主播大秀

The inspirational effect of universal popular music on an individual’s life has been seen before, for example, Toni Collette’s Abba-mad character in Muriel’s Wedding. And as for Bruce Springsteen as guru, remember that, lo, The Boss did appear unto John Cusack in High Fidelity.

The central character not only has to get along with hard-working traditionalist immigrant parents, this is Luton in the Thatcher era with open racism still the norm.

The full title of Sarfraz Mansoor’s 2007 autobiography, just one section of which is the subject of this new film, is Greetings From Bury Park: Blinded By The Light. In it, the author acknowledges the remarkable impact that Springsteen’s music had on a young Muslim kid in 1987 Luton. Here renamed Javed (Viveik Kaira), the central character not only has to get along with hard-working traditionalist immigrant parents, this is Luton in the Thatcher era with open racism still the norm.

From Bhaji On The Beach to Bend It Like Beckham, Gurinder Chadha has made films that cast a perceptive eye on the familial conflicts between British born Asians and their parents. As with those films, there is plenty that is comedic in Blinded because generational differences become even more polarised when there are also cultural differences. Not that Javed’s dad (Kulvinder Ghir) thinks everything Western is wrong. “Who says I don’t give you a choice? You could become a lawyer or a doctor”. Writing poetry and wanting to be a writer isn’t a real ambition in his father’s mind. Javed’s more westernised friend Roop (Aaron Phagura, who is genuinely funny), a Sikh, foists Springsteen cassettes on him and Javed sees his future. Not, as might be expected, wanting to be a rock star but to write about popular music, the good old NME being his style guide.

The director handles this all deftly, in an almost Bill Forsyth Gregory’s Girl bitter/sweet way, but at times you feel that she would just love to throw realism to the winds and go full Bollywood musical. One sequence, featuring Rob Brydon as a market stallholder, teeters on the edge of that fantasy, but draws back. You can’t complain about the way that Springsteen tracks (plus other pop of that time and AR Rahman’s original score) sometimes integrate seamlessly into the expository narrative, and sometimes burst out to become the narrative. The arc of the film means that we have no doubt that young would-be writer Javed/Manzoor will succeed in the end. How he does it is more surprising…yet basically true. From Bury Park, Luton to Asbury Park NJ.

You can鈥檛 complain about the way that Springsteen tracks (plus other pop of that time and AR Rahman鈥檚 original score) sometimes integrate seamlessly into the expository narrative, and sometimes burst out to become the narrative.

The warmth and predictability of the storyline didn’t bother me. I wasn’t expecting kitchen sink drama. Equally the production detail of 1987 is spot on, down to the less than lovely fact that Javed’s family have polythene sheeting behind the front door, because of that other Front, the National one, whose members have a tendency to relieve themselves through immigrant letterboxes…

No. the one thing that took away from my overall pleasure was that Chadha – who developed some strong female roles in Bhaji and Bend It, marginalises two women in Javed’s life: his supportive but slightly drippy girlfriend (Nell Williams) and, totally unforgivably, Hayley Atwell as his poetry loving English teacher.