Material

A watchable, sympathetic, if sometimes cheesy and sentimental comedy-drama set in the Johannesburg suburb of Fordsburg, home to South Africa’s Asian community. The hero is easygoing, dutiful twentysomething Cassim (Riaad Moosa), whose secret ‘hobby’ as a stand-up comedian brings him into conflict with his devout Muslim, Apartheid-hardened, fabric-shop owning father, Ebrahim (Vincent Ebrahim) for whom ‘life is not a funny business’. As a drama about family feuds, conflicting loyalties, thwarted romance and general adjustment to modernity, it may be conventionally structured and directed, but both the credible, dignified and often funny performance of real-life stand-up comedian Moosa and the film’s overall generous-heartedness and sense of self-belief see it through.