Javed is a struggling Pakistani teen growing up in a jobless, discriminatory 1987 Thatcher-struck neighbourhood in Luton. His father pushes him towards hard business while he secretly pursues his passion of writing poems in his sixth form. Facing an identity crisis in a place with little opportunity and his passion being dismissed by his family and best friend Matt, who claims the lyrics he writes are ‘depressing’, he discovers a new world of self-discovery when his schoolmate, a Sikh called Roops, introduces him to the rebellious discography of Bruce Springsteen. Reawakened with new connections inside him, Javed works his rebellious self up against his father’s steering and Luton’s racist prejudices, finding a workplace in local journalism to get his and local Pakistanis’ unheard voices out while shaping himself around his new idol.
So Gurinder Chadha’s new film is essentially a message of teen spirit’s potential to reform the surrounding world and the further potential music artists have in connecting to people’s buried anger and transform it into something wildly creative, and it’s initially stylishly done with a script personifying confused but passionate teen life. Javed’s increasingly positive outlook on life and unacceptance of his situations are contrasted nicely with the dreary surrounding atmosphere of a working-class 80s UK neighbourhood: Luton has the aesthetic of a grey ghost-town and neo nazis spout racist remarks at his family daily, making our protagonist’s world more hostile and desperate by the second.
But as for the film’s execution of its main theme of music’s awakening effect on a lost soul, Blinded By the Light has some very entertaining musical numbers indeed. Moments such as when Javed gets thrown away by both the relating lyrics on his headphones and a brutal gale that fits the mood are powerful indeed, others admittedly drag too long and submit to sheer feel-good bonanza to try and earn the film’s musical status.
What also stops the film from deepening its themes too much is its rather unremarkable characterisation and structure, throwing in such obvious character tropes with little memorability or surprising conflict that would be considered fresh for the genre. The narrative does indeed hit a major crisis point, as all character journeys do, which tears many things down but one that seems to be thrown in simply to stop Javed’s journey spiralling upwards to the point of crashing the stratosphere, and one which is quickly patched up and positively span on a bit too much towards the end that it eventually feels like a stereotypical feel-good with a layer of 80s teen rebellion taped over.
But what Blinded by the Light does right it does so quite fantastically. Javed’s rebellion and the connections he builds is what-would-be good innocent enjoyment but has nicely-explored underlying issues of oppression-fighting that brings his world together, as well as his conflict with his financially-struggling South Asian family always adding that imminent sense of responsibility you’re not sure he’s going to fulfil or follow his ego instead. Some supporting performances are also an additional treat, most notably Rob Brydon playing Javed’s best friend’s dad who runs a market stall and shares the film’s most amusing music number with him. The journey of Javed is definitely solid grin-beaming stuff, having great empathy with his ethnicity’s oppression and having the full 80’s aesthetic to carve out the heroism of Springsteen’s legacy, Blinded by the Light ironically shows the light at the end of the tunnel.