Brick Lane

A film about a Bangladeshi-Muslim family residing in east London, Brick Lane tells the story of a beautiful woman, Nazneem, who is confined to a small flat with her overweight husband and two young daughters. Nazneem’s marriage to her husband, Chanu, is anything but passionate. However, once she meets the young, charismatic and attractive Karim, she rediscovers happiness.

The film begins with a timid Nazneem, who only tends to her husband and daughters’ needs. She only leaves her home to buy groceries. However, when a new neighbor moves in, Nazneem is persuaded to take up sewing in the comfort of her own home for some extra cash. Although her husband doesn’t approve, he, unlike the stereotypical Muslim husband, allows her to pursue her interest. Throughout the duration of the film, Nazneem receives and sends letters to her sister who lives back in Bangladesh. The letter provide detailed accounts of her sister’s love life. Nazneem, although happy that her sister is enjoying her life, can’t help but feel envious, for she is stuck with a husband who does not excite her. Nazneem is awoken when she sets eyes upon Karim. At first their relationships is innocent, but it quickly turns into a passionate love affair. Nazneem writes to her sister of her newfound love, and her happiness.

After news broke out about the September 11 attacks, Nazneem’s love affair with Karim came to an end. The attacks, which spawned anti-Islamic sentiment in London, frightened the Bangladeshi Muslim community for it became constant targets of Islamophobic epithets. In order to protect themselves, many Bangladeshis, including Karim, formed a group, which they call “Bengal Tigers”, whose purpose is to defend Islam against its attackers. Karim, who in the beginning of the film is a moderate Muslim who dresses in western attire, gradually becomes more and more radical after the September 11 attacks.

In a group meeting towards the end of the movie, Chanu defies the group and questions their motive.

Chanu: What is it you are planning to defend?
Bengal Tigers Member: Islam brova.
Chanu: You think Islam unites us all? You think Islam is the place you come from? Islam is not a country. You think you are my brother more than the next man on the street because we are both muslims? All this fighting talk that we are all brothers…Three million died in East Pakistan in this lifetime. What was that? Brotherly love? It was Muslim killing a Muslim. Have you forgotten? Are you so lost? My Islam is in here (points to heart). And that is the only thing worth defending.

Karim’s transformation coupled with Chanu’s speech at the meeting lead Nazneem to end her affair with Karim, who asked her to end her marriage with Chanu. At the end of the film, Nazneem finally stands up to Chanu and tells her that she does not want to return to Bangladesh. Chanu and Nazneem had been planning their return ‘home’ for quite a while, but Chanu’s urgency to leave London increased after he realized he was unable to pay back the loans he had taken by a money-lending older Muslim woman. Nazneem had also longed to return to Bangladesh to reunite with her sister, but after realizing that her sister’s stories about her ‘love affairs’ were actually her sister’s encounters with various men as a prostitute, Nazneem decided to stay in London. Though she ended her relationship with Karim, it is not clear as to whether or not he was a part of her decision to remain in London.

Nazneem’s last thought in the film reveals her epiphany about love.

“No one told me there are different kinds of love. The kind that starts deep and slowly wears away; that seems you will never use it up and then one day it is finished. Then there is a kind you do not notice at first but which adds a little bit to itself every day like an oyster makes a pearl grain by grain, a jewel from the sand. That is the kind I have come to know.”

Here, Nazneem reflects on her relationship with Chanu. Although he never excited her, he grew on her, and developed a love far more deeply rooted than the first type of love she describes, which characterizes her love for Karim.
The film concludes with Chanu’s departure to Bangladesh, and Nazneem and her daughters playing on the snow covered Brick Lane.

Brick Lane (2007)
Drama
102 Minutes
Cast:
Nazneen Ahmed- Tannishtha Chalterjee
Chanu Ahmed- Satish Kaushik
Karim- Christopher Simpson
Rukshana- Naeema Begum
Bibi- Lana Rahma
Director: Sarah Gavron
Writers: Laura Jones, Abi Morgan