Thursday 31 March 2011 1pm BRICK LANE
Book: Author Monica Ali Publisher Random House
Nazneen, a teenager, finds herself in an arranged marriage with a man 20 years older. Away from the mud and heat of her Bangladeshi village, home is now a cramped flat in a high- rise block in London’s East End. Nazneen knows not a word of English and is forced to depend on her husband. But unlike him, she is practical and wise and befriends a fellow Asian girl Razia, who helps her understand the strange ways of her adopted new British home. Nazneen keeps in touch by letters with her sister Hasina, who has a troubled life, back in the village. Confined in her flat by tradition and family duty, Nazneen sews furiously for a living, shut away with her buttons and linings - until the radical Karim steps unexpectedly into her life. On a background of racial conflict and tension, they embark on a love affair that forces Nazneen finally to take control of her fate. Strikingly imagined, gracious and funny, this novel is at once epic and intimate. Exploring the role of fate in our lives; those who accept it - those who defy it; the story traces the extraordinary transformation of an Asian girl from cautious and shy, to a bold and dignified woman.
Film: UK/India 2007 102 min Rated M Director: Sarah Gavron Cast: Tannishtha Chatterjee; Satish Kaushik; Christopher Simpson
In an arranged marriage to a man she has never met residing in Britain, Nazneen finds herself trapped within the four walls of her flat in East London. While racism prevails in the community, especially from white supremacists groups, it escalates after the events of September 11, 2001. Nazneen finds herself confronted with some difficult choices. “There are layers to the film in every respect, and the craftsmanship is first class, with great music to underscore the drama and the relationships” Andrew L. Urban - Urban Cinefile
What are your thoughts on arranged marriages? Was it the culture shock or her husband's inability to succeed in work and finances that rocked the marriage? Would Chanu and Nazneen survived a marriage if they lived in a Bangladeshi village?
1 comment:
Today I saw Brick lane and having previously read the book was a little disappointed.I felt that the film wasn't very well constructed. The first half of the book was condensed down to the first ten minutes with no way of knowing that Nasneem, the mother of the two young girls was in fact one of the young girls in the opening chapter. The the method of death of her mother in Bangladesh was changed. Her close relationship with her sister has to be continued only by mail when her father sends her to London in an arranged marriage to the older husband Chanu. The loss of their toddler son isnt even mentioned. Chanu seemed a nicer person in the book. He was a rather innefectual intellectual man, constantly studying. This however meant he kept his girls at school and encouraged them to study and be educated. Nasneem starts sewing at home to make some money to send to her sister who still lives in Bangladesh. This is where she meets Karim. Young and sexy but even though English born a bit radical in political and religious life. He delivers the garments to Nasneem's home while her husband is at work.Chanu borrows money from an extortioner woman to fund a returh to Bangladesh. When at the end Nasneem stood up to the extortioner moneylender woman, in the book there were two big horrible sons, who started to break up Nasneem's furniture. She only stopped them when she confronted the Woman with the Koran and asked her to swear on it that she wasn't an usurer. Usurers go to hell! She finally stands up to her husband because the girls having been educated and born in UK dont want to return to a more primitive life in Bangladesh. Paradoxically Chanu had achieved what he set out to do and educated his girls.He goes alone to start another of his wild schemes marketing soap.
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