Blinded by the Light focuses on Javed Khan, played by Viveik Kalra, a young Pakistani immigrant living in Luton, England. He actively writes poems and song lyrics, to the dismay of his father Malik, played by Gulvinder Ghir, and struggles with both his father’s failure to understand him as well as the constant racism in his city. One day, he’s introduced to the songs of Bruce Springsteen, whose lyrics about the struggles of working class speak to him and inspires him to begin submitting his poetry to others. With encouragement of his teacher Ms. Clay, played by Hayley Atwell, Javed aspires to pursue his dreams as a writer all while struggling to win over his disapproving father.
A lot of this feels pretty standard. The story follows the tropes of the “angsty misunderstood teen” stories that have been seen in countless other movies. A young teenager feels like no one understands him, he finds a way where he could be himself, and has to win the approval of those around him. The opening narration in which Javed goes on about his early life and how he feels so out of place in the world practically begs the audience for sympathy.
The film does at least take Javed’s story and uses it to offer some really solid political and social commentary at times. Themes such as race relations and immigration are explored throughout this film, with a lot of the current issues surrounding such topics being brought to the forefront as part of certain crucial moments. There are moments that touch upon the overall political climate in the city at the time and can be really eye-opening as many of the issues brought up in this film still ring true to present day. The film succeeds in taking the music of a man who constantly discusses the American Dream and applies many of the issues around that Dream to a completely different atmosphere.
Though a lot of the social commentary is not exactly what drives each and every scene. And when they don’t, Blinded by the Light tends to be very corny as it mostly treads familiar territory. The movie aims to be a crowd-pleaser and when Javed has either a major victory or a really grave encounter, the movie plays these moments with long-winded speeches and a bombastic soundtrack to really get it into the audience’s heads how big of a moment this is, such as when he runs out into the middle of a storm after hearing Springsteen for the first time to retrieve some poetry he threw out his window earlier in the film.
And while the film does play some of these cheesier moments up a bit too seriously at times, there are times where it fully embraces these moments and has a bit of fun with them, most notably whenever it involves the actual Springsteen music. There are twelve Springsteen songs prominently featured here, and most of the time these songs are heard, the movie turns into something of a jukebox musical, with the lyrics to many of these songs even appearing on screen to accompany the song. Characters will spontaneously start belting out Springsteen lyrics together and get everyone to dance along with them as they just enjoy the moment.
What’s nice about these scenes is they’re not like actual musicals where it’s standard for characters to just break out in song-and-dance. These are meant to be more realistic moments of characters just enjoying the music and getting everyone else to have fun with them, such as when Javed and his friends run through town and get others to sing “Born to Run” with them wherever they pass by. These moments feel much more natural than just about any other musical. The smiles are genuine. The dancing doesn’t feel as polished as a standard musical. It’s people escaping from the struggles of everyday life and it’s hard to resist these moments.
Though while this film succeeds in the musical aspect, it does suffer in terms of character development. Outside of Javed and Malik, nearly every other character in this film feels like they’re there just to service Javed’s own story rather than feel like fully developed characters of their own. Hayley Atwell as Ms. Clay serves little to no purpose other than to just appear from time to time so she can give an inspirational speech to Javed, with her only major contribution to the plot being that she gives Javed his first writing opportunity. Javed has a friend named Roops, played by Aaron Phagura, who introduces him to Springsteen’s music and will occasionally reappear in scenes as if he’s some sort of prominent character, though is mainly around to simply be a dance partner for Javed.
Dean-Charles Chapman (aka Game of Thrones’ Tommen Baratheon) prominently appears in the first half and is introduced by Javed as his best friend, even being featured prominently in the film’s opening narration. However, many of his scenes are simply made up of him walking on and getting into arguments with Javed before disappearing, only to sporadically reappear a few more times before his story mostly falls to the wayside. Another character, Javed’s neighbor Mr. Evans, played by David Hayman, also sporadically appears when the plot calls for him, being featured prominently in several scenes though simply just to tell Javed that his writing is great before disappearing.
Meanwhile, there’s an entire love story between Javed and a girl in his school named Eliza, played by Nell Williams, which feels like the most unearned moment of character development in this entire film. The film begins with Eliza consistently talking down to Javed before she abruptly shifts gears and the two suddenly become a couple. There’s never a single moment of genuine connection between those two leading up to their romantic partnering, and the character’s sudden in change in tone comes off as so jarring that it’s hard to really warm up to her, despite a solid performance from Williams.
The only storyline that does wind up gaining any emotional satisfaction is the story between Javed and Malik. Kulvinder Ghir gives what is easily the film’s best performance as the stern father, and while at first he’s just as much of a stock character as everyone else is, he really comes into his own. He goes from being just another cliche, but into what is easily the rawest example of a real working class human being who’s just trying to make ends meet for his family. His struggles are those that many working class folks who see this film can easily connect to, and there’s one scene in particular where he’s lamenting about all the troubles he has where his performance is so genuinely heartbreaking, that it still resonates just as much as I type this up.
It’s really the third act in general where the film truly finds its footing and is allowed to truly shine. The acting in these moments is overall considerably much better and doesn’t feel as manipulative as some of the film’s earlier moments, as many of the storylines come full circle. And as the film continues to explore the political and social commentary presented from earlier on, it also incorporates themes of family values and upholding one’s family traditions that easily ring true to real life and give viewers some true emotional satisfaction. These moments are the movie at its most genuine, and as it finds an easier time to connect with audiences, the crowd-pleasing moments will ultimately be hard to resist.
Blinded by the Light is a bit of a mixed bag, but when all’s said and done, the positives do outweigh the negatives. It does suffer in terms of character development, as it really only has two characters that feel truly fleshed out. And it is extremely corny, filled with speeches and melodramatic sentimentality in more scenes than it should. But there’s plenty that it does right, including bringing up plenty of timely themes that parallel current events, as well as managing to have some fun in the ways it incorporates Springsteen’s music into certain key moments. And this all leads to an emotional third act, which is a bumpy road to get to, but ultimately rewards audiences for staying the entire ride.
Recommendation: Watch It
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