My Beautiful Laundrette Research

 It is a 1985 British comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Frears, it is based on the screenplay by Hanif Kureishi, it was one of the first films released and distributed by Working title films. 

Sexuallity and multiculturalism are the key issues which the film challenges. 


It is a film which is set in London and it based around the area which Margaret Thatcher was in power of the government. It shows the relationship between members of the white, asian and black community. 

The story focuses on Omar, a young Pakistani man living in London, and his reunion and eventual romance with his old friend, a street punk named Johnny. The two become the caretakers and business managers of a launderette originally owned by Omar's uncle Peter. The plot addresses several polemical issues of the time, including homosexuality and racism, depicted within the social and economic climate of Thatcherism.  
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

It made a estimate of £650,00 at box office.

My Beautiful Laundrette was Frears' third feature film for the cinema. Originally shot for television, it was first released in cinemas and eventually became his first international success.

The film marked the first time Oliver Slaperton was in charge of cinematpgraphy in one of Frears' projects. He would later become one of the director's most consistent collaborators.

My Beautiful Laundrette was nominated in 1987 for a single Academy Award– Best original screenplay, by Hanif Kureishi. It lost to Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters. Kureishi was also nominated for a 1986 BAFTA award. The screenplay received an award from the American National Society of Film Critics.

The Pakistanis in My Beautiful Laundrette have excelled economically under such social structures, which suggests that Kureishi and Frears are aiming to present a society that appears to have made considerable strides in terms of equality. 

Film review: By Eric Henderson

While Personal Best and Making Love have faded into obscurity as The Celluloid Closetfootnotes, My Beautiful Laundrette has become a benchmark in the '80s new queer cinema. The film's approach to portraying homosexuality is as much grounded in raw, sensual realism as some of the film's other themes are in buoyant fantasy. That those other themes—racism, immigration, and economic Darwinism in Thatcher's England—don't inherently lend themselves to a lighthearted interpretation is an example of how Stephen Frears adapts the worldview of the characters he presents: the devil-may-care Johnny (a star-making performance by Daniel Day-Lewis) and the blissfully culture-straddling Omar (Gordon Warnecke, who makes ideological ambivalence seem like the sexiest attribute of them all). Omar, whose Pakistani family is torn by materialistic extremes (including organized crime) on one side and by radical political Leftist convictions on the other, is given the opportunity by his greasy-palmed uncle Nasser (Saeed Jaffrey) to refurbish a dingy laundromat. Omar views this as the ultimate compromise. Not only will the management position allow him upward economic mobility, but it will also give the lower-class neighborhood a touch of class. Enter street punk Johnny, who not only becomes Omar's business partner but his lover. Though gently pressured by many members of the Pakistani community to get married, Omar and Johnny do very little to conceal their true relationship, which culminates in a tender, erotic scene of the couple making love in the back room of the laundromat while Nasser and his mistress dance out front. Throughout, Frears's lens is ever the explorer, with flamboyant crane shots caressing every corner of every scene. My Beautiful Laundrette is still fresh and remains a model case for creating moving, liberating cinema from an oppressive environment. It's every bit the landmark gay film it deserves to be.