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For those looking for something positive and fun to watch this weekend, I have good news: Blinded by the Light will be premiering on Sunday, March 22, 2020, at 3 p.m. ET.
Among the many jukebox movies released over the last few years—movie built around the music of hit musicians like Bohemian Rhapsody, Yesterday, Rocketman—Warner Bros’ Blinded by the Light got the least attention. That’s a shame, because this comedy from director Gurinder Chadha about a British-Pakistani teen obsessed with Bruce Springsteen is nothing short of delightful. For one thing, it features no less than 19 original recordings—including a few that were previously unreleased—from The Boss himself, which is always a quick way to lift the spirits of anyone with ears.
Blinded by the Light stars Viveik Kalra as Javed Khan, a young, rock-loving Pakistani-British teen living with his immigrant parents in an industrial English town in 1987. After borrowing a tape from a friend, Javed quickly becomes obsessed with Springsteen’s music, mystifying the rest of his family, who can’t understand how he can possibly relate to a flannel-wearing white guy from New Jersey. But The Boss’s lyrics speak to Javed, and inspire him to write his own poems. Meanwhile, Javed’s family fields anti-Muslim hate crimes thanks to a growing fascist, alt-right group in England in the 80s, the National Front. Javed attempts to navigate the tricky line of embracing a culture that is not his own while still taking pride in and defending his Pakistani heritage.
With the exception of one choreographed number that finds stars Kalra, Hayley Atwell, and Aaron Phagura running through the streets singing “Born to Run,” Blinded by the Light is not a musical. Instead, it feels more like a music video mash-up of all your favorite Springsteen songs, and a few you haven’t heard before, too. At its core is a life-affirming message about standing together in the face of adversary and hate. It’s an unabashedly feel-good film that milks the Springsteen sing-alongs for all they are worth—and, as it turns out, they are worth quite a lot.
After the week we’ve had, I think we all deserve to shout along to some Springsteen lyrics this weekend, don’t you? Let’s just hope that some day we’ll be allowed to once more walk in the sun, because baby we were born to run.
