Welcome one and all to the final part of my weekly blog, The 52 In 52. Before I begin I would like to thank each and every one of you for reading my blog and following me on this sometimes thankless journey. I will be doing a round up blog next week too. If I hope to have achieved one thing this year, I hope my blog encourages you, the reader, to seek out physical media more than relying that a streaming service has what you are looking for.
As always the concept is simple, each week I watch a DVD or Blu Ray that has been gathering dust on my shelf and I review it. Last week I watched the relentless alligator horror, Crawl.
As always if you have any comments or feedback on this or any other blog, leave a comment in the section below or by following me on Twitter and Instagram.
This week I am talking about the fantastic Blinded By The Light. Based on the memoir of Sarfraz Manzoor, Blinded By The Light was directed by Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham). Javed Khan (Viveik Kalra) is a teenage boy and aspiring writer, growing up in a very divided Luton in the 1980's. Javed is looking for his place in the world when a school friend introduces him to the music of Bruce Springsteen. Javed wrestles with identity and his strict family in order to become the person he wants to be.
I really enjoyed Blinded By The Light. I must admit that I'm not overly familiar with the music of Bruce Springsteen but, that didn't really affect my enjoyment too much. The story told in the film has a lot of elements throughout and I feel that they are handled in a way that finds a balance. Javed is a protagonist that you can't help rooting for as he navigates through a lot of conflict in his life. There is a subplot about racial divide in Luton that I think worked really well and whilst it isn't the focal point of the story it adds to the drama. The music was worked into the film in a different way than a conventional musical. Whilst there are a couple of big song and dance numbers the other songs are used to layer up the story. The use of particular lyrics appearing on the screen is a really interesting and entertaining touch too.
The cast of actors is fantastic. Viveik Kalra is fantastic as Javed. There is a vulnerability to his character that even as he is opening up to the rest of the world holds him back and I found that an interesting touch. There is a great supporting cast in Kulvinder Ghir as Javed dad and Meera Ganatra as Javed's mother. They are a great contrasting couple that show where both sides of Javed's personality come from. I would have like to have seen more of the relationship between Javed and Roops (Aaron Phagura) which is touched upon at the beginning but, then is used sparingly until the final act of the film.
I loved the use of other music throughout the film. There is the risk sometimes of sandwiching in songs to fill a quota, in Blinded By The Light there is other music used at the beginning to highlight the time period, such as The Pet Shop Boys and Debbie Gibson. This also highlights the real difference between Springsteen and everything else at the time.
Overall Blinded By The Light is a bright and colourful look at an outcast kid finding his place in the world with the help of Bruce Springsteen. The story is full of heart and really speaks about the similarities in society then and now. The cast are strong and tell the story well.
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