Meat and potatoes culture clash movie has just enough choice cuts to win the day
CULTURE clashes have been at the heart of movies since movies began – from Abie’s Irish Rose (about a New York Jewish man who marries an Irish Catholic woman), to Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner?, Crocodile Dundee, and even Brooklyn, where much of the gentle comedy that balanced the romance came from the interaction between Irish immigrant Eilis and her boyfriend Tony’s Italian family.
Halal Daddy joins that canon, though there is something of the whiff of a Seventies sitcom off it – at times, it’s just a bit too Love Thy Neighbour for my tastes.
The film tells the story of Raghdan, a young Muslim Indian man who has travelled from home in Bradford to live in Sligo with his Indian uncle Jamal and Irish aunt Doreen, (Paul Tylak and Deirdre O’Kane, pictured inset) whose main entertainment amusingly consists of role-playing sex games.
He is there to escape his overbearing father, Amir (the ever dependable Art Malik, who himself rose to fame in the Eighties culture clash drama, Jewel in
the arrangedPatel, Summers)buddies Raghdan Crown)Aafrin and marriage.hangs (winninglyin is and Channeldatingout the with slacker surfer played by Nikeshlocal girl Maeve prospect of an4’s lavish Indian Logan, played with fiery gumption by the olger. always Meaney,Her father delightfulslightly Martin overplaying his hand), aSarah (the ubiquitous ColmBolger. separated dad raising his children alone, is the former manager of the town’s meat-processing plant but has been unemployed for two years, so when Ragh dan’s father shows up and buys the factory to make it halal-friendly to serve the needs of Irish Muslims, Martin is delighted to get his old job back. Things don’t run smoothly though. Raghdan really has no interest in working alongside