Gurinder Chadha’s Blinded By The Light Celebrated at a UK Gala Screening

Blinded By The Light, directed by Gurinder Chadha, celebrated its UK Gala Screening on Monday 29th July, at the Curzon Mayfair in London. Starring Viveik Kalra, Hayley Atwell, Rob Brydon, Kulvinder Ghir, Nell Williams, Dean-Charles Chapman and Aaron Phagura Blinded By The Light opens nationwide on August 9th

BLINDED BY THE LIGHT is a joyous, coming of age story about a teenager who learns to live life, understand his family and find his own voice through the words and music of Bruce Springsteen.

JAVED is a 16-year-old British Pakistani boy growing up in the boring, industrial city
of Luton. It’s 1987, unemployment and the National Front are on the rise and Javed
feels trapped, all he dreams of is escaping.

He wants what all teenagers want a girlfriend, the freedom to go to parties but most of all he wants to be a writer. Unfortunately, his family have other ideas of how Pakistani boys should behave. They expect Javed to work hard to help the family and give his wages to his Dad, who runs the household. Javed knows his only way to get out of town is to do well at school so he has the chance to leave for university.

On his first day at his new school, Javed runs into a boy in the hall and a cassette
tape falls out of the boy’s Walkman Bruce Springsteen. Javed knows nothing about him but when he first hears Bruce’s music everything in his life changes.

Javed feels like Bruce is speaking directly to him and understanding everything he thinks and feels. Through exhilarating musical sequences, we see how Javed relates Bruce’s words about feeling trapped in New Jersey to his own life in Luton. Bruce’s lyrics are all about yearning to escape just like Javed, suddenly his world is full of hope and possibility.

Bruce’s lyrics encourage Javed to find his own writing voice, talk to the girl he’s always fancied, and challenge his Dad’s strict rule over the house.

Javed has to navigate his new confidence with keeping his family happy and he manages to juggle it all until the day of his sister’s wedding. Unfortunately, it falls on the same day as Springsteen concert tickets go on sale and the National Front is marching through
Luton.

Ultimately, Javed has to discover for himself how to balance all the things that are
most important in his life: his writing, his family, his friends and his dreams.
Bruce’s music helps show Javed and his Father the light-how words can become a bridge between worlds, and how we all need to keep our dreams and our family with us as we discover our journey in life.

BLINDED BY THE LIGHT, developed from Gurinder Chadha and British Journalist Sarfraz Manzoor’s shared passion for Bruce Springsteen and based on Manzoor’s celebrated rite of passage memoir Greetings from Bury Park, chronicles his experiences as a British Muslim boy growing up in 1980s Luton and the impact Springsteen’s lyrics had on him.

Gurinder Chadha and writer Sarfraz Manzoor, whose life the feel-good film is based on, graced the custom orange carpet, alongside the stars of the film, including Viveik Kalra, Nell Williams, Kulvinder Ghir, Meera Ganatra and Aaron Phagura. Other star guests on the night included Archie Panjabi, Sonali Shah, Laura Whitmore and Punjabi music icons Heera, whose music features in the film.

Released in the UK by Entertainment One, Blinded By The Light is set in 1987, during the austere days of Thatcher’s Britain. The film is a joyous, coming-of-age story about a teenager who learns to live life, understand his family and find his own voice through the words and music of Bruce Springsteen and is inspired by British journalist Sarfraz Manzoor’s memoir, “Greetings From Bury Park”. Blinded By The Light also features music from Oscar-winning music-maker, AR Rahman.

ICYMI here is the trailer

Plus some shots from the Gala event!