Cheap My Beautiful Laundrette (DVD) (Saeed Jaffrey, Roshan Seth, Daniel Day-Lewis) (Stephen Frears) Price

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Customer Reviews of My Beautiful Laundrette

beautiful and calm movie but...
This film deals with the problems of races and classes in London. But this film doesn't provoke me to anger as in Hollywood films. This film (and it may sound unusual to people who have seen My Beautiful Launderette) is beautiful and calm to me: the growing love between Johnny and Omar, the squelching sounds of their funky launderette, the aqua color, the questions that the film raises -- to me these are very impressive and seductive and calming. But my focus will be on the women. There are four women in the film: Tanya (Nassir's daughter. Nassir is Omar's uncle), Rachel (Nassir's mistress) and Omar's mother (she is talked about by Omar and Nassir in the course of the film). Nassir thinks that for people like them, Pakistani-British, their position in England is determined by wealth. The film focuses on how and others in the family want to make money. But the women don't have any money. They are dependant on the menfolk, completely. Tanya blames Rachel for living like a parasite on her father and which is the truth. But Tanya herself, a grown woman, close to Omar's age lives off her father as well. She could have helped her father in business as she points out to Omar. But business belongs to men. Nassir would give the business to his brother's son (Omar), not to his own daughter. Money and who controls it is a powerful subject in the film. Women in it don't have money and are therefore weak and powerless. At a family party, at Nassir's house, women are separated from men. Women are in a open and bright living room. There is laughter and talk there. But we (spectators) are not able to hear them. Their conversations are unclear and not translated into English. (They are speaking Urdu -- the language spoken in Pakistan).
Men on the other hand, seem to talk about important things in dark corners of the room. And it seems like women are forbidden to enter this place. Tanya defies this. When Omar first visits Nassir's house, Tanya shows defiance by lifting her sweater and exposing her breast to Omar. She is standing outside the house, and through the window lifts her sweater to unnerve Omar.
I have sympathy for Omar's mother. We got only ghostly glimpses of her from Omar and Omar's father, a journalist and activist is disillusioned by Britain. He vents his pent up anger and frustrations on her wife. Finally, she can't endure any more, and throws herself on a railway track.In traditional eastern families (and this includes India, Korea, and other eastern countries), a husband's violence on his wife is tolerated as his right. His wife is thought of as a part of her husband's possession. And when a husband keeps a mistress, she can't oppose it. But if she were to have a boyfriend, she would be kicked out of the patriarchal husband's house. In My Beautiful Launderette, I find women in this Pakistani-British family neglected. They are powerless, rejected, dependent, and victims of men. At the end of the film, Tanya leaves her father's house. She is the first one to resist against a system of patriarchy. Her father is stunned, anguished.

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A Satiric Movie
I think ¡§My Beautiful Launderette¡¨ is a pretty satiric movie. Back in 1980s, Pakistan people were being discriminated by the British. However in the movie, Nasser, a Pakistan businessman, owned a launderette which earns money from the British instead of the other way round. Satirically, Nasser also has a mistress, named Rachel, who is a British instead of a Pakistan. Tanya, daughter of Nasser who later on found out Rachel , tell Rachel that she does not mind her father having a mistress and use her father¡¦s money.

Omar, niece of Nasser, who worked in the launderette as a manager, met Johnny one night when he was being disturbed by a group of racist gang. Johnny is a British young man who actually belongs to the gang, he knew Omar because they were old school friends. Omar asked Johnny to help in the launderette. The most satiric part of the movie is that Omar and Johnny are homosexual lovers. Homosexuality was considered to be unacceptable in those days. Other than that Omar and Johnny are different in race.

The film shows the audiences two groups of people. First is the people who reject the British community, second is the people who accept the British community. The first group of people have traditional, conservative, and stubborn mind. Omar¡¦s father belongs to this group. He is a journalist and political activist. He thinks that he doesn¡¦t belong to Britain and he hated Britain. He lives in poverty and lie on the bed all day doing nothing.

Nasser and Omar belong to the second group. Nasser adapted himself into the British society and learned to live with it. He then became a successful businessman who owned a launderette and a car cleaning service company. Omar chose to follow Nasser to involve in the business field instead of being what his father wanted him to be, which was to get into college. He convinced Nasser to let him redecorate the launderette and he succeeded in attracting more customers.

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Perfect slice of Thatcherite Britain oh! And a fab gay roman
A classic film in my book, My Beautiful Laundrette is the story of Omar, a young restless Asian man caring for his alcoholic father in Thatcherite London. Escape comes in the form of his uncles many and varied business ventures,...

Anyone who experienced anything of life in '80's Britain will recognise the craving for instant financial success. Similarly I am sure Asian viewers will recognise the struggles inherent in finding an identity in a country which is your home but which can never feel quite like your real home.

Omar dreams of success so works to achieve it...along the way he meets up with old school-friend Johnny, who has betrayed him by falling in with a group of neo-nazi's. Omar soon has Johnny working for him and his uncle. Turning the tables on him as he is made to rely on the very people he has been taught to hate. The chemistry between Omar and Johnny is palpable and their relationship handled totally matter-of-factly. About the only part of the film not trying to score any political points is the gay relationship. There is a "so-what" attitude and no-one comes out at any point. And why should they?

Tension in the film is far more the result of socio-economic and racial inequalities. The whole thing is handled with grace, charm and wit. Anyone remotely familier with British film in particular will note the starry casting of supporting roles, though Danial Day Lewis is - now - the biggest star of the show. Here he shows the real substance behind his fame - more so than in any other film of his seen to date. The cast is universally excellent and the unique shooting, pacing and dialogue, quite quite brilliant.

Some of the shots in this film could be used as a template for brilliance...An unexpected kiss in a dark alley is easily the most erotic single shot I have seen in a film.

Despite a few reviews I have read claiming otherwise, I don't believe you need to be gay or Asian to get something out of this picture. Living in Britain may help, though it's a lot less than essential.......

And hey! Wouldn't you love to throw your knickers into the washing machines of a neon-lit music-filled laudrette from heaven run by two insatiably young and energetic lovers?

Well I would anyway! Pass the detergent this way please!