| Director | Andy De Emmony, Andy de Emmony |
|---|---|
| Budget | £2.5 million |
| Box office | £4.9 million |
In 1976, five years after the original film East Is East, little is known about most of the Khan children, except that they have fully adopted British culture and seldom communicate with their parents. Tariq is now a hippie (looking like George Harrison) who runs a new age store with older brother Nazir, and his English girlfriend is unaware of his true ethnicity. Maneer lives with his extended family in Pakistan where he is searching for a suitable wife, but without success. Sajid, the youngest Khan child, no longer wears a parka, and is a truant, constantly bullied due to his Pakistani background, but the headmaster—a former British soldier who served in the Punjab—is sympathetic, encouraging him to embrace his heritage. After Sajid is caught shoplifting, his father George, who has retained his bullying nature, attacks him at home. When Sajid retaliates, calling him a "dirty Paki bastard", a devastated George states all his other children in England have become British and he cannot lose Sajid as well. He takes him to Pakistan to meet their extended family intending to show him life in their native land is better, although his wife Ella openly disapproves.
On arriving in Pakistan, George and Sajid are greeted by relatives including Tanvir, a lazy man who often tries to swindle George—and is his son-in-law through his marriage to one of George's daughters with his first wife Basheera. On the family farm, George is reunited with Basheera and their daughters whom he had abandoned thirty years before, and hands out gifts to all, telling them he is staying for a month to find Maneer a wife, but soon discovers no family will give their daughter away as they fear Maneer will leave his wife for an English woman as his father George did when he left Basheera for Ella. Furious, George blames his family in England, but Maneer reminds him he himself is at fault. Basheera is also angry with George for abandoning her when she needed him.
When Tanvir explains to Sajid he will not tolerate any trouble, he is abruptly told to "fuck off". Sajid is taken to the local school for enrolment where he meets spiritual teacher Pir Naseem and local boy Zaid who Sajid loathes at first and refuses to enroll. Zaid, who can speak basic English, advises him, and the two become firm friends. Zaid teaches him Pakistani culture, and Pir Naseem promises George he will discipline his son when he misbehaves. Sajid gradually appreciates his culture and new surroundings which pleases George, except he is slightly jealous of the bond between his son and Pir Naseem. Eventually Sajid discovers Neelam, a Pakistani woman born in Rochdale, close to Maneer’s family home of Salford and who bears a striking resemblance to Maneer's favourite singer Nana Mouskouri. Like Maneer, she is also looking for a spouse in Pakistan and, with her approval, Sajid plans a meeting between the pair.
Meanwhile, upon discovering George has withdrawn the family savings, Ella travels to Pakistan with her best friend Annie in tow. She is furious to discover her husband is building a house for his family there and plans to take Sajid back to England with her, but he refuses to leave. During her stay, Ella fights with Basheera and her daughters, and refuses to give them access to the new house, but upon realising how alike they are the two women put their differences aside. Maneer and Neelam soon marry, and George for the first time in years begins to appreciate Ella as a wife who stood by him during hard times. The film ends with George and his England-based family returning home and Sajid finally proud of his Asian background, whilst George's chippy now serves Pakistani-style kebabs referred to as "The Charlotte Rampling special".