Word: omar
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...beginning of the film, the characters' prospects are less than rosy: Omar, having failed two sets of exams, does household chores all day for his widowed father, and Johnny, living in an abandoned building, has to keep one step ahead of some burly evictors. But Omar's Uncle Nasser (Saeed Jaffrey) comes to the rescue and agrees to employ his nephew, eventually allowing him to manage the eponymous laundrette, at that point nothing more than an unprofitable hangout for skinheads and other local riffraff...
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...
...larger 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...
...complete contrast is Omar's father, sunk very low in his adopted nation, who is presented in the film's opening moments lying on his bed and drinking vodka. As Laundrette unfolds, however, his esteemed past, dignity and ideals come forward; he urges his son to "go to university, become a politician." He also retains a good deal of self-mockery and dry wit. On meeting Johnny at the laundrette's opening, he gently asks "Do you do a pink rinse or are you still a fascist...