Word: kureishi
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...Beautiful Laundrette, his film debut, playwright Hanif Kureishi uses a sharp ironic scalpel to cut through the bleakness of the nasty South London setting. He gives us humour and a solid plot along with a sturdy and valuable lesson. A quick and scantily budgeted effort, Laudrette grapples with several major conflicts: between immigrants and natives, different generations and sexes, and even pairs of brothers...
...KUREISHI AND DIRECTOR Frears cleverly handle the ensuing development both of the cleaning service and the gay love affair, often adding sweet and ridiculous touches. On opening day, Johnny and Omar make love in the plush back room while customers form a comically eager queue for the bannered and streamered laundrette...
...scale, this film follows and explores the web of loyalties, disloyalties and other connections in which Johnny and Omar are involved. As Johnny tries to take a stance opposing his tough excomrades, Omar begins to ease into his uncle's social circle. For the varying social groups of Laundrette, Kureishi has created full and spirited characters, and Frears has cast very fine actors to inhabit those personages...
Both affection and sympathy shine through Kureishi's ironic treatment of Omar and Johnny. His portrait of the assimilated "Pakis," however, is another matter: priceless if only for its scathing directness, Nasser's house is divided between traditionally attired and silent females and the Westernized (read: loud) and self-satisfied males. Nasser himself remains an important hair's breadth away from merely detestable because he retains a sense of brotherly loyalty and an affectionate nature--although he does deal in very detestable and profitable muck. The real villain is Nasser's right-hand man, the fully macho Salim, who smuggles...
Within his social commentary, Kureishi leaves room for a bit of the fanciful. One very satisfying moment occurs when Nasser's wife, sick of his philandering, takes action and cooks up a strange potion against his mistress, charmingly played by Shirley Anne Field. This dreadful concoction makes the mistress' furniture move around and causes a rash to break out on her stomach...