MOVIE REVIEW : Good Subject Gets Lost in the ‘West’

“Wild West” (Beverly Center Cineplex and NuWilshire, Times-rated Mature) ought to be better than it is. After all, a movie about a bunch of South London Pakistanis who have their own country band isn’t exactly standard fare. And, for a while at least, the novelty is enough to carry us past the boys’ dithering exploits and cornball dreams.

Zaf (Naveen Andrews), who lives with his brothers Ali (Ravi Kapoor) and Kay (Ronny Jhutti) in his mother’s house, is the boldest of the family. With his cowboy hat plopped uneasily atop his voluminous hair, he’s one unlikely cowpoke.

It would be better if director David Attwood and scriptwriter Harwant Bains didn’t make so much of Zaf’s oddness--if they didn’t turn him into a joke. It’s an affectionate joke but a joke just the same. We never find out what it is about country music that turns him on and pulls him away from his own roots. Is it because, as a Pakistani immigrant, he feels rootless in England?

When Zaf meets the beautiful Rifat (Sarita Choudhury from “Mississippi Masala”), he immediately falls into a protracted swoon. Unhappily married to a brutal Brit (Shaun Scott), Rifat ends up as lead singer in the boys’ band, the Honky Tonk Cowboys. Of course, she has a great (and presumably dubbed) voice. The band sounds pretty great too, which makes the film’s you-can’t-win tone a bit unbelievable. More than a novelty act, the Honky Tonk Cowboys look as if they could become the biggest thing since Abba. Or at least Pink Lady.

‘Wild West’

Naveen Andrews: Zaf

Sarita Choudhury: Rifat

Ronny Jhutti: Kay

Ravi Kapoor: Ali

A Samuel Goldwyn Co. release. Director David Attwood. Producer Eric Fellner. Screenplay by Harwant Bains. Cinematographer Nic Knowland. Editor Martin Walsh. Costumes Trisha Biggar. Production design Caroline Hanania. Art director Kave Naylor. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.

Times-rated Mature.