Coming-of-age films have been a genre for me that has suffered throughout the last five years ever since “The Fault in Our Stars” came out. With the exception of Bo Burnham’s “Eighth Grade”, movies like “Lady Bird”, “The Souvenir”, and “The Edge of Seventeen” I felt like were overpraised and did not stick to the coming-of-age criteria well enough.
In front of my screening of “Long Shot”, I saw this outstanding trailer of a recent coming-of-age movie that premiered at the South By Southwest Film Festival called “Blinded by the Light”. I felt like the story of this film could be a hit for both critics and audiences when it was going to come out.
Set in 1987, Javed Khan (Viveik Kalra) is a Pakistan colleague living in Luton, England whom lives the traditional Pakistan life with his family. At this time, he is grown to be sick and tired of this life style because not just of their population having a strong dislike of their race, but also his parents being strict about the genre of rock music.
His friend Roops (Aaron Phagura) recommends to him to listen to a couple of Bruce Springsteen cassette tapes calling it a representation of their society. Roops is a fan of him, too. After listening to his music, Javed feels like Springsteen’s music speaks to him so well through his rough life perspective.
Khan loves his music so much that in his college writing class, he wants to write an article about how Bruce Springsteen’s music is so meaningful in life. Unfortunately, the college rejects his writing because of obviously his race.
His father, Malik (Kulvinder Ghir), is the most strict out of his family who is expecting his son Javed to work at a typical community job. When hearing from his son that he wants a job for a newspaper, Malik gets very disappointed with Javed.
Javed wants to motivate people that Bruce Springsteen’s poetic music can literally change people’s lives forever, but his college community of Luton disapproves of Javed because they think that he is out of the times.
After seeing this film, I was in a loss of words.
This can end up as one of the most memorable and captivating coming-of-age films of all time by the next five to ten years.
“Blinded by the Light” is a crowning achievement in both cinema and the coming-of-age genre which you can never see repeat again for a long distance of time.
This genre had some massive faults in the past and Mrs. Gurinder Chadha has reinvented what the coming-of-age genre defines; honesty and inspiration.
I could never find a single flaw when watching this film which is a rare thing to say in 2019 since it hasn’t been the greatest year for films recently compared to last year in 2018.
Chadha perfectly directs both racist drama and joy in an excellent, healthy balance you rarely get to seek out in theaters VERY often.
Every performance in this film is near flawless including Hayley Atwell as the college writing professor Ms. Clay, Aaron Phagura as his friend Roops, and the soft and less-fused Meera Ganatra as Javed’s mother Noor.
Viveik Kalra arguably gives the greatest performance of 2019 as Javed Khan. You live and breathe what is in his soul as well as the emotional inspiration through Bruce Springsteen’s strong lyrics. Whenever something happens to him racially or effectively, there is sympathy for him.
Kulvinder Ghir as Mailk Khan is very worthy for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar even though movies through November and December exist in the Academy members’ minds. Malik Khan has got to be one of the greatest fathers to ever exist on the silver screen. He is one of those fathers where if you mention something despicable, he will give you the greatest Homer Simpson strangling imaginable.
This movie also has to offer the best soundtrack all year. It has a mix of part ’80’s new-wave music from the Pet Shop Boys and Level 42 to without question the greatest use of Bruce Springsteen music in motion picture history.
Every Bruce Springsteen song has a reason to be used in the movie and it has so much importance behind it. As shown in the trailer, there are some songs used in the movie where you could see Springsteen’s words from the screen during “Dancing in the Dark” and “The Promised Land”.
There is a scene involving Javed and his two college friends singing to Springsteen’s “Born to Run” after Javed plays his copy of the Springsteen album of the same name at his college radio station on purpose.
After watching this movie, I want to see more of what Gurinder Chadha has done in the past like “Bend it Like Beckham” and “Bride & Prejudice” because she did such a flawless job with this film.
People need to get their butts off, avoid spoilers, and witness this masterwork of a film that is “Blinded by the Light”. Gurinder Chadha seriously needs some strong awards consideration for directing a John Hughes-scale perfect modern coming-of-age classic that might end up being my favorite this year. Sorry, “Avengers: Endgame”.
Grade: 10/10
