Movie Review: Blinded by Light

Based on Sarfraz Manzoor’s book “Greetings from Bury Park – Race. Religion. Rock ‘N’ Roll.”, Blinded by Light is a coming of age movie with a racial twist. Javed, a first-generation Pakistani immigrant, takes teenage angst to a whole new level. It’s Britain in the 1980s as Javed juggles being a teenager within a traditional and very strict family amidst the rise of the alt-right complete with regular racist slurs.

Add to that stress the father losing his job after years working in the Vauxhall company, the expense of a family wedding, Javed harbouring ambitions of being a writer/poet while pretending to be majoring in Economics and poor mother sewing around the clock to make ends meet. Poor Javed can’t catch a break until a new school friend gives him a Bruce Springsteen cassette, which literally changes his life.

Heartwarming and heartfelt but admittedly a bit naff in places, Blinded by Light is an important movie that gives us a birdseye view of being on the receiving end of racism with dignified humility. Obviously, the soundtrack is all Springsteen so if you like the Boss, you’ll love this movie.