{"id":11359,"date":"2025-03-05T23:41:36","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T04:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=11359"},"modified":"2025-03-05T23:42:23","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T04:42:23","slug":"blinded-by-the-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/03\/05\/blinded-by-the-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Blinded by the Light"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Blinded by the Light<\/strong> (2019)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 117 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (thematic material and language including some ethnic slurs)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Gurinder Chadha\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Paul Mayeda Berges, Gurinder Chadha and Sarfaz Manzoor\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: A.R. Rahman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Ben Smithard\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 16, 2019 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Viveik Kalra, Kulvinder Ghir, Meera Ganatra, Nell Williams, Aaron Phagura, Dean-Charles Chapman, Nikita Mehta, Tara Divina, Rob Brydon, Frankie Fox, Hayley Atwell, David Hayman, Sally Phillips.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $11.9M (US)\/$18.6M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0SLEEPER ALERT!<\/strong> I haven\u2019t sounded one of these in a while, but with Blinded by the Light<\/strong> I have great reason to. Directed by Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham), it\u2019s the feel-good movie of the summer. I knew I was going to love it as soon as The Pet Shop Boys\u2019 \u201cIt\u2019s a Sin\u201d came on over the opening credits. Not only do I love that song, it\u2019s the perfect way to establish the movie\u2019s setting, Thatcher-era Britain circa 1987. Everybody who knows me knows why I consider \u201987 my favorite year; let\u2019s just leave it at that. In any event, I had a feeling Blinded by the Light<\/strong> was going to be special. I haven\u2019t felt that way about a small-scale movie since Sing Street and that one is great. So is Blinded by the Light<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The story centers on Javed (Kalra, TV\u2019s Next of Kin), a Pakistani teen living in Luton with his family headed by his strict, traditional-minded father Malik (Ghir, Rita, Sue and Bob Too). He keeps a short leash on Javed; he won\u2019t even allow him to attend a party at his best friend Matt\u2019s (Chapman, Game of Thrones) flat across the way. He\u2019s determined that his only son will make something of himself by choosing a practical career and marrying the girl chosen for him. There\u2019s no way Javed can tell his father that he longs to go to university in Manchester and become a writer. He\u2019s been secretly writing poetry since he was 10. Writing is his ticket out of Luton and away from a mundane life.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Javed\u2019s first day at a new school is marked by embarrassment when his father loudly orders him to stay away from girls and make friends with Jews. Isn\u2019t it enough that he\u2019s one of only two Pakistani students at the school? The other, a Sikh named Roops (Phagura), introduces him to the person that will change his life forever. He hands him two Bruce Springsteen tapes and urges him to listen as he is \u201cthe key to all that is true in this s***ty world\u201d. When he hears \u201cDancing in the Dark\u201d for the first time, it\u2019s a huge moment of revelation for Javed. It\u2019s like this American singer from New Jersey understands his situation and is speaking directly to him. He decides to start living his life according to the gospel of The Boss.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The 80s was a tough time to be living in the UK with the rising unemployment rate, economic recession, rising nationalism and racism. Javed\u2019s family struggles to make ends meet. While Malik works at an auto factory, his mom Noor (Ganatra) works from home as a seamstress. Their situation gets a whole lot tougher after Malik loses his job and with it, his dignity. Day after day, he goes to the job center dressed in a suit hoping to find work and always comes up empty-handed. Meanwhile, things are looking up for Javed. His writing teacher (Atwell, Agent Carter) praises his work and urges him to keep at it. He also finds romance with Eliza (Williams, London Town), a politically active classmate his parents would never approve of.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Blinded by the Light<\/strong> is mainly about two things: (1) a stormy father-son relationship and (2) BRUCE! In the case of the latter, it\u2019s part of a bigger picture, the transformative power of music. There\u2019s that defining moment in every teen\u2019s life when they really get into a particular band or singer for the first time. You know what I\u2019m talking about, I know you do. When you hear their music for the first time, it hits you like a hurricane (like the one outside Javed\u2019s window the first time he plays Bruce). The lyrics speak directly to us. A connection is made. We never see the world the same way again. Chadha, with more than a little help from a perfectly cast Kalra, captures this moment in time perfectly as well as the unbridled joy that follows as we share our new love with the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There are two amazing musical moments in Blinded by the Light<\/strong>. The first is when Javed, accompanied by Matt\u2019s cool father (Coogan, Tropic Thunder), serenades Eliza with \u201cThunder Road\u201d in a public square. Onlookers join in, dancing and sharing the joy. Everybody is happy and smiling. This is what first love feels like. The second is when Javed and Roops hijack the school radio station, run by a chap who insists on sticking with the likes of Tiffany, Debbie Gibson, Madonna and Cutting Crew, and blast \u201cBorn to Run\u201d throughout the entire building. It spreads to the streets of Luton where the guys, along with Eliza, run and dance and basically celebrate the freedom of youth. Of course, all of Springsteen\u2019s music is amazing and there\u2019s plenty of it in Blinded by the Light<\/strong> as the singer gave the makers access to his song catalogue.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As for the father-son aspect of Blinded by the Light<\/strong>, it\u2019s something we\u2019ve seen a lot of times. It dates all the way back to the first talkie The Jazz Singer in 1927, probably even before that. It\u2019s the same story. Dad wants his son to stay true to his culture or join the family business. The son wants more from life; he has big dreams he wants to follow. He\u2019s bummed that his father doesn\u2019t understand him; Dad is too stuck in his ways or beliefs to understand his son. It\u2019s a tale as old as time but it works in Blinded by the Light<\/strong> largely due to a well-written screenplay and performances from Kalra and Ghir that hit all the right beats. It, too, is part of a bigger picture, one relating to culture. The situation for Pakistanis living in the UK was very tense. White nationalists vandalized mosques and marched in the streets calling for an all-white Britain. Chadha uses this to maximum effect in Javed\u2019s story. It\u2019s a good counterbalance to the ecstasy he experiences when he listens to Bruce.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m going to take a short cut to the end and say Blinded by the Light<\/strong> is an absolute delight. I can\u2019t remember the last time I felt so genuinely good after seeing a movie. I think I smiled almost the entire time it was on. It\u2019s a celebration of great music, pride in one\u2019s culture and family harmony. It\u2019s funny, sweet and entertaining. It\u2019s the feel-good movie of the summer. DON\u2019T MISS IT!\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blinded by the Light (2019)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 117 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (thematic material and language including some ethnic slurs)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Gurinder Chadha\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Paul Mayeda Berges, Gurinder Chadha and Sarfaz Manzoor\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: A.R. Rahman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Ben Smithard\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 16, 2019 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Viveik Kalra, Kulvinder Ghir, Meera Ganatra, Nell Williams, Aaron Phagura, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11354,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-hidden-treasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Blinded-by-the-Light-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11359"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11362,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11359\/revisions\/11362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}