He does not fit in with any of the cliques at school, and he runs in to the growing National Front (a local Neo Nazi movement) on more than one occasion.

Javed’s poetry teacher Ms Clay (Hayley Atwell) takes an interest in his work, but he hides both his art, and himself, from the world. He is frustrated with his small-town life and his sense of purposelessness, and he quite literally fades into the backdrop of several scenes (the costume and production design are impeccable, aided by cinematographer Ben Smithard’s saturated palette, which pops like candy). He is a loner and an outsider, save for his friend and neighbour Matt (Dean-Charles Chapman), a white punk rocker for whom Javed occasionally writes broody, cliché lyrics that do not apply to anyone but himself. He has two older sisters, and two hardworking immigrant parents from Pakistan. British-born Javed is 16 and about to start high school. There is watching a film and seeing your story unfold from a distance, and then there is watching Blinded by the Light, a hyper-active retelling of your own best, worst, most awkward coming-of-age years, making you relive each moment in vivid colours. It's a formula that can feel rote after enough exposure, but is also one based in emotional honesty, given just how many real lives it reflects.Ĭhadha’s concern here, it would seem, is not the mere narration of these experiences, but turning each one into its own distinct melody. The dramatic beats are all aligned from the get-go, if you are familiar enough with stories of South Asians struggling in the West: the familial tensions and secrecy, the eye-rolls at cultural heritage, the search for acceptance in whiteness, the parental falling-out, and even the melodramatic reconciliation. Rather, it deals strictly with the familiar (for better and for worse), though it does so with incredible passion, zipping through scenes and between scenarios at breakneck speed, but slowing down to let its characters reflect at just the right moments. Image via on British-Pakistani journalist Sarfaraz Manzoor, Blinded by the Light is a breath of fresh air, though not because it feels new or unconventional.

A still from Gurinder Chadha's Blinded by the Light.

Blinded by the light meaning