Set against the backdrop of a racially divided Manchester in 1971, the British comedy-drama East Is East attempts to depict the assimilation of Pakistani Muslims into a culture that frowns upon its traditions. Faced with the tricky challenge of striking a balance between clashing elements—Islam and Christianity, ribald humor and familial abuse, aging fundamentalists and frivolous youths—director Damien O'Donnell splits the difference, smoothing the divisive edges around a bland, feel-good center. Expanded from Ayub Khan-Din's largely autobiographical stage play, East Is East stars the powerful Om Puri (My Son The Fanatic) as an chip-shop entrepreneur and iron-fisted patriarch with a Caucasian wife (Linda Bassett) and seven children, six of them boys. Though all were raised in England, Puri imposes strict Islamic values on his family, including arranged marriages for his sons, who are more attracted to Christianity and don't even consider themselves Pakistani. When Puri's impotent rage begins to manifest itself in physical abuse, East Is East confronts a serious issue it's not equipped to handle. O'Donnell's tendency to soft-pedal religious dogma with cutesy comedy—such as a run of circumcision jokes and a pair of hopelessly inbred brides with teeth to rival Mickey Rooney's in Breakfast At Tiffany's—works against him once the story takes a darker turn. That Puri retains any sympathy at all is a tribute to his charismatic performance, which hints at the vulnerability behind his character's desperate machismo. He deserves a better film, one that doesn't compromise the potency of its humor or its melodrama for the sake of mass approval.