If anything, Chadha's film proves that a little of the Boss goes a long way - in fact, the film's best scene has nothing to do with Springsteen at all. Chadha's clear-eyed, socio-economic detail eventually succumbs to her uplifting coming-of-age mandate, and genuinely tense family moments give way to one of the year's cheesiest endings - complete with a poetry reading in front of the school assembly, through which tumbleweeds might as well roll. ( Supplied: Universal Pictures)īlinded by the Light can't quite reconcile these jubilant sequences with the harder territory it wanders into. Javed also connects Springsteen's tales of working-class American life to his family's struggles in the Britain of the 1980s, in particular the financial pressure put on the household when his father is laid off from his production-line job at the Vauxhall factory.īlinded by the Light also serves as a companion piece, of sorts, to Paul Schrader's Springsteen-inspired Light of Day, itself from 1987 and depicting the trials of blue collar siblings in Cleveland, Ohio.Ĭhadha, who knows her way around this territory, gives the film's familial dimension real weight, and doesn't shy away from showing the ugly realities of life under Thatcher's Britain - where the streets teem with National Front skinhead rallies, and Javed's family are subjected to frequent, humiliating racial aggression.īut the film is also quick to diffuse these elements - always ready with a gentle acoustic sting or a kind-hearted liberal schoolteacher (Hayley Atwell) to soften the blows.Ĭhadha says the film's narrative is driven by the lyrics of the 17 Springsteen songs featured in the film. In the Boss's widescreen, romantic poetry, Javed finds an outlet for his own frustrations: the longing for escape from the daily grind, the heart-on-denim-sleeve refrains that seem to speak directly to his adolescent hopes and fears - his very own Springsteen angst.
#BLINDED BY THE LIGHT 2019 MOVIE#
"A Pakistani into Springsteen - now that's got potential," says the school magazine editor, observing Javed's newfound fandom like some walking, high-concept movie logline.Īaron Phagura plays Roops, Javed's Springsteen-mad classmate and the only other South Asian high school student. Faster than you can say 'unlimited music rights' Javed is plunged into 24/7 Springsteen rapture, bedroom twirling to a lightning montage set to Dancing in the Dark and gushing out newly inspired poetry and lyrics - many of which find themselves scrawled across the screen, in one of those unfortunate formal tics of recent cinema.
When Javed's Sikh school buddy, Roops (Aaron Phagura), passes him cassettes of Born in the USA and Darkness on the Edge of Town, it's a gateway to another world. We're meant to laugh at his foolishness, and the supposed shallowness of pop music next to Springsteen, who the film offers as a bastion of musical authenticity. "Synth is the future," says pretty-boy mulleted Matt, who gets mocked by his own Boss-loving, rock-n-roll dad (Rob Brydon, making an always-welcome cameo). ( Supplied: Universal Pictures/Nick Wall) Director Gurinder Chadha describes Blinded by the Light as the "spiritual companion" to her 2002 film Bend it like Beckham.
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