By Sumita Sheth

A quiet story

The tricky thing about watching a movie based on a famous novel is that you are likely to have read the book. Consequently, you feel like a wounded bird unable to fly. Every time you begin to lose yourself in the movie, suddenly a difference from the book grabs you and drags you down, ending your flight before it even begins.

However, this will not be the fate of viewers with the adaptation of Monica Ali’s book, Brick Lane opening the weekend of June 20th in NYC and LA. After a potentially jarring opening, mid-story as it were, in London with Nazneen instead of in Bangladesh with Nazneen and her entire village, it quickly becomes apparent that the movie is to be about the one sister in London rather than that of two sisters separated by the miles between England and Bangladesh. Thus, readers can quickly come to terms with this beginning and can actually lose ourselves in the motion picture that follows.

The movie is the quiet story of Nazneen, born in a village of Bangladesh. Married off as a teenager to a much older “educated”, not to forget pompous, Bangladeshi man settled in London, her story threatens to be too familiar but manages to rise above it. We see that others have herded Nazneen’s fate along. She allows things to happen to her, from marriage to how her children behave, how her husband behaves, to her interactions with other people in her world. All the while, she wonders at her rebellious younger sister’s life as penned in her letters. Suddenly 9/11 happens and things must change.

Being Muslim in London suddenly entails a higher price. Without the use of histrionics on any of the characters’ part, the director lays bare the various dilemmas – the old country and sister that Nazneen continues to pine for versus the newly volatile country that England has become where her children appear to thrive despite the burgeoning racial tensions, the navel-gazing husband whom she seems ambivalent about versus the younger lover whom she sinfully but willfully takes, the slightly under-explored (versus the novel) lives of other female characters around her and their coping with their life challenges.

Then, Nazneen makes her quiet but definite choices, actually listening to her heart and following where it leads. Her choices are as marvelously unexpected in the movie as the book, a calmly believable surprise.

It is in these quiet decisions, even while surrounded by larger than life events, that we see Nazneen’s spirits shine forth more clearly than even in the book. Tannishtha Chatterjee is lovable and beyond believable in her role as Nazneen Ahmed. No wonder she was nominated for “Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film” for this role. Utterly awesome are the words to use for Satish Kaushik’s performance as Chanu Ahmed, Nazneen’s much older spouse. His acting here makes you forget that you ever saw him in those tremendous comedic roles. He has done a remarkable job of playing a likeable pestering bumbler, whom you think you would hate, but end up actually sympathizing with.

This is a movie that most movie watchers are going appreciate, if not actually fall in love with.

PS Christopher Simpson, who plays Karim, is very hot in this movie!