Brick Lane

How is family portrayed in the movie BrickLane?

Family is represented in different stages throughout the film, at first we get to see the main family with the protagonist and it looks like a very stereotypical neutral family with the mother at home cooking, the father off to a stable job and the two girls going to school. The deeper problems are not shown at first but as we get to be with the family more and more the truth of a broken family comes out there. The father comes back at the start because he gets fired which shows instability and we soon understand his incredible desperation to belong somewhere here in London, as to be in a job. The audience who could also be foreign could relate to this which is a uses and gratification theory. The mother, on the other hand, doesn’t wants to even try at first, just longs to be home and sulks all day while the two little girls, mainly Chana whose the oldest, is fixated on westernised problems and her westernised life. The way the characters are being played also, with the Dad acting extremely lazy, he acts firmly like he is the head of the house and everyone does what he expects and says. Also at the start, they present him to look like he is slightly aggressive, while the oldest daughter, Chana, acts like a typical London, teenage girl who is not bothered and slightly rude. The youngest sister is not shown much but she’s always running around smiling, this connotes happiness the only happiness that this family seems to have.

The family also have this language barrier as the parents speak Bengali and the children speak English. This could show that the children are not willing to fully accept their culture as they have a firm belief that their culture is here in England. This creates problems as when the father is ready to leave and take his family back straight to Bangladesh Chana causes more arguments and screams in his face that her, “home is here and Bangladesh is DEAD!” It creates a serious strain on the whole family.

At the start of the film, the movie shows how family is there, how everyone in the village is smiling and laughing, the children are playful and respective. Straight after it show the family in London, the contrast is large and it almost seems that the film director us trying to convey that family begins and belongs at the root

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