In Springsteen, Javed finds someone who understands his frustration and knows the way out. His first listen expands into a full-fledged obsession. It’s here “Blinded by the Light” finds its footing with an enthralling, fantastical dance sequence set to “Dancing in the Dark” and “The Promised Land.” The musical number leads Javed around his room, through his house and out into the storm raging outside, where he scrambles to recover his poetry.
He returns to his room, slips the first Springsteen cassette into his Walkman, pulls his headphones over his ears and is instantly electrified by Springsteen’s music. But after learning that his father (Kuvinder Ghir) was laid off, Javed fears his education and future are in jeopardy.ĭesperate and alone, Javed throws his poems in the gutter outside. When school acquaintance Roops (Aaron Phagura) lends Javed two Bruce Springsteen cassettes, he ignores them at first. He dreams about independence from his family and hometown, and uses his journals and poems to express these frustrations. Javed is an aspiring writer frustrated with his family’s traditional Pakistani lifestyle.
Directed by Gurinder Chadha and co-written by Paul Mayeda Berges, Manzoor and Chadha, the film follows Javed Khan (Viveik Kalra), a teenager living in Luton, England in 1987. 16, is based on journalist Sarfraz Manzoor’s memoir “Greetings from Bury Park: Race, Religion, and Rock N’ Roll” (2007). It doesn’t hurt that the story’s focus on Bruce Springsteen means the soundtrack is laden with The Boss’s hit songs, making for some delightful, standout musical numbers.
A broadly sincere coming-of-age story about music’s ability to improve lives, “Blinded by the Light” is simultaneously the corniest and most inspiring movie of the year so far.