MY SON THE FANATIC

They say insanity is hereditary – you get it from your kids. But for Parvez, a happily assimilated Pakistani immigrant in Britain, there's no way he can subscribe to the growing Islamic zeal of his adult son Farid. To support the family, Parvez has dutifully driven a taxi for 25 years, mostly shuttling foreign executives and conventioneers through a northern England industrial town. And where there is business, there flourishes the Oldest Profession; very visible local prostitutes and their visiting johns are the non-judgmental Parvez's regular customers, and he is genuinely fond of the tart who calls herslef Bettina. Meanwhile Farid, though raised in a British culture, starts rejecting girls, the capitalist West, and its attendant corruption altogether, and berates his father for “swallowing white and Jewish propaganda.” Soon Parvez (and his money) unwillingly hosts a Muslim holy man, chanting acolytes under his roof, putting the non-religious father and the pious son severely at odds. Anyone concerned with the meaning of 'family values' should make a pilgrimage to Udayan Prasad's caustically enlightened feature.