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Reviews

Apr 22nd 2005 By Jonathan Dean

If East Is East was the scrumptious curry the night before, this independent homage to other recent East-meets-West smashes is the throw-up the morning after. Chris Bisson is a closeted gay man of Indian descent caught up in the whirlwind of an arranged marriage. The bride-to-be is beautiful, but she is not Jimi's boyfriend Jack (Peter Ash). So, in order to keep their illicit fires burning, a tale of vertiginous proportions is concocted. The potentially spicy dilemmas of secret homosexuality in Preston is reduced to a series of Indian/ Brit juxtapositions, Carry On sex gags and bland stereotypes. We're treated to sari-wearing grandmothers using handsfree kits, an Indian uncle visiting a strip club on a "shag night" and a succession of vacuous characters. "It's like being in a really bad episode of Neighbours," says Jack. That comparison does a real disservice to Ramsay Street.