Review: Blinded By the Light

Viveik Kalra plays a youngster from Luton, Bedfordshire with Pakistani immigrant parents, who finds a connection to the music and lyrics of Bruce Springsteen, in Thatcher-era England. His strict, serious-minded parents don’t understand his passion for writing (or for Bruce), his peers are more concerned with Britpop, and then there’s the issue of racism that the poor lad has to endure as well during a time of economic recession on top of it all. When he listens to The Boss, he feels he has found someone who understands him, even though they live on different continents. Hayley Atwell plays Kalra’s encouraging English teacher, Dean-Charles Chapman is Kalra’s Brit New Wave-loving best friend, with Rob Brydon as the best friend’s idiot rock ‘n’ roll loving father.

 

I was worried that this loosely biographical 2019 feelgood film from director Gurinder Chadha and co-writers Sarfraz Manzoor (whose real-life story is loosely translated to the screen here) and Paul Mayeda Berges was going to do for Bruce Springsteen what “Yesterday” did for The Beatles. In other words, not a great deal and possibly piss me off at the end with an insulting climax. What the filmmakers have come up with it turns out, is more in league with “Bend it Like Beckham”. Only better than that quite popular film from the same director no less. It’s slightly awkward and corny at times, but overall a solid, if flawed film. It’s rather lovely, actually.

 

The central idea is really fascinating: It takes Bruce Springsteen – one of the premier singer-songwriters of the working class and downtrodden blue-collar American – and having his music be championed by an English youngster of Pakistani descent. That sounded really intriguing to me. I wasn’t sure if it would quite work, but it ultimately does work. Being set in working class Thatcher-era England seems quite right. Who better to be inspired by Bruce’s odes to the working class and the downtrodden than a member of a working class immigrant family? It had to be Bruce for this story, I think. Yes, the film is corny and clichéd – The kid is asked by his teacher to write what he knows, write what he has lived, etc. It’s ironic that the teacher is striving for authenticity and a fresh POV when this trope is in and of itself an ancient one. And yes it’s a bit bizarre that a film inspired by the music of Bruce Springsteen would include a lot of 80s synth pop/Brit pop songs on the soundtrack. I love “I Just Died in Your Arms” just fine and “It’s a Sin” is one of the Pet Shop Boys’ better songs, but I expected the film to pretty much focus on Springsteen solely, and I’m still not sure it shouldn’t have. I’m not quite as big of a Bruce fan as the man whose real-life story inspired this loose retelling (or my brother, who saw Bruce about six times across multiple locations during a single tour here in Australia) but I do enjoy his music, some of it greatly so (“The River” is a bloody masterpiece as far as I’m concerned and never fails to move me). So I was initially a bit put off by these other artists cropping up in the film. It was also a bit bizarre to hear Mental As Anything’s “Live It Up” in a UK film. Who knew that 80s Aussie pub rock classic travelled overseas? Not me, apparently. However, we eventually get plenty of songs from The Boss throughout the film. I did find it strange that this guy was smiling every time he recited a Springsteen lyric, no matter how sombre or serious the lyric is – I think that’s a movie musical kind of thing, and it seemed a bit jarring to me given this kid was supposed to be connecting to Bruce’s lyrics. In fact, I think deep down this film wanted to be a musical, but something or someone held it back just slightly from turning into “Rocketman”. Which is fine, because I don’t like musicals and I didn’t like the timeline-ignoring Elton John-inspired film at all. This I liked, warts and all.

 

For the most part the connection this young man has with Springsteen’s words is beautifully conveyed, even in a visual sense we see the power of music’s ability to get into a person’s soul. That was a clever directorial choice. Like I said, it’s corny as hell, but it works as a cross between “Bend it Like Beckham” and “Almost Famous”. I’m not a fan of musicals, so even though this isn’t 100% a musical, the moments that did venture over into musical territory probably weren’t my favourite, except the couple of moments where idiot Brydon gets involved. Personally, I could’ve done without scenes of Springsteen’s dialogue being recited in general conversation – that sort of thing always makes me roll my eyes. However, if you do like musicals, it might help you enjoy this film even more than I did. The characters and performances are mostly appealing, lead actor Viveik Kalra and the just plain gosh darn lovely Hayley Atwell in particular. Comedic actor and shamelessly insistent (meant in the best way possible) impressionist Rob Brydon is absolutely hilarious sporting a mullet and tracksuit as a 70s/80s rock enthusiast parent. I also liked that despite the bright and sunny musical vibe, the film actually doesn’t shy away from the topic of racism.

 

Lumpy, corny as hell, but generally pleasing mixture of “Bend it Like Beckham” and “Almost Famous”. The performances are mostly appealing, the music is terrific – if more varied than expected, and you get to see Rob Brydon in a dreadful tracksuit sporting an even more dreadful mullet. What more could you want?

 

Rating: B-