海角大神

Great rock music can bring you into a new relationship with yourself. It can make you feel freer, on top of the world. The thin but genial 鈥淏linded by the Light,鈥� set in 1987, is about just such a connection: Javed (engaging newcomer Viveik Kalra), a 16-year-old Pakistani immigrant, lives with his family in a lower-middle-class apartment complex north of London. An amiable dreamer, he scribbles poetry and song lyrics until 鈥� Wham! 鈥� he discovers the music of Bruce Springsteen. In wonderment he exclaims, 鈥淏ruce knows everything I鈥檝e ever felt!鈥�

This is the second movie this season about how the sons of Asian immigrants in rural England are utterly transformed by Western rock 鈥檔鈥� roll. 鈥淵esterday,鈥� which recently opened, botched a marvelous premise: Through a cosmic accident, a middling folk singer of South Asian descent is reawakened to a world where the Beatles never existed. To clamorous acclaim, he reproduces their hits as if they were his own. 鈥淏linded by the Light,鈥� directed and co-written by Gurinder Chadha (鈥淏end It Like Beckham鈥�), who was raised in London with an East African Indian background, does somewhat better. Despite its predictability, it conveys what it鈥檚 like to be enraptured by a rock idol. (The film鈥檚 loosely adapted source material is co-screenwriter Sarfraz Manzoor鈥檚 2007 memoir 鈥淕reetings From Bury Park.鈥�)聽聽

Western rock music, not the indigenous sounds their parents cling to, provides these young men with a ready-made outlaw lifestyle they imagine will liberate them from the confinements of their immigrant upbringing. (The same could be said for the Parsi Freddie Mercury in 鈥淏ohemian Rhapsody.鈥�) Both of these movies, especially 鈥淏linded by the Light,鈥� are about embracing Western music as a way of transcending racial barriers. This embrace, this cultural appropriation, is valued. We hear very little of the family musical traditions these guys are breaking away from. Javed longs to be Springsteen 鈥� right down to the ripped plaid shirts and denim and red bandanna around his neck 鈥� because the music facilitates his escape from the poverty and racism in his neighborhood, with thugs spray-painting swastikas on walls and few prospects beyond becoming a factory worker like his disapproving, old-world father, Malik (Kulvinder Ghir).

The paradox for Javed is that Springsteen鈥檚 music 鈥� which is amply represented on the soundtrack and underscores some jubilant Bollywood style musical numbers 鈥� makes him feel both more disconnected from his surroundings and more authentic to himself. And yet we don鈥檛 hear much of Javed鈥檚 poetry or song lyrics, so it鈥檚 not apparent, once you clear away the Springsteen idolatry, what paths his own artistry might take.

Movies about the intergenerational divide have been around forever, but 鈥淏linded by the Light鈥� joins 鈥淭he Big Sick鈥� and, to a lesser extent, 鈥淭he Farewell鈥� and the soapy 鈥淐razy Rich Asians鈥� in situating that divide in an East-West context. The cliches may be the same but the characterizations are more multiracial now. When Javed wails that 鈥渕y family is stuck in another country,鈥� it鈥檚 a time-honored teenage lament except, in his case, it鈥檚 almost literally true.

Malik, who has Javed鈥檚 life mapped out for him, right down to eventually picking out his wife, can鈥檛 comprehend his son鈥檚 intransigence. And conversely, the parents of Javed鈥檚 jaunty, white political activist girlfriend 鈥� played by Nell Williams 鈥� are broadly portrayed as Thatcher-era snoots.

It鈥檚 no wonder Javed feels at one with The Boss when he sings 鈥淢an, I ain鈥檛 getting nowhere. I鈥檓 just living in a dump like this.鈥� What the film doesn鈥檛 have the wit to recognize is that Springsteen, by his own admission in his autobiography, is something of a poseur, too. Mr. Born to Run, who never worked in a factory, still resides in New Jersey near where he grew up.

In a way, this funny fact lays out another lesson that Javed could have taken to heart.聽When, at last, he and his father reconcile, what the film is finally saying is wherever you end up, don鈥檛 run from your heritage.