You can leave Luton, but it will never leave you, is the summation of Javed’s lump-in-the-throat speech at the end of Blinded by the Light – a tale about a boy in 1987 caught between two worlds and rebelling against his father through music and writing.
On the face of it, it’s a teenage coming-of-age tale, exploring escapology motifs, but for our town, it’s a climactic resolution that changes, in celluloid, the negative narrative enforced upon us for so long.
From real world jibes about the airport being our best asset, because you can get away from the place, to Crap Town book infamy, you’ve heard it all before. For decades.
Yet, this film is a latent love letter to Luton. A triumphant tale that will, in the fullness of (not too much) time, serve to contextualise and, indeed, soundtrack our town’s burgeoning resurgence.
Yes, at times, it’s a warts and all account which pulls no punches, but Luton’s not perfect and and Blinded by the Light doesn’t pretend it is.
What Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha has done in adapting Lutonian journalist Sarfraz Manzoor’s memoir – Greetings from Bury Park – is afford the town a certain charm that so many refuse to see.
That might seem at odds for a cinematic endeavour that, while comedic – with cracking cameos from Rob Brydon, Marcus Brigstocke and Sally Phillips – also explores racism and far right knuckle-dragging nationalism. While these are not Luton-centric issues, Blinded by the Light is politically, and culturally astute, with a powerful subtext, drawing a line from the unrest in an eighties era under Thatcher to the deja vu of the Brexit Britain.
Sadly, these are pervasive themes that continue to taint modern life, but in this film, like Luton in 2019, there’s far more to feel positive about, as Javed walks the tightrope of cultural expectation, family, youth, love poetry and, of course, music.
this film is a latent love letter to Luton
Springsteen was the genesis of this real-world realisation for Manzoor in 1987 and his semi-autobiographical self in this film, Javed (Viveik Kalra). And though the movie is a huge homage to the rocker, you need not share Javed’s enthusiasm for The Boss, because it’s a well-aimed allegory about the power of music in general.
For Sarfraz it was a guitar-slinger from New Jersey. For this scribe – coming of age in Luton, less than a decade later – it was Oasis.
The tunes were different but the sentiment is the same. Whether it’s the Asbury Park angst of ‘tramps like us, baby we were born to run’ or the Britpop swagger of ‘tonight I’m a rock ’n’ roll star’, it’s the emotional sense of an awakening through music, which this film captures, that is so universally intoxicating.
“Bruce knows everything I’ve ever felt,” epiphanises Javed after ‘popping his Bruce cherry’ during the legendary ‘87 Michael Fish hurricane.
Bigger than the life, times and place you find yourself in, this relatable eureka moment is a distraction from the doldrums and an obsession that entirely shapes a person’s identity.
If you can’t connect with either that all-or-nothing sensibility, or a desire for rebellion as a rite-of-passage then, whatever your jam, yours was almost certainly a misspent adolescence.
For Lutonians of any generation, but particularly those that grew up in the 80s and early 90s, Chadha, channelled through Manzoor’s writing, provides a nostalgic snapshot of our home. Thankfully, one now not frozen in aspic – except Greenfields cafe in The Arndale (to give the shopping centre its proper name), that remains gloriously the same, 32 years on! Expect that to be a cinemaniac’s sightseeing stop.
For a town so frequently the victim of broad-brush character assassinations, the director exposes difficult issues, but delicately navigates the piece past pathos and towards an overwhelming warmth, which negates some rather cheesy High School Musical moments.
It’s the Luton of 1987, compared to now that should resonate with Lutonians. The Town Hall remains the same, but so much is changing, for the better. And Blinded by the Light is a silver screen springboard for a town, like Javed, finding its voice and fulfilling its potential.
Things are on the up, from our football club, to the Power Court promise of a 21st century town centre, regeneration, creativity and the current pilot year of culture ahead of the 2025 bid.
So, Blinded by the Light and the stage on which it is set are so serendipitously entwined, because they are about possibility, they are about dreaming big, they are about hope, they are about the power of love and music and, above all, they are about Luton.
We’ve got more than just an airport, you know? We always have. But now we’ve also got a movie that the world’s going to see, so you must too.
Rating: 8/10
Blinded by the Light is in cinemas from today.
