Blinded by the Light review

BLINDED BY THE LIGHT:

I GUARANTEE YOU’LL BE COMPLETELY BLINDED BY THIS LIGHT IN ALL THE BEST WAYS! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: **** out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES AND NEW LINE CINEMA

Viveik Kalra in Blinded by the Light

            A young man from Pakistan discovers the influential music of Bruce Springsteen and does everything in his power to make the voice of The Boss heard by everyone including his strict father in Blinded by the Light, the new film directed by Gurinder Chadha (Bend it Like Beckham, Bride and Prejudice, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging) and inspired by the life of journalist Sarfraz Manzoor and his love for Bruce Springsteen’s music. I just started listening to Springsteen’s music fairly recently, so I don’t really have the same connection to The Boss’ work as other people do. 

            Through some friends and family members of mine, they told me that he is one of the most influential music performers of all time and the messages he conveys through his songs. So, I listened to his Greatest Hits CD on iTunes and…yeah, The Boss is pretty incredible not going to lie and I was able to familiarize myself with his songs more just in time for me to talk about this movie. 

            After coming out of it I can gladly say that Blinded by the Light is genuinely fantastic whether a die-hard Springsteen fan or not. Thanks to a charming breakout performance by Viveik Kalra, some brilliant methods of using Springsteen’s songs to tell the story, a fascinating gateway into a new culture, and a thoughtful and easily relatable message about pursuing your dreams, it’s a light worth going blind for. 

            The film follows a young man from Pakistan named Javed (Kalra) who lives in Luton with his parents Malik (Kulvinder Ghir-Howard’s Way, Rita, Sue and Bob Too!, Goodness Gracious Me) and Noor (Newcomer, Meera Ganatra) and his sisters Yasmeen (Newcomer, Tara Divina) and Shazia (Newcomer, Nikita Mehta). Javed is a struggling poet living under a strict household with his father basically controlling every moment of his life. 

            That all changes on his first day of college and befriends a student named Roops (Newcomer, Aaron Phagura) who lends him a couple Bruce Springsteen cassettes. Upon listening to them Javed becomes entranced by the songs and inspired to continue writing his poems and spread the word of The Boss to his school and family. 

            However, Javed finds himself stuck in a mental war between his Pakistan family struggling to make a living and the words of Bruce Springsteen telling him to pursue his dreams. With the help of his friends Roops, Matt (Dean-Charles Chapman-Game of Thrones, The Commuter, 1917), Eliza (Nell Williams-The Revolting World of Stanley Brown, Game of Thrones, London Town), and a supportive English teacher named Ms. Clay (Hayley Atwell-Marvel Cinematic Universe, Cinderella (2015), Christopher Robin), Javed will discover if he is Born to Run and prove to everyone how influential Bruce Springsteen really is while hopefully winning the love of his father in the process.

            The film also stars Jonno Davis (Kingsman: The Secret Service, Casualty, King of Crime) as Michael, Rob Brydon (The Trip trilogy, The Rob Brydon Show, Early Man) as Matt’s father, and Sally Phillips (Bridget Jones trilogy, Veep, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) as Mrs. Anderson.

            Overall, Blinded by the Light is a loving tribute to some of the most influential songs of all time with a thoughtful message about pursuing your dreams at the center of it. It isn’t a tacked-on message about following your dreams like a Disney movie but rather one that says it will require a lot of hard work to achieve it and to never give up on it.

            Javed lives in a run-down neighborhood with an immigrant family desperately trying to survive and requires everyone to hand over their work wages to their father in order to pay for the house. It’s a rough life but after listening to Bruce Springsteen he decides he wants to leave his home and the rules of his traditional Pakistani household and live his own life, it’s very relatable and you root for him to succeed in every step of the way.

            The film brilliantly utilizes Springsteen’s song lyrics through text that appears whenever Javed listens to a song that basically tells the story of what is happening with him and his family. It’s almost like parts of the film’s story are being told through song and they match up perfectly showing the power music has on us all.

            Whether you’re a fan of rock, rap, jazz, country, or any other genre of music, I’m sure there has at least been one song you’ve heard that hit you on an emotional level and impacted your life in a big way. That’s exactly the case with this movie, Bruce Springsteen is speaking to Javed personally through his songs and telling him to go live his life and not let his strict father get in the way. 

            However, what I appreciate about the movie is they don’t make Javed’s father a straight-up villain but rather a lost soul who lives under these religious and cultural rules and has a hard time accepting change while also having a difficult time making money at his job. As Javed changes throughout the movie, Malik goes through a character-arc of his own trying to appreciate what his son has accomplished and builds up to a very satisfying final act.

            Blinded by the Light is a well-acted, heartfelt, and at times funny rock anthem set to some of the best songs you will ever hear with an equally powerful moral about following your dreams but never forgetting about family. Add a talented cast and a story about the relationship between a son and his father at the heart of it, I can guarantee you’ll be “Dancing in the Dark” by the time this film ends.