Born in the U.K.

Springsteen inspires a Pakistani-Brit teenager in new coming-of-age indie

With her most mainstream effort since Bend It Like Beckham, director Gurinder Chadha anchors her latest film with a crowd-pleasing hook: the songs of Bruce Springsteen. The young man inspired by them is Javed, a Pakistani-Brit teen yearning to find himself while his immigrant family is marginalized in the U.K. blue collar town of Luton. Earnest yet conventional, the honest sentiment of Blinded by the Light ultimately wins out over its stock formula. 

More Cameron Crowe than John Hughes, this late-80s set coming-of-age dramedy effectively wears its heart on its sleeve, yet every beat is exceedingly familiar. It provides all the feels, thanks to sincere performances from a strong (and mostly unknown) cast, but the dichotomy of genre clichés and genuine heart may lead some viewers to roll their eyes as often as wipe them.

That cross-cultural twist puts a fresh face on an often white-washed genre, and Javed’s obsession with a single artist (rather than rock music in general) personalizes the journey even more; but once you get past these welcome surface-level changes, the script—which feels as if it’s been watered-down through several rounds of notes from risk-averse studio executives—adheres to trite-if-satisfying conformity. 

The whole construct offers a veritable checklist of tropes: the shy, studious teen unsure of his own talent; the factory worker dad who wants him to go to college rather than get silly ideas in his head; the bullies who pick on him; the rebel girl wooed by him as The Boss’s anthems give him courage; and the random collection of adults who believe in him—including a friend’s dad, a war veteran neighbor, and the English teacher who urges Javed to embrace his voice and follow his heart. Blinded by the Light could be a teen movie parody if it weren’t played so absolutely straight.

None of these elements are bad so much as banal. Though inspired by a true story, Chadha packages it all in warm, fuzzy artifice, with a need to spell everything out (at times literally) such as when Springsteen’s lyrics appear on-screen to make sure we get the message.

Javed’s Pakistani heritage should make the film more unique, but Chadha and her fellow screenwriters only use that to prop up two more bromides: Javed’s rebellion against his father’s traditions, and being the target of racism both “soft” (job discrimination) and hostile (neo-Nazi 
persecution).

There’s an unintended irony, too, in using a singer so mainstream and distinctly American as the clarion pied piper for generational revolt. Sure, Bruce’s lyrics are piercing, but it’s also a cheesy stretch that one of Javed’s most notorious acts of insurrection is to break into the school radio station to play unauthorized Springsteen tracks. (He’s nearly expelled.) Our young Boss-inspired radicals even express their prerequisite contempt for Reagan and Thatcher, so as to underscore their anti-
establishment bona fides.

Blinded by the Light may be about defiance, struggle and youthful protest, but it’s all wrapped up in cozy, nostalgic wish fulfillment that rides the coattails of Springsteen’s cred. Even so, there’s no denying the film’s quixotic charms or its emotionally powerful climax, a tear-jerking moment more sincere than contrived (though it’s certainly both). It’s indicative of how the whole film teeters between schmaltz and integrity, allowing the latter to win out in spite of itself.