Review: Blinded By The Light

Image courtesy of New Line Cinema

Gurinder Chadha's "Blinded by the Light" wears its heart all over its sleeve, a move that occasionally risks being corny, but mostly comes off as charming.

This good-natured, albeit politically charged tale, tells the story of a young Pakistani man named Javed (Viveik Kalra) who lives with his working class family in the small British town of Luton in 1987, during the height of unemployment and Margaret Thatcher's reign.

Javed enjoys writing poems, although his factory worker father (Kulvinder Ghir) wants him to get his head out of the clouds and find a lucrative career. A Sikh schoolmate named Roops (Aaron Phagura) turns Javed on to Bruce Springsteen, and the young man is instantly hooked by the Boss' songwriting prowess and relatable tunes about dreaming of escaping one's working class trappings.

Javed is encouraged by an English teacher (Hayley Atwell) and British girlfriend named Eliza (Nell Williams), whom he impresses by singing a Springsteen tune to her in public, to seek a career in writing, even as he fears his father finding out about his dream. The picture is a quasi-musical in which its characters occasionally break out into Springsteen tunes, although they happen to be listening to the songs and singing along, rather than taking part in musical numbers.

This is what one would call a heartfelt movie. It's not shy in portraying emotions, and there are a few sequences in which it almost veers into being too cutesy - for example, a scene in which Javed, Roops and Eliza break into their school's radio station office, put "Born to Run" on the PA system and then run through the streets singing it.

But the Boss' music is put to good effect in chronicling Javed's frustrations about being stuck in his hometown with little chance of escape. When his father is laid off from the auto factory where he works, his future looks even dimmer.

Chadha's films often tell stories of immigrants living in England who have British best pals - in this one, Javed is friends with a New Wave-coiffed boy named Matt (Dean-Charles Chapman), whereas the young Indian woman who dreamed of playing soccer in "Bend It Like Beckham" was besties with a young Keira Knightley - and hopes of attaining lofty goals.

Much more so than "Beckham" did, "Blinded" has some strong political subtext underneath its surface. Javed and his family are constantly terrorized by National Front thugs - young British lads pee through the mailbox slot of one Pakistani family, and Javed's father is assaulted during an N.F. march. On top of that, Javed and his family are all forced to chip in and work during a period of economic downturn in Thatcher's 1980's England.

But mostly, "Blinded by the Light" is a rousing story about outsiders struggling to achieve a dream. The film's final scenes - in which Javed is forced to consider his family vs. seeking opportunity abroad - is a commonly used cinematic storyline, but the manner in which it is resolved during a writing contest in which Javed has been awarded is genuinely moving. This is a likable, well made movie with a good amount of great music, solid performances and a sizable amount of good will. It's a crowdpleaser, but in a good way.