Blinded by the Light
Directed by: Gurinder Chadha
Written by: Paul Mayeda Berges and Gurinder Chadha and Sarfraz Manzoor - Inspired by the words and music of Bruce Springsteen
Starring: Viveik Kalra, Kulvinder Ghir, Meera Ganatra, Aaron Phagura, Nell Williams, Dean-Charles Chapman, Nikita Mehta, Hayley Atwell, Rob Brydon, Frankie Fox, Tara Divina
Comedy/Drama/Music - 117 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 12 Aug 2019
Written by: Paul Mayeda Berges and Gurinder Chadha and Sarfraz Manzoor - Inspired by the words and music of Bruce Springsteen
Starring: Viveik Kalra, Kulvinder Ghir, Meera Ganatra, Aaron Phagura, Nell Williams, Dean-Charles Chapman, Nikita Mehta, Hayley Atwell, Rob Brydon, Frankie Fox, Tara Divina
Comedy/Drama/Music - 117 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 12 Aug 2019
“Bruce is the direct line to all that is shitty in the world,” the jean-jacket clad, turbine-wearing Roops says to Javed. A Pakistani-British Muslim and a Sikh bond and revel over their shared love of The Boss. His lyrics, even though they were written in New Jersey about yearning to break free from a dead-end factory town can be understood and internalized anywhere in the world where folks suffocate in an environment which doesn’t understand them, where they don’t fit in, a place they can’t wait to see in the rearview mirror. Springsteen’s words are universal. Director Gurinder Chadha, known for feel-good stories where minority teenagers chase dreams reserved for other ethnicities and social classes, creates a coming-of-age story anybody can identify with and celebrates the power of music to motivate and push one to reach for things long thought unattainable.
Based on journalist Sarfraz Manzoor’s memoir, Greetings from Bury Park: Race, Religion, and Rock N’ Roll, Blinded by the Light trumpets a common message, no matter where you come from, you can accomplish anything you put your mind to. Javed (Viveik Kalra) knows he is meant to be a writer, but his father, a traditional-minded first-generation immigrant from Pakistan, instructs Javed to study economics and “to stay away from girls and follow the Jews. They know how to be successful.” Javed’s father (Kulvinder Ghir) believes he is open-minded and tolerant, he will not order his son to be a doctor like many in the Pakistani community in Luton do – Javed can be a lawyer if he wants to. This is 1987 Luton though. Margaret Thatcher’s policies are hitting blue collar workers hard and Javed’s father loses his job at the local Vauxhall plant. Money is tight, National Front thugs spray paint swastikas and “Pakis get out” graffiti, and Javed feels ashamed he harbors compulsive urges to write poetry and journals while his mother struggles to keep the family afloat with her sewing machine.
Based on journalist Sarfraz Manzoor’s memoir, Greetings from Bury Park: Race, Religion, and Rock N’ Roll, Blinded by the Light trumpets a common message, no matter where you come from, you can accomplish anything you put your mind to. Javed (Viveik Kalra) knows he is meant to be a writer, but his father, a traditional-minded first-generation immigrant from Pakistan, instructs Javed to study economics and “to stay away from girls and follow the Jews. They know how to be successful.” Javed’s father (Kulvinder Ghir) believes he is open-minded and tolerant, he will not order his son to be a doctor like many in the Pakistani community in Luton do – Javed can be a lawyer if he wants to. This is 1987 Luton though. Margaret Thatcher’s policies are hitting blue collar workers hard and Javed’s father loses his job at the local Vauxhall plant. Money is tight, National Front thugs spray paint swastikas and “Pakis get out” graffiti, and Javed feels ashamed he harbors compulsive urges to write poetry and journals while his mother struggles to keep the family afloat with her sewing machine.
Javed also lacks in the companionship department; he’s never had a girlfriend. His father says not to worry, “When the time is right, I will find you a good wife.” Javed writes song lyrics for his best friend who fronts a fledgling synth-pop band, but he can’t write about what he doesn’t know. “You’re supposed to write pop songs, not songs about Reagan and Thatcher,” his mate moans. When Javed first pops Bruce’s “Nebraska” album into his Walkman, the consequence is immediate transformation and enlightenment. He runs out of the house while the print lyrics swirl around his head and spotlight themselves on walls and garages. “Bruce knows everything I’ve ever felt,” he exclaims to Roops (Aaron Phagura), his classmate who sports a dominating American flag on his jacket which does nothing to help the boys fit in amongst the glam-pop, Debbie Gibson acolytes roaming the school hallways.
Bruce’s messages gives Javed the confidence both to explore new possibilities through his writing and to approach girls. Attracted to the politically-minded Eliza (Nell Williams), Javed pens authentic lyrics of love and hope now that he is capable of experiencing these feelings. Gurinder Chadha creates a whirlwind mini-music video with Javed, Roops, and Eliza running through Luton acting out their version of “Born to Run.” Plenty of obstacles remain though. Dad threatens Javed with family exile if he does not stop wasting his time and disobeying with his love for this American rock star. The National Front march through Luton threatening minorities with uncomfortable similarities to our contemporary political climate. An imposing Thatcher poster overlooks the resulting riot with the message “Uniting Britain”. Nothing about Luton in 1987 was united. The same goes for any time polarizing politicians blame “the other” for society’s problems but label themselves a “uniter.”
Luton makes a convincing British New Jersey. Folks are cynical; things are going in the wrong direction. The theater collectively laughed out loud when Javed says, “In America, they don’t care where you're from.” Well… Maybe in 1987 they didn’t. Blinded by the Light echoes Chadha’s 2002 Bend it Like Beckham where an 18 year-old girl defies her parents because of her love for soccer. Chadha spreads a message that immigrant parents want their children to have more chances than they did, but that does not necessarily include the luxury of choices native children may gravitate toward. More chances means to study where sent and to select a profession from the list offered. Chadha succeeds in making Javed a believable and sincere Springsteen disciple and in our times of us vs. them, watching him loosen the chains of inevitability in response to universal truths makes us all want to exclaim, “We gotta get out while we’re young / Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run!”
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