Viveik Kalra Blinded By The Light

Set In 1987

Cast: Hayley Atwell, Rob Brydon, Kulvinder Ghir, Sally Phillips, Dean-Charles Chapman, Viveik Kalra, Aaron Phagura, Meera Ganatra, Nell Williams
Director: Gurinder Chadha
Genre: Biography, Comedy
Rated: PG
Running Time: 117 minutes

Synopsis: 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.

Blinded By The Light
Release Date: October 24th, 2019

About The Production

Heart-warming and truly inspirational comedy drama Blinded By The Light's journey to the screen began in earnest back in 2010 when visionary writer-director-producer Gurinder Chadha and author-journalist Sarfraz Manzoor attended the BFI premiere of The Promise, a film charting the making of the 1978 Bruce Springsteen album Darkness on the Edge of Town.

Manzoor credited albums like Born to Run and Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ with changing his life during some typically angst-ridden teenage years. He went on to deploy his passion for Springsteen as the backbone of his 2008 memoir, Greetings from Bury Park, which traced his upbringing during the 1980s in Luton, his dreams of becoming a writer and his complex relationship with his father, while also exploring the power of music to transcend race and religion.

Chadha discovered 'Born to Run' while at school working at a record store on Saturdays. "I loved the symbolism of the cover with a black and white man appearing to be so close and having fun at a time when Britain was riddled with riots as black and white youth challenged nationalism and the Right wing here."

Chadha read Manzoor's book and loved it. She was invited to the premiere of the Promise and invited Sarfraz along. "There on the red carpet an amazing thing happened. We were both poised with our cameras ready to snap pictures of Bruce as he passed us, but Bruce stopped and turned to Sarfraz to say: 'Your book was really beautiful.' Sarfraz almost collapsed. Bruce said: "Someone sent him a copy and he loved it."

Chadha adds, "Sarfraz was just blown away. Then I jumped in and said, 'I'm Gurinder Chadha, the filmmaker, and we really want to make this into a film, but we need your support, Bruce.' And he said, 'Sounds good, speak to Jon".' He pointed to Jon Landau, his long-time manager, along with Barbara Carr and Tracy Nurse, and from there we kept in touch."

The pair had Springsteen's blessing but faced the complex challenge of turning Manzoor's memoir into a narrative that would suit the screen. The title on which they settled, Blinded By The Light, is taken from the opening track of the same name, which appears on Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ (1973).

Chadha, an award-winning screenplay writer knew this was going be a tough challenge but had won kudos with an earlier rites of passage movie 'Bend it like Beckham'. Chadha says, "Sarfraz was a journalist but had not written for the screen, he really wanted to have a go so I gave him several one on one tutorials in my house and the screenplay process began"

Manzoor tackled the first draft of a screenplay and says that he found inspiration in the film adaptation of An Education. "I could see that maybe our story would be about an outsider changing someone at a decisive moment, at 16 or 17 years old," he says.

He then worked closely with Chadha and her writing partner Paul Mayeda Berges from Viceroy's House, Bend It Like Beckham, Bride & Prejudice, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. "In the book Sarfraz was doing that thing we do as Asians where, if we're writing about ourselves, we want to protect ourselves and protect our community against stereotypes and any damaging preconditions that people might have," explains Chadha.

"In the book I found that he often stayed away from getting to the real nubs of disagreement with his father or with members of his community, which was totally understandable. So, my job was always to push him and to try and get closer to the truth because drama is conflict."

After Manzoor had finished his draft, Chadha and Mayeda Berges took over the script full time, bringing their technical expertise and deep understanding of how to carry a story to the screen. While working on their drafts, the screenwriters pulled more and more of Springsteen's lyrics into their narrative.

"Bruce's lyrics are very much part of our screenplay," says Chadha, "and we use his songs in a great narrative way. It's not at all, 'Oh, here's a great hit, let's put this song here, let's put that song there,' it's not a jukebox film. The song's lyrics drive the narrative somewhat."

Indeed, the central character Javed, based on Manzoor, finds a deep connection to the lyrics, and the filmmakers were able to draw parallels between what they wanted to say about Luton in the 1980s and what Springsteen was saying about New Jersey during a similar period.

"A lot of our script is about what it was that was inspiring Bruce to write those words, and how that inspiration was also something that Javed could draw on in a time of common experience," says Chadha.

As she and her writing partner worked and reworked the script, Springsteen's inspirational music came even further to the fore. While some lyrics are worked into the script and used as spoken words, a few tracks even spring to life as musical numbers, as montages or occasional set-pieces.

The filmmakers wanted the songs to feel organic and therefore did not employ any professional singers or dancers in their cast. Producer Jane Barclay explains, "The idea of the 'hybrid musical' evolved over time, though the music was always key, as was the use of Bruce's lyrics to drive the narrative. The songs were worked into the script very cleverly. Gurinder is skilled at bringing just the right emotion and truth to a scene so was really able to work the lyrics in with just the right tone and narrative beats.

Chadha insists "The film is not a musical but a film with music, rooted in reality where you hear the cast singing along to songs but not as professional singers- more like their characters would."

Barclay cites the first multi-character musical set-piece, a rendition of Thunder Road by a group of market traders. "Here we have the fantastic Rob Brydon, who is a huge Bruce Springsteen fanatic and has a wonderful voice. But we purposefully didn't get in dancers for this scene. The other traders just pick up leeks and carrots as they move. It needed to feel real and organic with minimal choreography. We brought in professional movement experts but not actual dancers."

Chadha brought on Bruce Springsteen's long-time marketing and PR consultant, Tracy Nurse, to ensure Springsteen and his management team were kept abreast of the creative process including the script and the use of his songs and lyrics. "I think he really appreciated how Gurinder had used the meaning of his lyrics to drive the narrative," she says.

One prime example comes during Javed's Springsteen spectacular and dramatic epiphany. It unfolds during a famous October night in Britain during 1987 when the Great Storm, a violent extratropical cyclone, caused chaos nationwide.

"We chose that night and it is there that we find Javed, who has hit rock bottom," explains Chadha. "His life is going nowhere. He's been attacked by skinheads. His father has lost his job and he can't see a future. But his friend, Roops, has slipped him a cassette into his bag. He puts it in and for the first time he hears the Springsteen track Dancing in the Dark."

I get up in the evening
And I ain't got nothing to say I come home in the morning
I go to bed feeling the same way I ain't nothing but tired
Man I'm just tired and bored with myself Hey there baby, I could use just a little help

"The words suddenly give him meaning to his life. And then he plays another track, Promised Land, and that guides him and cajoles him to get away from all the memories that bring him down. It tells him to forget about what it is that holds him back and instead think about what can take him forward. You have to believe in a 'promised land' because life is shit otherwise."

Blow away the dreams that tear you apart Blow away the dreams that break your heart
Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted
The dogs on Main Street howl
'Cause they understand
If I could take one moment into my hands Mister I ain't a boy, no I'm a man

And I believe in a promised land

It proved a highly dramatic moment during the shoot, and the filmmakers recreated the storm with wind machines, bursts of electricity and lightning.

"We had the full works and we tried to do something different with that scene," says Chadha, "having projections of storms from archive footage projected against the buildings along with the Bruce's words that had real resonance for Javed as he walks past them."

Although the Springsteen songs that feature in the movie were written in the 70s and 80s, they remain timeless. The filmmakers firmly believe that while their narrative unfolds in 1987, the piece feels contemporary. "You'd only know it was 1987 because of some of the references, and the hair," smiles Chadha.

"In terms of what it is saying about young people trying to find their path when the economy isn't as strong as it could be, and the way young people have to challenge society's expectations of them, I think there are great parallels with today."

In towns like Luton during the mid to late 80s there was mass unemployment; college graduates were not sure whether they would find full time work. "There was this genuine culture where people felt there was no future and no hope if you were from a certain class or certain background.

You really were on the scrapheap," adds Manzoor. "It is amazing that we have come out of that but at the moment we have short-term contracts and there is no longer the idea of getting a job for life. That kind of security isn't part of our world anymore and our story speaks to that."

During that period, far right groups were especially vocal, and the National Front play a role in Blinded By The Light, most notably when one of their rallies coincides with Javed's sister's wedding day.

"The popularity of the National Front back then was quite a sad chapter for people like me," recalls Chadha, "but we wanted to capture that and paint it from our perspective, so we had about 300 extras, with heads shaved and covered with racist tattoos, playing NF supporters and we reconstructed a march."

The cast and crew were taken aback when they first saw it. It was very shocking. "The very first take was a big high shot across the marchers to find the wedding cortège," continues Chadha, "and everyone just stopped for a moment because it really did take you back, seeing all the National Front guys zeig heiling. After that we all got used to it and pushed to capture the intensity of those marches. Actually, then I was telling them to 'act' more racist chanting their slogans."

The scene had a pronounced impact on some of the actors playing NF members. "It turned out that some of them were getting quite upset about playing National Front members and having to say some of the things they were saying and do some of the things they were doing. Every time they had to do something that was offensive they would apologize immediately when I said, 'Cut.'"

At certain points in the movie, the camera had to pass racist graffiti scribbled on the walls. Many of the crew were reluctant to put it up. "So, I ended up painting swastikas on the wall myself because some of the art department felt really uncomfortable about it," says Chadha.

Actor Kulvinder Ghir, who plays Javed's father in the movie, gave her a hand. "We were like, 'I'll do it!' Kulvinder and I lived through this; it was the reality, so we were the ones putting the NF slogans up."

Kulvinder Ghir has a relationship with Chadha that stretches back to 2002's Bend it Like Beckham, where he played Teetu. In fact, the filmmakers draw a number of parallels between Bend it Like Beckham and Blinded By The Light. Chadha says there are indeed parallels because they are British films set within British Asian families and follow an Asian character who has a dream of wanting to do something but can't find their way, "But Javed is male and his family are Muslim and while BILB had a lot of my childhood in it, this film is inspired by Sarfraz's teenage years."

"For me John Hughes was an inspiration for his classic teenagers coming of age movies. It is about wanting to have a dream and thinking that the dream is not going to be possible because of who you are, and what your background is, and what your parents might be thinking," Chadha continues. "But then what if you fall in love, what if you get an opportunity, someone throws you a life-line, then what happens? It's just a great rite of passage story for Javed."

Chadha adds "To me it feels like a spiritual companion to Bend It Like Beckham. It shows the careful balances we had to make as teenagers as we fought for what we wanted but without alienating our parents whom we knew just lived for us - their children. It's a tough subject to find the right balance of emotion, pathos and entertainment. Beckham was 17 years ago and there's not been a similar film since then.

"For me as a film maker I do feel this is a more mature film and I wouldn't say it's a sequel, as such, but I would say that you would watch this film and go, 'Oh, this is a film from the person who made Bend It Like Beckham, for sure.' That's my diaspora sensibility.''

Finding the right actor to be Javed was the single most critical piece of casting. "It was absolutely key to get a brilliant Javed," says producer Jane Barclay. "He is in 99.8 percent of the piece and it's a role that requires incredible stamina and focus." Gurinder has a knack of discovering new talent as we know with Keira Knightley, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Parminder Nagra."

"Looking for Javed was about finding someone with a joyfulness, who could embrace the changes in his life but who also had enough depth that we could believe he is a poet and a writer. Finding that in a young actor is not easy."

And yet the filmmakers finally found that balance in Viveik Kalra, a young actor that Chadha looks set to launch on the road to stardom. He is currently still at drama school in Wales. "But for someone with such little screen experience, he did an amazing job," says Chadha.

"To have a solid central performance is critical in any film but especially so in a coming of age film. He does carry it, and also he feels it; he's been through everything that Javed has been through to some degree. I think he is going to be a very big figure in the British acting landscape one day."

For Kalra, the experience was transformative. He says that while prior to signing on to the film he had never really listened to Springsteen's music, now he can't bring himself to listen to anything else. "I have become enlightened," he says, "probably not in quite the same way as Javed is but I've been really, really touched by the words."

"After I listened to his music, I couldn't really listen to pop-chart songs anymore; I would be a few seconds into a song and then I'd suddenly realize that there was a lack of meaning in the music, which is really odd to say as a 20-year-old."

Understanding Springsteen's music also gave Kalra a greater appreciation of Javed and his journey. "When Javed is faced with real issues, he doesn't quite know how to deal with them," he says. "Then when he finds Bruce's music and falls in love with it, it is then that he finds a world that is bigger than just himself and his family."

The music gives Javed the confidence to chase his dreams, to try and become a writer and a journalist at a difficult time for young Pakistanis in Britain. "It gives him the chance to do things that he wouldn't have done ordinarily," continues the actor.

Kalra concedes that singing Springsteen's songs at certain points in the movie was daunting. "Oh yeah, the musical side was very intimidating," he says. "I am not going to lie. Right from the audition, when you are singing three, four, five songs, in a script, it was scary. But Gurinder was really good at helping me to distance myself from it."

"She kept going, 'It is not you, it is not you. It is the character. He wouldn't be self-conscious when he was singing the song that he loved. He doesn't care.' So that was important in detaching myself from it."

By the time the shoot was in full swing, Kalra had embraced the singing and dancing. "It has given me a new level of confidence because it is not something that I would have ever done," he says.

"I think singing is the most vulnerable thing a person can do, for me, at least. Eventually, I forgot about it and there were scenes where we were running down the streets of Luton with Nell Williams [who plays his girlfriend Eliza] not caring that people were staring."

Finding that confidence is another mirror between Kalra and his character. "Without getting that confidence through music, Javed wouldn't have gone out and kissed a girl; he wouldn't have gone out and made other mates," he says.

"When talking about the character with Gurinder at the outset, we realised that he is not uncool. He is just in a really claustrophobic environment in which he can't really do what he wants to do. He feels under pressure from his father."

The relationship between father and son lies at the heart of the movie. "It is interesting because Javed's dad is a man who wears a suit every day, a man who has really integrated into British life yet is probably missing the sense of home."

Javed's father, Malik, has brought his family to Britain from Pakistan and is caught between a desire for his family to integrate and flourish in a new society, and yet also able to retain a strong connection to its Pakistani roots. This causes conflict between the dad and his son.

"The story is probably more about the relationship between him and his dad really than anything else," says Kalra. "There is all sorts of stuff that goes on throughout the movie, but it comes back to that relationship in the end."

Choosing the actor to play Malik was the second most important casting choice after finding Javed. "Finding Malik was really important because we needed an actor who had a depth that would not appear ridiculous or diminished," says Barclay. "We needed an actor who could be quite nuanced."

The filmmakers turned to Kulvinder Ghir, with whom Chadha had worked on Bend it Like Beckham. "Malik is a man of integrity and he just wants something better for his family," says Ghir. "He is very ambitious in his own way and does put pressure on his children. That generation that came over to Britain had to deal with the indifference, the racism, the difficulty of finding jobs and integrating at work."

"Malik is just interested in security and protecting his family within the world they've come into and he has difficulty letting his children go. He doesn't want his children to have the same life he has, working in a factory," continues Ghir.

"He'd had a clerical job in Karachi but here he was working on the factory floor. That generation almost didn't think about what they wanted; they put it on their children, 'You can do it for me because I haven't had the opportunity here.'"

He doesn't think Javed can make a living as a writer. "That is no help to Malik and he won't have any support. Javed in this film is the only son, and Malik hopes he'll help with the family; that adds pressure to their relationship."

During the course of the film, of course, a greater understanding develops. Eventually, Javed's writing brings father and son closer together again. "It's wonderful when the father does start to understand and recognise the personality of the child he has brought up in this environment," says Ghir. "That's the whole journey for Malik."

Though the main characters in the film are not the exact same people that populate Manzoor's memoir, Ghir said he felt a certain responsibility to the author when playing a man that he would recognise clearly.

"Amazingly, in the film I really do look like Sarfraz's dad," recalls Ghir. "Sarfraz brought his daughter on set one day and she said, 'Oh look, it's grandad!' It was very important for me to capture what that generation was about. They felt a responsibility for bringing their family here and I felt that from my own father."

The actor also says that he was delighted to be working with Chadha again after all these years. "We've always wanted to come together again with our work and this time Gurinder said, 'I think I've got something for you that you'll love doing.' And I did think it was perfect…"

Ghir notes that stories like Blinded By The Light are close to his and Chadha's hearts, "because they're also telling our parents' stories. There's a line in the film where Malik says to his son, 'Tell your stories but don't forget ours.' That's a lovely thing."

"And Gurinder is perfect for telling these stories," he concludes. "I think Blinded By The Light has that same feel as Bend it Like Beckham but it's something even more than that because of the musical element that's in there."

Along with the connection between father and son, the other pivotal relationship in the movie is that which unfolds between Javed and Eliza, whom he meets at college. It blossoms into a nascent romance.

And as with Viveik Kalra, Chadha believes she has unearthed another gem in teenage actress Nell Williams. "She is another great new talent for us," says the director. "She was 19 at the time of filming, but boy does she have screen presence. She reminds me of a British Jennifer Lawrence."

Eliza is interested in politics, and Williams sees a strong connection between her character's ideals and those exposed by Springsteen. "Basically, she is a very political angsty teenager who we watch grow up throughout the film," says Williams, "and she opens Javed's eyes to the world of politics."

"She is a strong female lead," says the actress, "someone who guides him and is really a bit more grown up than him. I really liked how strong minded she is."

Williams says that she saw a lot of herself in the character. "She was interesting to play because I was very similar to that growing up. She is very stubborn, always thinks she is correct and is very, very angry with a lot of things that are out of her control."

"The fact that she is politically motivated is also very important," she adds, "because Bruce Springsteen always has a political, working class edge to his music and the film draws a lot on that. There are a lot of political songs by Springsteen that are in the film and which fit very well with Eliza's thoughts."

Like Kalra, Williams felt daunted by the film's musical aspect, though her character does not have to interact with it quite as much as her co-star. "Even so, there is a hell of a lot of [the song] Born To Run. Filming that took so long because we had to do it in so many different locations. We were filming that from the start to the end of filming because that song appears everywhere."

"The filming on location, in public, was the most nerve-wracking thing for me by far because you were very aware that other people were watching you wondering what the hell we were doing."

There is a clutch of female characters in the movie that have an influence on Javed's life. These include his teacher, Miss Clay, played by Hayley Atwell. "She was a complete dream," says Chadha. "From the moment she comes on screen you can tell why Hayley is so lauded. She plays a very important role as Javed's teacher."

"She is the woman who pushes and inspires him, inspires him to push himself. This could be done in a very mawkish, sugary, schmaltzy way, but in Hayley's hands it's the opposite. She is quite abrasive actually when she needs to be. But she really does deliver."

"Hayley played the character as someone based on one of her own teachers, I think. For her, this was a tribute to one of her teachers. And, as she quite rightly said to me on set, teachers are so important. If you get the right teacher at school, you are on your way. A good teacher will stay with you."

Another teacher who features in the movie is Javed's headmistress, Mrs Anderson, played by Sally Phillips. "Luton has had a bad press, she feels, and she's committed to showing that there's excellence in Luton," says Phillips. "She is really on Javed's side and wants to smooth the differences between some of her pupils and their families. She is quite maternal and tries to embrace the new " though she has some difficulties."

Another notable face in the film is Rob Brydon, who plays the father of Javed's best friend. He is central to one of the movie's musical set-pieces in which a host of market traders break into a rendition of the Springsteen classic Thunder Road. Brydon is another huge Springsteen fan and he met Manzoor at that 2010 premiere of The Promise.

"I think it's great that we can now finally hear these songs on the big screen," Brydon says. "Springsteen did the music for Philadelphia, but they were new songs. Here the filmmakers have got access to all these huge hits. I absolutely loved the script. It made me cry at the end."

Brydon traces his love for the Boss back to his purchase of The River album on vinyl when growing up in a south Wales seaside town. "It was the first time I'd seen a lyric insert and I remember showing it to my grandmother, saying that the lyrics were like poetry. You get such a connection with Bruce; you feel like you know him." "Knowing Bruce is going to watch this movie is both exhilarating and scary," he adds. "I'd love it to please him because he's given me so much pleasure over the years."

It's a dream all the filmmakers share though Chadha is keen to point out that audiences don't have to be Springsteen fans to enjoy the movie. "People will get it whether they're fans or not," she says.

"But, by the end I really hope that everyone comes out of the film a big Bruce fan because he deserves it " what an inspiring man! And I hope we've done him and his lyrics justice and made a great film."

"One of the most enthralling and nerve-wracking experiences of my life was going to New York to show Bruce a cut of the finished film in case he had notes. I sat in the row behind him watching him enjoy the movie.

At the end he turned to me and said, 'Thank you for honouring me so beautifully. Don't change a thing.'"

Blinded By The Light
Release Date: October 24th, 2019