In short: Blinded by the Light (2019)

Sometimes, you read about the basic idea of a film, and can’t imagine not liking it. Case in point is Gurinder Chadha’s Blinded by the Light, the tale of 1987 Pakistani Brit Javed (Viveik Kalra), who learns to understand himself, his family, and his town, as well as how to go out of his shell, become a writer and fall in love for the first time through the music of Bruce Springsteen. What’s not to like, right? Unfortunately, while the idea of the film at hand is rather lovely, inclusive, heart-warming and well meant, the execution of that idea is at once so harmless and so on the nose, I found myself cringing more than enjoying myself or learning something about anyone’s actual experiences of life.

There are two main problems with the film. The first one is the script’s inability to express emotions through anything but the Springsteen quotes (and about a third of the dialogue truly consists of Kalra declaiming Springsteen, which is not what song lyrics are made for, as much as I love Bruce) or bland statements of fact like “I don’t really get along with my father”, the whole deal about “show, don’t tell” you might have heard about clearly not having made its way to Luton. This approach may give the film a certain heart on its sleeve sort of charm if you’re much less cynical than I am, but reads to me as a complete inability to talk about feelings, Kalra’s identity, or the world beyond anything but the most superficial level.


Which brings me directly to the film’s other problem, its harmlessness that does acknowledge things like the horrible racism its protagonist has to suffer under, as well as the alienated cultural position Javed as the son of immigrants finds himself in, but never dare look at these things in anything but the blandest, most superficial manner, clearly deathly afraid that if it would portray actual emotions and thoughts instead of gestures pointing towards them, it would lose its whole feelgood appeal. Of course, the exact opposite is true: what the film needs is a less bland and streamlined emotional and intellectual landscape to earn that feelgood appeal. Something Bruce Springsteen would understand.