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Features: DVD, Aspect Ratio 1.85:1, Dolby Digital (5.1)
Academy Award nominee Rachel Griffiths, Stellan Skarsgard and Om Puri star My Son the Fanatic, the critically acclaimed, contemporary love story set against a clash of generations and cultures. Parvez is a cab driver who emigrated from Pakistan 30 years ago to provide a better life and liberty to his family. Parvaz, feeling that he is losing his son to the conservative beliefs he had long ago abandoned, befriends a prostitute, Betina (Griffiths). Through his relationship with Betina, Parvaz is able to find comfort, support and the tenderness he does not have with his own family. However, when Parvaz’s disapproving son, Farid discovers the relationship between his father and Betina, Parvaz is forced to choose between the son he adores and the woman who understands him.
DVD Features:
Dolby Surround
Widescreen (1.78:1)
Enhanced for 16x9 televisions
"My Son the Fanatic is... [an] intelligent, delicately textured drama about cross-cultural romance. " Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle
"The actors, particularly Puri and Griffiths, give richly textured performances. " Ed Scheid, Boxoffice Magazine
Editor's Note
A bittersweet story about a Pakistani taxicab driver in London who learns the hard way that "multiculturalism" is a myth. Actor Om Puri, typically the villain in Indian cinema, is likeable as the innocent Parvez, who for the first time in his life raises questions about the life he has made for himself and his family in England. The film centers around his relationship with a prostitute (Griffiths of HILARY AND JACKIE). Over time, he seeks refuge in his friendship with Bettina from his estranged family. At the same time, his only son is zealously embracing his Muslim heritage in an effort to fill the void left by his disenchantment with Western ideals. All of these come to a head in this marvelously acted, beautifully written film.
| Features | English Dolby Surround | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Access | | Widescreen Version |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Buena Vista |
| Release Date: 6/3/2003 |
| Running Time: 87 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1999 | | Catalog ID: 1832703 | | UPC: 00717951005137 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | 1.77:1 |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
British Independent Film Awards (1998) | | | Hanif Kureishi, Nominee, Best Original Screenplay By A British Writer Of A Produced Independent Film | | | Rachel Griffiths, Nominee, Best Performance By A British Actress In An Independent Film | |
Brussels International Film Festival (1998) |  | Om Puri, Winner, Best Actor | | | Udayan Prasad, Nominee, Best European Feature | |
Dinard British Film Festival (1997) | | | Udayan Prasad, Nominee, Golden Hitchcock |
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| | Professional Reviews | Rolling Stone
"...[A] moving, painfully funny film. In Om Puri's award-caliber performance, the price of happiness is rendingly observed..." 7/8-22/1999 p.164Entertainment Weekly
"...Quirky..." -- Rating: A- - Recommended 02/11/2000 p.79 Sight and Sound
"...What is particularly successful about MY SON THE FANATIC is its representation of fundamentalism as solidly modern..." 05/01/1998 p53-4 New York Times
"...Written with delicacy and dry humor....It's an atmospheric and persuasively acted film..." 06/25/1999 p.E14 Premiere
"...Wise, funny, troubling, and touching..." 07/01/1999 p.28 USA Today
"...There's nothing glib about this movie, though despite its dark undertones, it is funny....This is a rockin' little time-rewarder..." 06/25/1999 p.8E Los Angeles Daily News
"...Intelligent, poignant and witty, it involves us in real issues without stinting on their complexity..." 06/25/1999 p.F2 Chicago Sun-Times
"...Om Puri's performance is based on the substantial strength of his physical presence, and on his-clear-sighted view of his world as an exile..." 07/02/1999 p.32 Boxoffice Magazine 9 of 10
My Son the Fanatic was written by Hanif Kureishi (My Beautiful Laundrette), who based the screenplay on a short story he wrote for the New Yorker. Like Kureishi's other work, this well-made and perceptive film set in the industrial North of England examines the experiences of outsiders in contemporary Britain. The film's conflict has an unusual twist in that it is the son rather than the father who turns to the conservative traditions. Pervez (City of Joy's Om Puri) has been content to work as a cab driver since he arrived from Pakistan 25 years ago. He is constantly trying to ingratiate himself with the British. Pervez is shocked to discover that his beloved son Farid (Akbar Kurtha) has turned to conservative Islamic fundamentalism as a way to gain identity after being made to feel an outsider in Britain. Relations between father and son become increasingly strained. The film cleverly shows the cultural difference through music... The only person to whom Pervez can confide his mounting disappointments is Bettina (Hilary and Jackie's Rachel Griffiths), a prostitute he chauffeurs. Their friendly rapport soon deepens into love. Udayan Prasad's atmospheric direction gives a keen feeling of the differences between the cultural groups in contemporary Britain. The film also effectively shows the human cost of the escalating conflicts. The actors, particularly Puri and Griffiths, give richly textured performances. Puri impressively shows the pain of a man who feels useless as he sees his life collapsing around him. - Ed Scheid
San Francisco Chronicle 9 of 10
My Son the Fanatic is... [an] intelligent, delicately textured drama about cross-cultural romance. It was written by Hanif Kureishi, a novelist and screenwriter (My Beautiful Laundrette and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid) of Pakistani descent. My Son the Fanatic is the story of Parvez, an East Indian taxi driver (Om Puri) whose life is disrupted when he takes up with a British hooker played by Rachel Griffiths... Nothing is pat or predictable in My Son the Fanatic, beautifully directed by Udayan Prasad, a television director with one prior feature to his credit. Unlike most movies, which telegraph their intentions and seem to have spun off some screenwriter's template, My Son never indicates where it's going. Kureishi is a marvelous writer, his dialogue fresh, surprising and textured. His words are an actor's dream. Puri, who appeared in The Jewel in the Crown and City of Joy, and Griffiths, who was nominated for an Oscar for Hilary and Jackie, are both superb. Puri carries all the pressures and heartaches of straddling two cultures in his craggy, pock-marked face. It's a rich, meaty role for an actor who's often saddled with thin, stereotypical film roles -- and he makes the best of it. It's Griffiths, though, who gives the most affecting performance. After her comic turn in Muriel's Wedding, it was easy to think of her as a broad, slapstick actress best suited for sidekick roles. But in Hilary and Jackie, in which she played the sister to Emily Watson's tortured classical musician, the recent Among Giants, in which she played a drifter who paints electrical towers, and now My Son the Fanatic, she's emerged as an actress of tremendous subtlety and power. Griffiths has a gift for showing just enough of her characters to keep us intrigued and curious for more... she never spreads the emotion too thick -- but gives her work an intelligence, reserve and dignity that's rare. - Edward Guthmann
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