There are copious amounts of teenage boys sporting a single gold cross earring, jacket with shoulder pads, eyeliner and about a pound of Aquanet hairspray atop perfectly tamed mullets. It revels in the world of late-'80s British pop culture and fashions.
"I was so upset with all the xenophobia that was going on around us that I said, 'I've got to do something about it.' And that's when I said, 'We've got to make this film next.'"Īt times, full on musical numbers break out in Blinded By The Light.īlinded By The Light is exuberant and proudly embraces themes of love, ambition and the importance of family. "I didn't want to repeat myself after Bend It Like Beckham, and then Brexit happened," Chadha said, while sporting a Bruce Springsteen T-shirt. For years, Chadha and Manzoor had loose plans to turn the book into a film, but it took a major political event to instigate the film actually being made. In 2008, he wrote about growing up in a Pakistani family and becoming a Bruce fan in Greetings from Bury Park: A Memoir. Most of what we see Javed go through actually happened to Manzoor. Experiencing his music through this fresh perspective made me appreciate how much his lyrics resonate with our current politics, culture and economic struggles here in the US and UK. Hearing his songs played over a Dolby sound system is a real damn treat. I don't know if there will ever be a formal Bruce Springsteen musical or biopic, but Blinded by the Light is perhaps the best manifestation of his music you could hope for in a film.
In one scene, the lyrics to Promised Land - "take a knife and cut this pain from my heart" - are literally projected larger than life over the top of Javed. Like Bend It Like Beckham, Chadha mixes humor (there's a lot), hope, social activism and full-on musical numbers into a wonderfully balanced and entertaining film.
Blinded By The Light is as funny as it is authentic. Springsteen's music speaks more about the struggles he and his family face than the traditional Pakistani music his father devotedly listens to.īlinded by the Light is the latest film from Chadha, who is perhaps best known for her 2002 film Bend It Like Beckham - yeah, the one with Keira Knightley.
In the middle of all this is Javed (played by Viveik Kalra), a 16-year-old who dreams of being a writer despite his very traditional Pakistani family insisting he pursue a more sensible job.īlinded By The Light stars (left to right) Nell Williams as Eliza, Viveik Kalra as Javed and Aaron Phagura as Roops.ĭuring a moment of despair, a classmate gives Javed two Bruce Springsteen cassettes - Born In The USA and Darkness on the Edge of Town - and Javed's outlook transforms instantly.
Times are financially and politically hard, with many out of work and neo-facism on the rise. Manzoor and director Gurinder Chadha stopped by CNET to chat about the film, which opened Friday.īlinded By The Light takes place in 1987 in Luton, England (think Milwaukee or Detroit in the US). That's author Sarfraz Manzoor talking about Blinded by the Light, which is based on his teenage years. You might become a fan as a result of the film." If you're a Bruce fan you'll see something different.