(Viveik
Kalra)
Director Gurinder Chadha, best known for
her charming social comedy, Bend It Like
Beckham, has produced another winning British-Asian film with a superstar
for inspiration – but this time it’s “The Boss”. (8/10) Reviewed by Patrick
Compton
Imagine being a working-class Muslim teenager
in a traditional family in down-at-heel Luton during the often brutal Thatcher
years (the 1980s), harassed by the National Front on the streets, the economic
depression in the workplace and a general lack of hope that you’ll ever be able
to realise your dreams.
Adapted from Sarfraz Manzoor’s memoir, Greetings from Bury Park, this movie is
about a bullied, insecure second generation youngster who becomes inspired by
the music of Bruce Springsteen. A budding writer, 16-year-old Javed (an
excellent performance from Viveik Kalra) lacks confidence and feels that his
repressive father (Kulvinder Ghir) will never give him the freedom he so
desperately needs to “find himself”.
Then, an encouraging English teacher and
the music of Springsteen combine to show Javed that he need not despair, that
he can widen his horizons and become the person he wants to be, a writer.
The result is a feel-good drama that verges
on the corny at times, particularly in some of the early musical sequences, but
wins our hearts in the end as Javed eventually finds light at the end of the
Thatcherite tunnel – even if he is occasionally blinded by it.
Chadha has created a film that accurately
mirrors the complexities of British society, where many of the people are
neither wholly Asian, nor wholly British. As Chadha herself says, “I’m British
but ...”
The period detail is well documented, down
to the mullets and the music of the Pet Shop Boys, while the tensions in
Javed’s household are only too believable.
Set to the thrilling music of Springsteen,
this is a film that should certainly attract multicultural audiences in Britain
and the United States – and hopefully in South Africa as well.
Blinded
by the Light is currently showing in Durban. –
Patrick Compton
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