When Rudyard Kipling penned The Ballad Of East And West which includes the oft-quoted line, ‘Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,’ he affirmed a belief in the equality of men, regardless of race.

Ayub Khan Din appropriated Kipling’s sentiment for his 1997 stage play East Is East about the experiences of a British Pakistani chip shop owner in 1970s Salford.

The affectionate coming of age story drew heavily on the playwright’s childhood, mining earthy comedy from the culture clash between a father desperate to uphold tradition and children eager to embrace the freedoms of the west.

The subsequent film version painted a rich and immediately engaging family portrait and garnered numerous awards for Khan Din’s script.

Fittingly, the writer turns to Kipling once again for the title of the belated sequel, which transplants the characters from the cramped terraced houses of 1976 Salford to the rural splendour of the Punjab.

This time, the authoritarian patriarch must reconcile past and present, facing up to his failings as a husband and father in order to rebuild bridges with the people he holds dear.

Fifteen-year-old Sajid Khan (Aqib Khan) is bullied mercilessly and just wants to fit in, rebelling against the dictates of his father, George (Om Puri).

In order to make Sajid proud of his identity, George drags the lad to the Pakistan to stay with his first wife, Basheera (Ila Arun), and their two daughters, while current wife Ella (Linda Bassett) stays home to run the family business, George’s English Chippy, with best friend Annie (Lesley Nicol).

Understandably, the teenager resists his father’s attempts to introduce him to the sights, smells and customs of the Punjab.

So George entrusts the boy to Sufi wise man, Pir Naseem (Nadim Sawalha), and the mentor helps Sajid to discover his self-worth and a lifelong friend in plucky goatherd, Zaid (Raj Bhansali).

Meanwhile, George attempts to find his older son Maneer (Emil Marwa) a wife and to atone for the sins of the past.

West Is West lacks much of the charm of the first film, and the plot wanders down familiar back roads in search of laughs.

It’s telling that the comic highpoint of the Khan family’s misadventures is Annie’s chronic bout of kebab-induced diarrhoea.

Puri, Bassett and co relax into their old roles as if they were easing into a pair of comfortable slippers.

Bradford-born newcomer Khan is a likable hero, who mocks his brother-in-law after he declares George to be very popular.

‘So was Hitler,’ snaps the 15-year-old.

The final 20 minutes noticeably perk up with Bassett’s arrival in the Punjab, leading to some genuinely touching scenes between the two wives.

The language barrier cannot separate them, just as Kipling predicted.

• Release Date: Friday 25 February 2011
• Certificate: 15
• Runtime: 103mins