Continuing the same theme of goodhearted, teenage rebellion as Bend it Like Beckham, Gurinder Chadha's Blinded by the Light is an absolutely electric film that shows what happens when a naive teenager is exposed to the lyrical mastery of Bruce Springsteen. I have yet to see a more feel-good film from this year, as the story and its characters are pleasantly radiant from start to finish. Despite a lot of the writing coming off very flat and the overall message revealing itself as a bit too cheesy, there is no denying that this movie is one of the best of this summer film season. The embrace of following your dreams and maintaining the love of your family was such a fantastic plot point for this film to rely on. Paired with the nostalgic and uplifting lyrics of The Boss, this movie shows that truly anyone can achieve what they set out to, with only a little inspiration in the strangest of places.
Javed (Viveik Kalra) is a disheartened, Pakistani teenager in Thatcher's 1987 Britain who feels like the traditional ways of his family is holding him back from pursuing his true passion of writing. Discouraged by everything that they represent, Javed finds inspiration and solace when he is introduced to the legendary music of Bruce Springsteen. Renewed with a new sense of optimism, he uses the music of this rock and roll icon to help him get into college, follow his passion, and emerge into the world as his own person. The way that I am writing about this film may come off as bit cornier than I typically am, but this is to be expected after seeing this movie. I physically could not stop smiling during this film, especially in its emotional but joyous gut-punch of a third act. Chadha, Paul Mayeda Berges, and Sarfraz Manzoor's script is what brings this movie so much life. From the introductory scene to the full-circle ending, this story was purely written to uplift its audience and it does so in the most cheery fashion possible. Inspired by the true story of a young man and his idolization of Springsteen, this movie touches on a lot of different themes that were all handled in such an elegant way. Outgrowing your parents and emerging as yourself may seem very plastic themes for other viewers, but this film truly resonated with me as strongly as the music of Springsteen did for Javed.
Being a writer myself, I connected so much with what Javed was going through and although my parents were never quite as harsh, it was difficult for me to express my passions to them. One line in this film that stuck out to me the most came from Javed's monologue at the very end in which he says something along the lines of "try to build a bridge to your ambitions without burning the one to your family" and that hit me harder than I could have expected. My family has always been supportive of whatever I do and while this film may contain its exaggerated elements, it was so riveting to me to see how someone of a completely different culture than me would experience that. The political and racial elements of this movie also brought a whole other level to its conflict and while I am not familiar with the doings of Thatcher in the 1980s, Chadha made it very clear how difficult life was for Pakistani people during that time. This experience was embodied perfectly by the rising Viveik Kalra, as his performance astounded me. He was the epitome of a dedicated writer going against the odds to pursue his dream and the talent of Kalra's acting really hit me during the previously mentioned monologue. His sheer emotion and revelatory speech not only showcased how perfect he was as an actor but the touching talents of the screenwriters as well.
One of the biggest complaints that I can completely understand about Blinded by the Light is how cheesy its story and message are. There is no doubt that this film is full of overused clichés and often lazy dialogue, but the way Chadha fully embraces those things to really flesh out her message was wonderful. I also really enjoyed the use of graphics for the song's lyrics throughout this movie. Again, this plays into how cheesy its overall production value was, but that never changed how much I loved it. While I was able to see past the corniness of the story and flatness of a lot of the supporting characters, I still had a bit of an issue with Chadha's pacing and Justin Krish's editing. This film was less than two hours long, but there were multiple points that I felt it could have ended and still been great. So many of this film's scenes could have been cut down by a large amount, as too much context was given than was needed. Even in scenes without dialogue and with a token Springsteen song sprinkled on top, there were so many unnecessary shots that could have been removed to let the audience themselves figure out what was going on. Subtlety always suits audiences best and even though it was not to the point of being offensive, it's often better to let viewers figure out things on their own.
I was definitely not expecting Blinded by the Light to be this good, and it frankly does not have any right to be. Chadha's direction with the phenomenal script and a charming performance from newcomer Viveik Kalra turn this Hallmark-level premise into an undeniably radiant movie experience. So much visible heart and passionate storytelling were put into this film and the amazing story makes that quite obvious.
My Rating: ★★★★
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