"The feature excels in its fair and realistic portrayal"

Everywhere and Nowhere is a film based in present-day London, following the lives of a close-knit group of British-born Asian friends, all of whom are struggling to combine both their home lives with their social ones.

It tells the story of Ash (James Floyd), an aspiring DJ, who, alongside his three closest friends, has to deal with the conflict between his traditionalist home life, and his upbeat and productive social life. At home, he lives alongside his older brother Ahmed (Alyy Khan), a stern character, taking on the role of the harsh father-like figure, who disagrees with his younger brother’s Westernised lifestyle, thus causing a dysfunctional relationship between the two.

The feature excels in its fair and realistic portrayal of young Asians living in Britain. It avoids being too over the top, which is always a danger when making a film about modern and existent issues. The film doesn’t need to rely too much on stereotypes in order to prove a point, which is certainly a good thing.

East is East is another contemporary film based around Asians living in Britain, and the difficulties they must overcome within society, particularly that of the older generations, in adapting to a more Westernised way of living. However, East is East is set in the 1970’s, when racism within the United Kingdom was much more of an issue, which the film highlighted succinctly.

But civilisation has changed and there is less inherent racism within civilisation now, and, particularly within London, there is a much more comfortable and well-celebrated multicultural society. Everywhere and Nowhere therefore had the task of modernising and adapting the issues of young Asians living in Britain in order to avoid drawing too many parallels with East is East, and to provide the audience with a more up-to-date version of such topics, and this, I felt, was done well.

The feature is also well-acted and the realistic problems that the characters have to face wouldn’t have succeeded at all had it not been for the pragmatic performances from the leading roles.

Everywhere and Nowhere certainly touches upon severe concerns, but centres mostly on Ash’s home-life and his personal aspirations of being a successful DJ, following in the footsteps of his sister’s boyfriend Ronnie (Simon Webbe). This benefited the film, as, despite touching on more serious themes, the film’s key direction was based around Ash and his life as an Asian DJ –a kind of hybrid between Kevin and Perry Go Large and Kidulthood.

Having said that, there was a needless scene where a policeman (Dexter Fletcher) unnecessarily arrests Ash’s cousin Riz (Neet Mohan), simply for being an Asian. I felt the film didn’t need a scenario such as this, as its subtlety and ability to remain impartial and low on stereotypes is one of its crowning features.

Despite its realistic portrayal of Asian youth in London, I felt that the film was lacking somewhat in its own conviction. It highlighted many issues young Asians must face in modern society. Religious traditionalism, interracial relationships, and arranged marriages were just a few issues portrayed within the feature. However, not one of them was addressed and dealt with, they were inserted rather as an after-thought and a nod to political correctness. In that respect it felt almost like an evasion of the problems. Perhaps this was a reflection on real-life and how difficult it can be to overcome such dilemmas, but I just wanted the film to actually deal with the issues instead of simply highlighting them.

The film is also moderately humorous in parts, such as the “did someone order a cab?” line when Ash turns up to a house party. Although, don’t be fooled by seeing James Buckley (the rather crude ‘Jay’ from the Inbetweeners) billed on the cast-list. His five minute cameo certainly doesn’t prove to be necessary to the film in any way.

Despite lacking in depth somewhat, it is an enjoyable feature, it just could have done with a little more conviction in its own ideas, and with filmmaker Menhaj Huda (Kidulthood) clearly conscious and perceptive of current issues within the youth culture in London, it could have just been a little more gripping and compelling in its approach.