Brick Lane

I don't know if I should wait for the tears to stop falling before I actually comment on this movie. I just finished watching Brick Lane on DVD and I'm so glad that the girl at Roger's Video help me choose this one over the other movie I had in my hand at the checkout.

Brick Lane makes me appreciate being female, being a daughter and having a mother who not just endures life, but tries so hard to keep me smiling through it, even when if she is not always happy at every moment. It makes me want to have daughters too and share the same with them. And I have to say that it makes me so grateful for living in a time and place where I am free to make choices in my career, in my words, and in love.

I was hurting for the characters in the movie- the heartache and confusion they felt. Right from the start, the main character - Nazneen, a young Bangladeshi girl- has to face her mother committing suicide only a short distance from where her and her sister were playing. "Nobody talks about my mother's death," she explains. "My mother said that if we wanted to question things, we should have been men."

Not only does Nazneen not ask questions, but she rarely speaks her mind or says what she wants. And the frustration of her silence nearly made me want to scream for her. As I watched her being taken to a run down home in London, living with an overweight, demanding husband, who only seemed to talk about his own education and success, I was outraged. That scene where she was clipping and cleaning his fat, ugly toenails while he lay lazy in bed just disgusted me. I couldn't stand the way she was unable to be herself, to express what she really felt. But I was thinking more about what I want out of my life, rather than considering what this person who is not me might be searching for.

So when the young and and passionate Karim shows up in Nazneen's life, I couldn't help smiling along with her. She looks beautiful in her moments of 'freedom' with him- freedom to feel- and the way he paid attention to her, kissed her so tenderly... I felt this relief that finally someone was caring for and loving her.

But as the movie went on, things became more complicated. What choices would she make? How would she continue to be happy without hurting her family? Would she give up her new found happiness and instead continue to be untrue to herself?

As the movie progressed, I started learning more about what Nazneen really wanted, what happiness was to her.

Though they may not have been the choices I would have made, there was a surprising peace that came about in me from the lessons I learned from Nazneen's choices. Her actions and the thoughts that she shares along the way- whether she sneaks on a sparkly tube top under her sari in the bathroom, or lets her wavy dark hair fall free over her lover's chest, or when she giggles with her daughter over her sister's love affairs, and even later, when she is gentle and honest with her husband- I was given a different perspective on what Nazneen was searching for.

This is definitely a thought provoking movie, especially for you sisters, mothers and daughters out there. Great images, dialogues, pauses and themes in the movie- the idea of being torn between two worlds, being one I, and I'm sure many other people could relate to on varying levels.

And I'm tempted to find the novel Brick House by Monica Ali on which the movie is based. I am curious to know if the descriptions of the Bangladeshi village and Nazneen's emotions are as beautifully written as I imagine them to be.