My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)

An ambitious Asian Briton and his white lover strive for success and hope, when they open up a glamorous laundromat.

Director:

Stephen Frears

Writer:

Hanif Kureishi

Stars:

Saeed Jaffrey, Roshan Seth, Daniel Day-Lewis

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 7 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Saeed Jaffrey	...	Nasser Ali
Roshan Seth	...	Hussein Ali
Daniel Day-Lewis	...	Johnny (as Daniel Day Lewis)
Gordon Warnecke	...	Omar Ali
Derrick Branche	...	Salim N. Ali
Rita Wolf	...	Tania N. Ali
Souad Faress	...	Cherry N. Ali
Richard Graham	...	Genghis
Shirley Anne Field	...	Rachel
Winston Graham	...	Jamaican One
Charu Bala Chokshi	...	Bilquis (as Charu Bala Choksi)
Dudley Thomas	...	Jamaican Two
Garry Cooper	...	Squatter
Neil Cunningham	...	Englishman
Persis Maravala	...	Nasser's Elder Daughter

Storyline

Much of the Pakistani Hussein family has settled in London, striving for the riches promised by Thatcherism. Nasser and his right hand man, Salim, have a number of small businesses and they do whatever they need to make money, even if the activities are illegal. As such, Nasser and his immediate family live more than a comfortable lifestyle, and he flaunts his riches whenever he can. Meanwhile, his brother, alcoholic Ali, once a famous journalist in Pakistan, lives in a seedy flat with his son, Omar. Ali's life in London is not as lucrative in part because of his left leaning politics, which does not mesh with the ideals of Thatcherism. To help his brother, Nasser gives Omar a job doing menial labor. But Omar, with bigger plans, talks Nasser into letting him manage Nasser's run down laundrette. Omar seizes what he sees as an opportunity to make the laundrette a success, and employs an old friend, Johnny - who has been most recently running around with a gang of white punks - to help ...

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Plot Keywords:

england | laundromat | thatcher | mistress | pakistani | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English Urdu

Release Date:

April 1986 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Minha Bela Lavandaria

Filming Locations:

245 Queenstown Road, Battersea, London, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

£650,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Channel Four Films, SAF Productions, Working Title Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Referenced in the song 'Mr. Malcontent' by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Johnny: We're moving house.

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Connections

Featured in Vito (2011)

User Reviews

Magic-realist masterpiece.

A rare instance of magic-realism that actually works in the cinema. The realism is a scrupulously observed portrait of 80s London, its people (entrepreneurs, drunks, racists, wide-boys), locales (dingy flats, delapidated laundrettes, murky car lots) and attitudes (strutting capitalism, dessicated liberalism, farcical extremism).

The magic comes from Frears' style, tweaking and heightening the real; from stylised scenes such as Omar's reuniting with Johnny; from some magical set-pieces, especially the opening of the laundrette, Omar and Johnny making love cut with Nasser and Rachel's waltz; from the clashing of an exotic, Oriental world in a determinedly materialist context.

Kureishi's script is occasionally heavy-handed, but sex is never far from his analyses of power and identity - Omar's crucial tirade against Johnny has a thrilling, Genet-esque frisson.