Hanif Kureishi, My Beautiful Laundrette

Bart Moore-Gilbert (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of Glasgow), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1985

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Cinema/ Film/ TV
- Screenplay

Resources

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My Beautiful Laundrette

(1985) was Kureishi's first major success, winning the former “fringe” playwright a popular audience as well as nominations for Best Screenplay in the Oscars and BAFTA Awards. It concerns the rising fortunes of a young mixed–race British–Asian protagonist, Omar, as he struggles towards maturity in 1980s London, a city being reconfigured by the Thatcherite “revolution” and the social tensions which this provoked. At the outset of the film, the faux–naif Omar is taken up by his uncle Nasser and cousin Salim who represent an entrepreneurial spirit which is in keeping with the spirit of the decade but deeply antithetical to the old–fashioned socialism of Omar's disillusioned and now alcoholic immigrant father. Fired by the ambition to become…

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654 words

Citation: Moore-Gilbert, Bart. "My Beautiful Laundrette". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 January 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3380, accessed 18 April 2024.]

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