Brick Lane makers cancel filming

[Habz]

The makers of the film Brick Lane have cancelled filming in the London area where it is set owing to opposition from the Bangladeshi community there.
Ruby Films said it had been advised by police and Tower Hamlets council not to film in Brick Lane area, Shoreditch.

Brick Lane Business Association chairman Mahmoud Roug told BBC News it was a "victory for the community".

Some members of the Bangladeshi community claim that the original novel, by Monica Ali, is "insulting".

The book is about a Bangladeshi woman sent to London for an arranged marriage.

Ruby Films is now seeking alternative locations for exterior scenes it had been due to film in the Brick Lane area this weekend.

Community victory

A spokeswoman said: "We have been advised by the police and Tower Hamlets council that it is probably best not to film there.

"We wouldn't want to go anywhere where we are not wanted, or put anyone at risk."

Mr Roug said: "If they have moved from here and will not be filming here, it is a victory for the community."

The original novel said "a lot of wrong and bad things about the community", he said.

Once the film is finished and people are able to see it, then we will be happy to open a dialogue on it

Ruby Films spokeswoman
"As the book was saying things against the people of the Brick Lane area, they shouldn't come to do their filming around Brick Lane.

"The people [of Brick Lane] have been humiliated, and they [the film-makers] should not come near to them."

Ruby Films claims it has maintained constant contact with community members, including as both consultants and crew.

"We want to just get the film finished," said the spokeswoman.

"Once the film is finished and people are able to see it, then we will be happy to open a dialogue on it."

Brick Lane, which was Ali's debut novel, was shortlisted for the 2003 Booker Prize.

In December 2003 Bangladeshi community leaders from The Greater Sylhet Development and Welfare Council - which represents Bangladeshis in the UK - called the book a "despicable insult".

At the time, Random House said the company did not believe the book's views were offensive.

*****

I don’t agree with censorship, i.e. banning filming.

But I understand where the Sylhetis are coming from. The impact of a negative MOVIE will be far bigger than that of a negative book. The entire country - hell, the entire world - will view Sylheti Bengalis as backward peasants who stomp on their women.

I find the Sylhetis entirely within their right to protest Monica’s hatchet job.

Remember, this is NOT about “Bangladeshis” in the abstract. This is very specifically about Sylhetis and the contempt with which they are viewed by non-Sylheti Bengalis, specifically Dhaka people.

The mutual dislike or mistrust is quite obvious wherever you turn in Bengali London. Especially so if you spend any amount of time in Tower Hamlets/East End.

A Dhaka girl can piss on the Sylhetis as much as she likes. However I agree with Greer that it shows up a culture in an extremely negative light, the very first time that they are getting national exposure.

If the Sylhetis protest, more power to them. I’ve had nough of these elitist, Oxbridge educated brown people whose sole passport to literary fame and wealth is by whoring their origins to the Western book reading public. Screw them.

[al Furqaan]

i tried to read that book...thinking it was something half way decent, the book was pretty boring.

and yes, i did get the, self-righteous, cracker-wanna-be themes too. it was wierd the bit of it that i did read...she seemed to take some swings at islam as well, but that seems typcial given her pseudo-shaddu status.

[BangladeshFan]

sylhetis, bricklane etc........ not much to be proud of. Food shops with bangla signs thats about it. so many bangladeshis especially sylhetis living in uk for such a long time( some even in 3rd generation) yet their achievement is minimal. apart from some restaurants they couldnt do anything else. making food, i guess thats the only thing we/bangladeshis are good at ( or is it the indulgence in food that is the cause of this backwardness?) .

[Ubiquitous]

I haven't read the book so I'll just make a generic point - them shooing off the filmmakers improves their image how exactly? If anything, it now makes them look intolerant too. Self-introspection is a quality seriously lacking in many of our expat communities, and the fear is more of skeletons coming out than of why the skeletons were there in the first place. And to think, when the book came out, it was greeted as being a good portal for the world to know about this large and significant community in London.

[thebest]

We are so good about protesting about non-sense like Lajja or Bricklane. I have not seen anything from this community leaders(?) for the social unjustice or taking the cause on the issues of this books.

[Sauron]

Brick Lane is not as bad as Lajja.

But, by the same token, I have attempted to read Brick Lane and like al Furqaan, I was bored.

To me, Monica Ali came off as a british brat with quasi-educated Bangladeshi parents that did not give her a good exposure to our true culture and possibly suffered from inferiority complex (her parents) to let her get away with such a bad (and untrue) image of her ancestral land. Of course, for liberal westerners who know nothing first hand about Bangladesh, Monica Ali is the great literary savior deserving a Booker Prize.

Her story totally stereo-types the Londni Sylhotis. I liked Londoni Koinya (Bangla Natok) better.

But Londoni Sylhoti's are idiots to protest the movie by not letting them film on Brick Lane. Why not counter it by funding and producing another movie that highlights the positive and breaks the stereo-type. This kind of protest will only bring more attention to the movie ... which is exact opposite of what they probably want.

Anyway, waiting for BD-ZIM 1st ODI ... who's Monica Ali again?

[Rabz]

Monica Ali... is she hot??
then i support her...
if not... id hv to read the book

[Miraz]

I absolutely agree with al Furqaan and Sauron. I failed to finish the book.

Its pretty boring and it neither represent sylheti nor British -Bangladeshi culture.

[Fazal]

Originally Posted by Sydney
Monica Ali... is she hot??
then i support her...
if not... id hv to read the book

Just Google her. You will get plenty of her pictures. Then make up your own mind, because one man's trash is other man's threasure.

[al Furqaan]

Originally Posted by Fazal
Just Google her. You will get plenty of her pictures. Then make up your own mind, because one man's trash is other man's threasure.

fazal bhai, secretly thinks she's hot but doesn't want us to know that...hence the ambiguous response to sydney.

lolllllllll

[Fazal]

Originally Posted by al Furqaan
fazal bhai, secretly thinks she's hot but doesn't want us to know that...hence the ambiguous response to sydney.

lolllllllll

No she is not my type... don't know her age ...... too rough for my taste.....older(than real age) looking kind of face .... I like kindler gentler kind of face... or Aligee kind of face.

Just because she is not my kind of girl, doesn't means she is not pretty considered by other.

[soniaAfroz]

Nutters! What's it got to do with the "Sylhetis" anyway - since when do "they" have a monopoly over one area where many immigrants have lived. It was ridiculous and made US ALL look like stupid uneducated racist discriminatory people.

[auntu]

Originally Posted by soniaAfroz
Nutters! What's it got to do with the "Sylhetis" anyway - since when do "they" have a monopoly over one area where many immigrants have lived. It was ridiculous and made US ALL look like stupid uneducated racist discriminatory people.

Take a chill pill mate.

[Ajfar]

Originally Posted by BangladeshFan
sylhetis, bricklane etc........ not much to be proud of. Food shops with bangla signs thats about it. so many bangladeshis especially sylhetis living in uk for such a long time( some even in 3rd generation) yet their achievement is minimal. apart from some restaurants they couldnt do anything else. making food, i guess thats the only thing we/bangladeshis are good at ( or is it the indulgence in food that is the cause of this backwardness?) .

that's not completely true. you are generalizing the entire bangladeshi community in brick lane/ England. It may be true that a lot of their achievement maybe is minimal, but there is still plenty to be proud of. who said they couldn't do anything else? If Miraz bhai isn't a success than who is? some one told me that there is a park in Brick lane dedicated to some Bangladeshi guy, because they had some kind of a riot a while back, and the guy died, and they named the park after him (someone please correct me if i'm wrong). if this is true than that's something to be proud of too. success depends on how you measure it, the people that own restaurants, if they are earning 30-40 thousand dollars a year. and if someone is earning 20 thousand dollar a year even with a bachelor's degree. who would you say is more successful?

[ammark]

I'm locking this thread so that it buries itself in the yard. We dont take too kindly to grave digging.