Blinded by the Light

Written by Simran Randhawa

Establishing a New Identity for the Immigrant Child through Music and Relationships

British director and screenwriter Gurinder Chadha first brought the perspective of the brown immigrant child adjusting to a Western society in her well-known sports and romance film, Bend It Like Beckham (2002). Seventeen years later, Chadha’s Blinded by the Light (2019) is a similar coming-of-age story where the film’s protagonist, Javed, establishes a new identity that encompasses his British and Pakistani roots through the discovery of Bruce Springsteen’s music. Set in the year 1987 in small-town Luton, England, predominantly populated with Caucasians, Javed and his Muslim family stands out and are often victims of hate crime and racial slurs. As Javed tolerates the relentless realities of his hometown, he simultaneously struggles to fulfill his father’s expectations of him as the only son in the family, one that participates in cultural and socio-economic responsibilities. Fundamentally, Chadha emphasizes the dilemma for brown immigrants between assimilating to Westernized norms while preserving their culture and traditions. The film tells the story of how a teenager confronted with racism, financial insecurity, and obligations finds an avocation that echoes his emotions, shapes his decisions, and reveals the truths about individualism and family.

The Parallel Between Song Selection and Character Development

Based on the real experiences of journalist and major Springsteen fan Sarfraz Manzoor, who also had a role in writing the script, the film’s soundtrack includes songs specific to Javed’s external circumstances and inner world. The protagonist first encounters The Boss’s music through Roops, a Sikh-Punjabi classmate who gives him two of Springsteen’s cassettes: Darkness on the Edge of Town and Born in the U.S.A. He only gives these a listen when life takes a turn with his father being laid-off from work and the realization that he will have to financially support the family instead of pursuing his dreams as a writer. The first song that hooks Javed onto Springsteen is “Dancing in the Dark,” which expresses a desire to change from the mundane and routine. The lyrics, “I’m just livin’ in a dump like this,” quickly followed by “There’s somethin’ happenin’ somewhere,” awakens Javed and reveals to the viewer his inner thoughts and emotions concerning his hometown and predestined life.

When he switches to “The Promised Land,” Javed experiences an epiphany about music and the unfamiliar territory of having someone express his perception of life despite being of Pakistani heritage. Both songs are integral to Javed’s awakening because his immediate connection with Springsteen’s lyrics draws him into constructing a new identity where his voice is heard and repressed emotions are released.

After listening to both tapes, there is a dramatic change in Javed’s behaviour. While the film begins with him as a boy sulking away in his dreary town, the inciting incident of crossing paths with Springsteen’s music transforms him into a man eager to actively partake in his life and pursue his dreams. For the first time, Javed feels that someone knows “everything [he’s] every felt, everything [he’s] ever wanted” (00:29:40), despite him living in a different country than Springsteen’s New Jersey, USA, and being a child of immigrant parents.

As Javed continues to idolize his newfound hero, he starts adopting his traits, too, from his dressing sense to his exuding confidence. By making Javed a reflection of Springsteen, Chadha captures the exhilarating experience of becoming a fan, especially in one’s youth. It is especially significant for the protagonist to embody and embrace his new profound attitudes because his race and ethnicity often leave him isolated from society or as an easy target of discrimination. For example, when the college bullies racialize Javed and Roops as “Pakis” (00:40:50) and mock the stereotypical brown accent, Javed confronts them by loudly reciting Springsteen’s “Badlands.” This song becomes the protagonist’s rebel anthem as it parallels his constant battle against discrimination and desire to be seen. Specifically, when the boys sing, “I wanna find one face that ain’t looking through me / I wanna find one place / I wanna spit in the face of these / Badlands/ you gotta live it every day” (00:42:04), they confidently relish in Springsteen’s philosophy to confront their realities by challenging the odds put against them.

The Boss’s “Born to Run” is an honourable mention, which Chadha selects to parallel with Javed becoming a Springsteen missionary. Desperate to show his college that Springsteen’s music remains relevant to their time despite being seen as ‘old school’, Javed finds himself breaking the rules by playing “Born to Run” on the school’s radio system without permission. In contrast to where he begins his story with poor self-esteem and a quiet demeanour at school, Javed’s act of rebellion through the manifestation and promotion of his hero’s music illustrates his shift to boldly express himself without fear. However, the more Javed tries to live by Springsteen’s lyrics, the more distant he becomes from his cultural and family roots. A significant turning point in the film is when Javed momentarily leaves his family on his sister’s wedding day to buy concert tickets for Springsteen’s show in London. In this brief time, members of the National Front assault Javed’s father. Chadha selects The Boss’s “Jungleland” for this scene; however, instead of having Javed actively listen or perform the song, it focalizes the erupting chaos of this scene from Javed’s eyes. In this scene, the shift in communicating silently through Javed delves into the intensity of his emotions and experiences. Unlike the previous songs, “Jungleland” returns Javed to reality, where his two identities, the Pakistani-immigrant-and-son and the assimilating Brit-who-loves-America’s-Springsteen, clash. The unfolding events pull Javed away from fantasy and provoke him to choose between family and Springsteen. In choosing the latter, the protagonist separates himself from a believed suffocating environment by embarking on a journey to New Jersey and living with Roops. However, he reveals a pang of itching guilt on the price of individuality as heobserves the physical and emotional distance between him and his family.

In the climax of the film at a school award ceremony, Javed references the song and the film’s title, “Blinded by the Light.” He shares that when he first listens to the song, he understands the lyrics on a surface level concerning love or materialism. Yet, when he returns to it at his breaking point, he reveals that the song speaks to obsession and selfishness. Javed’s character arc lies in his realization that his admiration for The Boss blinded him into seeing only himself. Perhaps the most important lesson revealed to Javed through this song is accepting and embracing the dualities of identity. When he says, “But we’re not all just individuals. We are friends and family and what they think does matter…” (01:45:00), Javed’s character development comes full circle. By reflecting on how he absorbed an avocation from a self-centred lens, Javed becomes aware of his ignorance, and the song “Blinded by the Light” mirrors this revelation. While the beginning of his story uses Bruce Springsteen’s music as an escape and model for his dreams, he revisits the singer’s philosophies and aligns them with his family and ethnic values—conjoining and embracing two different worlds simultaneously.

The Three R’s of Immigrant Stories: Relationships, Racism, and Responsibility

Blinded by the Light is a feel-good film that incites nostalgia of the teenage years while depicting the experiences of immigrant children forced to choose or establish identities that satisfy two distinct cultures. Javed strongly captures this quandary through his old diminishing and newly developing relationships throughout the film. In his discovery of The Boss, Javed develops a bond with Roops, who equally resonates with the racialized and immigrant-child perspective, and Eliza, his Caucasian girlfriend. Nearing the climax, Javed blaming his family circumstances becomes repetitive, and Eliza eventually and implicitly brings him to realize his own accountability by saying, “Stop making your family your excuse for everything” (01:30:53).

Several circumstances reveal Javed to his fluctuating attitude and identity, which he tries desperately to tune out through Bruce. For example, his father emphasizes the new intrapersonal behaviour Javed exhibits by asking, “‘I’? What is this ‘I’?” (01:07:41). This is significant in showing Javed’s migration from the Asian values of family orientation and sharing responsibilities to a Westernized narrative of “me, myself and I.” By having Javed say, “I don’t wanna be your son! I wanna be more than that” (01:28:10), he unintentionally degrades his role in his family and disrupts the order of responsibility. Javed fails to realize that his family are his closest allies because they, too, live in a world where they are racialized and targeted, with dreams that did not come true.

The protagonist captures the essence of immigrant stories when he states, “My hope is to build a bridge to my ambitions but not a wall between my family and me. That’s my dream” (01:45:41). The American Dream is a driving force for emigration. Though Javed believed his dream was about becoming a writer and moving far away from Luton, he realizes that it is not worth sacrificing his relationships and the responsibilities that come with them in an already racialized time. Javed shows viewers that an immigrant child does not have to choose between his modern dreams and traditional lineage. Instead, he rejuvenates the idea that our family can be our dreams and that there is no shame in questioning and rewriting your individuality to include the opinions of those you love most.

Work Cited

Blinded by the Light. Directed by Gurinder Chadha, Warner Bros. Pictures, 2019. Film.