion. Also the various rebellious plunges taken by the characters of the films, like Tahara and Casim, against the set principles of Islam and thirsted conventions upon the individuals, which curtail their right of speech and action, is a result of evolution of post colonial discourse. The book, “Scotland: Global Cinema: Genres, Modes and Identities” by David Martin Jones focus on a point, which is very worthy of mentioning at this juncture of the essay that “It is a ‘quasi Romeo and Juliet’ in that, whilst the young multicultural romance impact severely upon the integrity of Casim’s family, Roisin’s family is absent from the film (presumably in Ireland), and it is her professional life that suffers instead” (Martin-Jones 181-182). It would be quite quintessential to say that the absence of Roisin’s family is made deliberate into the plot of the film and the film focuses mostly on the family and the intricacies faced by Casim’s family for the relation that Casim shares with a non-Muslim girl. His sister’s marriage even comes at stake for the relationship with the catholic Irish girl. The action by Loach is deliberate and subtle, where he makes it a point not to focus on the conflicts the catholic family also might face as their daughter having relation with a Muslim guy. The action is more deliberate and it takes a queue upon the Islamic issues, which is evoked through the film quite elaborately. However, unlike most of the Hollywood films, where the ending of the film gives a resolution or conforms to the solution to myriad issues cropped up throughout the film, the ending of the insightful film, ‘Ae Fond Kiss’ is an open one and Sean Crosson worthily mentions in his book, “Sport and Film”, “In Ae Fond Kiss ... the issue of a relationship between a member of a family of Asian origin and an Irish person is not so simplistically resolved. In “Ae Fond Kiss” the relationship between a young Muslim from a Pakistani family , Casim, and an Irish Catholic school teacher , Roisin Hanlon leads to a traumatic family breakdown for which there is no clear resolution by the film’s close” (Crosson 139). CONCLUSION There are myriad dimensions of an Islamic issue, which have cropped up in the film, “Ae Fond Kiss” at several places and the resolution to those problems have not been deliberately shown in the film to keep it burning. However, a latent stream of rebel and a hope of ray showing a better future for the people of Islamic community, who are fighting against all the fundamentalism of the religion, are very subtly hinted at without much pondering upon the religious theme of the film, thus keeping it a romantic drama. Works Cited Crosson, Sean. Sport and Film. Oxon: Routledge, 2013. Print. “Ae Fond Kiss”. Synopsis. Icon Film Distribution Limited, 2008. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. Jochimsen, Marieke. Deconstruction of Stereotypes in “East is East” and “Ae Fond Kiss”. Germany: GRIN Verlag, 2010. Print. Martin-Jones, David. Scotland: Global Cinema: Genres, Modes and Identities. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010. Print. Stalder, Clare. Ken Loach’s "Ae Fond Kiss". A Multicultural Romeo and Juliet Story? Germany: GRIN Verlag, 2013. Print. Read More