Ragesh Dipu
For Gurinder Chadha, its music if not football! ‘Bend It Like Beckham’ director Gurinder Chadha returns for a ‘Springsteen’ party in the trailer of her upcoming flick ‘Blinded by the Light.’ The first look hints at a hybrid musical-comedy with Springsteen’s music all over. The movie centers on the life of a British teen of Pakistani descent for whom Bruce Springsteen is life.
The official synopsis of the movie reads, “The film tells the story of Javed (Viveik Kalra), a British teen of Pakistani descent growing up in the town of Luton, England, in 1987. Amidst the racial and economic turmoil of the times, he writes poetry as a means to escape the intolerance of his hometown and the inflexibility of his traditional father. But when a classmate introduces him to the music of Bruce Springsteen, Javed sees parallels to his working-class life in the powerful lyrics. As Javed discovers a cathartic outlet for his own pent-up dreams, he also begins to find the courage to express himself in his own unique voice.”
“Bruce,” Javed’s friend says in the trailer, “is the direct line to all that’s true in this s—ty world.” The movie garnered enthusiastic reviews when premiered at Sundance in January. ‘Blinded by the Light’ is based on the 2007 book of Sarfraz Manzoor. Chadha wrote the script with her husband Paul Mayeda Berges and Manzoor. The other cast includes Kulvinder Ghir, Meera Ganatra, Nell Williams, Aaron Phagura, Hayley Atwell, and Dean-Charles Chapman.
Chadha is known as the director of ‘Bend It Like Beckham’ and ‘Bride & Prejudice.’ Her last directorial venture was the historical drama ‘Viceroy’s House’ in 2017. ‘Blinded by the Light’ was reportedly picked up by New Line Cinema for a whopping $15M at Sundance. The movie was also hailed as one of the biggest discoveries of this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
“So the film is based on a book by Sarfraz Manzoor. Sarfraz is like a super fan of Bruce’s. He’s seen him 150 times, so much so that Bruce recognizes him at concerts, because he’s probably the only Pakistani in the audience, and he’s got a big afro,” Chadha told Variety in January. “When Sarfraz wrote his book and gave it to me, I said I know how to make this film, but we have to get Bruce on our side,” she added.
When asked about signing one of the biggest deals at Sundance, Chadha told Variety, “That feels really awesome. As an independent filmmaker, you can’t define your filmmaking with one thing. The next film I make might be really s—, and no one will want to see it. It’s nice to enjoy the highs, because there’s enough lows in our business.”
Check out the trailer below.
Warner Bros. opens ‘Blinded by the Light’ on August 14, 2019.
