Material is one of the biggest hits ever at the South African box office, and should be hitting UK cinemas sometime next year. While it’s set half a world away in Johannesburg, British audiences will notice some familiar multicultural themes. It appears it’s not just young British-Indians who face culture clash due to their their parents coming from a very different tradition than the one they live in. That’s what Cassim (Riaad Moosa) faces, with the added pressure of the fact his father had to deal with the realities of apartheid, which he’s never fully gotten over.
Cassim is a young man of Indian heritage who works in his father, Ebrahim’s, fabric store. The shop is failing but Ebrahim is stubborn and feels he inherited it as a haberdashery and that’s how it must stay. Indeed Ebrahim is old-fashioned and intractable about most things he has little time for the modern world and knows little about it feeling that there are way unchangeable ways things should be, especially for Muslims, and part of that is that he’s in charge of his family and they ought to obey.
However Cassim is secretly going out in the evenings and trying his hand at stand-up comedy. People think his act, which is largely about life as a Muslim in South Africa, is funny, and he’s soon invited to perform at a bigger club. He knows though that if his father ever finds out there’ll be hell to pay, as in his dad’s eyes Cassim’s life is already set to get married and take over the shop. Plus there’s the fact that being a stand-up could be seen by some as un-Muslim. Can father and son ever see eye to eye?
On its South African release, the movie was praised for being a breath of fresh air in the country’s moviemaking after years of often dodgy action films and slapstick comedies. It’s slightly more familiar to British audiences, who are more likely to have seen movies about the pressures Asian families face living in Westernised nations. Indeed you could transplant the movie from Johannesburg to Bradford or Birmingham with only a few cosmetic changes.
Just because every single plot point and idea isn’t a paragon of original thought doesn’t mean this is a bad film. Indeed quite the opposite. It’s sweet, funny and pulls you in with characters you like or at least (in Ebrahim’s case) understand. As the pressures mount up on Cassim, you can’t help but feel for him. Wanting to do a bit of stand-up comedy seems such as simple thing, but it’s indicative of everything his dad is against or refuses to try to understand.
One other thing it might be difficult for some British viewers to completely ignore is the Kumars factor (which sounds like some sort of racist epithet, but I promise it’s not). Ebrahim is played by Vincent Ebrahim, who was born in South Africa but is best known to UK audiences for playing the dad in The Kumars At No. 42. That in itself would be easily ignorable, but the fact they give him a silver-haired mother played by an actress who’s obviously massively younger than the character she’s playing, can’t help but bring to mind Meera Syal in The Kumars. It won’t spoil your enjoyment, but it is noticeable.
Material is a feel-good, heart-warmer that’ll keep you smiling as you get involved with the characters and their dreams and aspirations. It may not change the world, but it’ll certainly keep you entertained for 90 minutes.
Overall Verdict: Sweet, funny and charming, Material will make you laugh and make you feel.
Reviewer: Tim Isaac