Blinded By The Light screenwriter Sarfraz Manzoor on the healing power of The Boss

When Sarfraz Manzoor was growing up, he found self and salvation through the music of Bruce Springsteen. It was an unlikely love affair—a Pakistani kid living in Luton, a small manufacturing city about an hour north of London, falling in love with The Boss, but in a way it made sense. Both knew the value of hard work, of disagreeing with your parents, and of bucking the expectations set by those around you. Manzoor’s Springsteen literacy led him to pen a book, Greetings From Bury Park, which was released in 2007 and detailed how songs a lot of people had always viewed as quintessentially American maybe weren’t. Now, Manzoor’s book has been adapted into Blinded By The Light, a new narrative film packed full of Springsteen classics and directed by Bend It Like Beckham’s Gurinder Chadha. The A.V. Club talked to Manzoor about the adaptation, The Boss, and what it means to really grow up.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures