'Blinded By The Light' starring Viveik Kalra
I went to see ‘Blinded By The Light’ last night a British comedy drama film
on current release directed by Gurinder Chada (Bend It Like Beckham), inspired by the life
of journalist Sarfraz Manzoor and
his love of the music of Bruce Springsteen. Manzoor co-wrote the script and it is
based on Manzoor's memoir Greetings from Bury Park: Race, Religion and Rock
N’ Roll. Set in the town of Luton in 1987 Thatcherite Britain, the film tells the coming of age of
Javed, a British-Pakistani Muslim teenager who aspires to be a writer and obsessively writes poetry, whose life is changed after he discovers the
music of Springsteen when he starts college at 16 and is introduced to his
music by his Sikh friend, Roops. Viveik Kalra stars in the lead role and he and
all the cast play it brilliantly.
Sarfraz Manzoor with Bruce Springsteen
As a massive Springsteen fan myself, I approached the
film with some trepidation, but I needn’t have worried and trusted in Manzoor’s
own devotion to Springsteen (he has seen Bruce in concert a whopping 150
times!), as he would never allow it to not do The Boss and his music justice. It was absolutely brilliant and I loved it
from start to finish.
It was great hearing so many of Bruce’s key songs
(largely from Darkness On The Edge of Town, Born To Run, The River and
Greetings From Asbury Park) reframed in this different context of 1987 Luton,
alongside all the other Eighties music that is peppered throughout the
background story (most of which I hated then and still hate now!) from A-Ha,
Level 42 and Cutting Crew, with funny references to Tiffany and Debbie Gibson
(remember them?!). In fact, so much of the film was very funny, but it also
managed to combine and walk a fine line between pure cheese (seeing our
protagonist’s singing and dancing to ‘Born To Run’ running through the streets
of Luton was brilliant and so uplifting), to more poignant and powerful scenes
about Javed’s battles with his Dad and his own identity and desire to break out
of his claustrophobic family life and small town existence (staple Springsteen
themes), and scenes depicting racist
attacks by the National Front against the Muslim community. Sadly, and I’m sure
not lost on the filmmakers, this all seemed to be very relevant now in
Post-Brexit Britain. There was one shot
of Javed standing below a huge poster depicting Thatcher with the slogan
‘United Britain’ which seemed to have particular resonance in this very divided
Britain we live on.
As mentioned, the film is set in 1987 which is the same
year that I too was studying for my A levels and similarly obsessed with music
(and not studying!), so I found many moving parallels with my own experience
and own teenage search for my own identity, not in Springsteen however, that
conversion came much later in my thirties, but in the music of bands such as
Echo and the Bunnymen, The Smiths, The Velvets and The Pixies and lots, lots
more besides. I also played bass guitar in bands at this time.
BROOOOCE
My own Bruce ‘cherry was popped’ ( a term coined by Roops
in the film), when I was persuaded by my friend, Vin, also an Asian massive
Bruce fan funnily enough, to accompany him to see Bruce and the E Street Band
on ‘The Rising’ Tour at Manchester’s Old Trafford Cricket Ground. The
experience truly changed my life. I had never, and I’m sure never will again,
seen such a great performer as Bruce and the band. It took me months to come
down from it as I accumulated all the albums and watched lots and lots of old
VHS videos, borrowed from my friend Graham who I went with last night, and
immersed myself in the world of BROOOOOOOCE…We both stepped out of the cinema
last night uplifted by the film and once again reminded why Bruce Springsteen,
the music and the man is so great and means so much to ‘tramps like us’…
Whoa-oh-oh-oh Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Ru-uh-uh-un....a real Bruce inspired joy of a film.
