Blinded by the Light: A crowd-pleasing coming-of-age film

After the financial successes of Bohemian Rhapsody, Mamma Mia and Rocketman, here comes one for the Boss’s fans.

Queen fans got Bohemian Rhapsody, Elton John fans got Rocketman and Beatles fans got Yesterday. Now it’s Bruce Springsteen fans’ turn.

The musical tribute movie is becoming a sub-genre in itself, beyond the musical biopic. Maybe we have Mamma Mia to thank, or to blame, depending on your perspective.

Thankfully, Blinded by the Light is not as much of a stomach-churning cheese in the vein of Mamma Mia and it’s more coherent than Yesterday.

While it’s far from perfect, on balance, it’s an inoffensive, feel-good and inspirational British dramedy with some charming performances and an emotionally affecting story about an immigrant teenager and how Springsteen’s music essentially saves him.

Viveik Kalra is a charismatic newcomer

Blinded by the Light is based on and co-written by journalist and real-life Boss superfan Sarfraz Manzoor, and directed by Gurinda Chadha, best known for Bend it Like Beckham.

Set in 1980s Luton, 16-year-old Javed Khan (Viveik Kalra) has aspirations of being a writer and kissing some girls. But his strict Pakistani parents Malik (Kulvinder Ghir) and Noor (Meera Ganatra) have a different set of expectations for him.

He is to succeed in school, choose a sensible career and be set up in an arranged marriage.

Javed is struggling to write songs for his friend Matt’s (Dean-Charles Chapman) band, but Javed’s preferred lyrical topics about social unrest, Thatcher and the Cold War doesn’t go down well with Matt who boldly declares “synths are the future!”.

It’s all pretty bleak for Javed, especially when his poetry is rejected by the school’s literature magazine, his dad is laid off at the local car factory and the local skinheads scrawl “Pakis Out” on a wall near his home.

Blinded by the Light captures the tensions between cultures and generations

Then, through the only other South Asian kid in school, Roops (Aaron Phagura), Javed is introduced to the music of Springsteen. In Springsteen’s songs, Javed finds a voice who sees what he sees, feels what he feels and generally just “gets” his teen angst.

Along with encouragement from his English teacher at school, Ms Clay (Hayley Atwell), and meeting an activist student named Eliza (Nell Williams), Javed’s outlook starts to turn around.

But he knows his parents won’t approve.

Blinded by the Light is wonderful at portraying the salvation music can offer us, and how much it can lift us and be a lifeline in times of need. Springsteen’s music is used to great effect and there’s no doubting that for Javed, it’s a gamechanger.

The closest the film gets to a full-blown musical moment features Javed, Eliza and Roops running through Luton to Born to Run and it’s a triumphant sequence — you may struggle to keep your seat in the cinema.

“The Promised Land” features heavily as does The River and Badlands but also other 1980s anthems including songs from Cutting Crew.

The film vividly evokes a certain time and place

The movie has some flaws, it can veer towards the emotionally manipulative and it’s definitely too long. But there is more to like here than not.

Kalra is a newcomer and required to do all the heavy lifting as Javed but luckily he has a very charismatic screen presence. Even more impressive is Kalra’s ability to sell Javed’s angst as legitimate and not just some teen neuroses.

Perhaps what Blinded by the Light excels at the most, and channelled through Javed’s experiences, is it’s so evocative of a time and place — of 1980s rampant unemployment and racist National Front riots, and of youthful optimism that they could do better.

And as embodied within Javed, Blinded by the Light also looks at the pull between two cultures and two generations, which could stand in for what any society grapples with at any time — how do we reconcile change, passions and tradition with understanding and empathy?

Springsteen would approve of such an endeavour.

Rating: 3/5

Blinded by the Light is in cinemas from Thursday, October 24

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