Power is a strange and fickle thing. Everyone knows and assumes certain people have certain powers just by the way they dress and things they own. It is natural to assume that the people with the nice cars, big houses, and lack of student loans probably have a better chance at succeeding in life than you do. However the brilliant film My Beautiful Laundrette serves an excellent critique of the way power works and takes it a step further by also proving to be a worthwhile critique of Thacterism, and British Society in the 1980’s.
The film takes place in London in 1984 and revolves around the life of 2nd generation Pakistani immigrant Omar Ali. The plot itself is very simple. Omar’s financially successful uncle Nassir takes Omar under his wing and entrusts him to run a laundrette that he owns. Omar enlists the help of his friend ( and soon to be boyfriend) Johnny to help him renovate the laundrette. The simplicity of the plot allows the film more time to discuss the things that are really important in it such as power, race and politics.
The film gives a brutally honest portrayal of the animosity between immigrants and white far-right racists in 1980’s England. Because the immigrants are financially well off it is they and not the white people who occupy the important roles and well paying positions in Nassir’s companies. However the film implies that there prosperity has come off of the back of a drug ring and that despite their wealth the Pakistanis are still treated differently from white people in England.
This is only one of many interesting contradictions that show just how complex British society really was. Despite hating one another it is safe to assume that both the Pakistanis and Skinheads voted conservative during the general elections and that both supported the de-regulation and self-determination ideals of Magaret Thatcher. The only difference seems to be that the Pakistanis are the better of the two groups of conservatives.
They are the ones who are creating the small businesses and spending the money that conservatives advocated. Meanwhile the skinheads are getting left behind and seem at the mercy of their much richer and much darker neighbors. We see this reflected in the prominent soccer culture of hooliganism which even though the film never addresses it is safe to assume is also a prominent part of the skinheads lives.
The last aspect of the film is the way it neatly ties up all of the fascinating reality of 1980’s England. Because despite Omar being a gay immigrant ( two things conservatives in England weren’t huge fans of) he manages to take a place named ironically enough the Churchill Laundrette into the new and fashionable Powders. This perfectly mimics the way the new conservative party transformed itself in the 1980’s but also highlights some of the hypocrisy the movement spewed out.
Because at the end of the day it would be impossible for a gay immigrant to make it in the 1980’s conservative party, yet it is only by embracing the ideals of a group that subvertly disliked them that the immigrants make it in England.
Ironic? Yes, but realistic? Absolutely.