My Beautiful Laundrette

An ambitious Asian Briton and his white lover strive for success and hope, when they open up a glamorous laundromat.

My Beautiful Laundrette



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 him. Johnny and Omar have a special relationship, but one that has gone through its ups and downs, the downs fostered by anti-immigration sentiments of white England. Omar and Johnny each have to evaluate if their ideals of success are worth it at all cost. Written by Huggo





An Immigrant from Karachi, Pakistan, Nasser Hussein lives a fairly wealthy lifestyle in London, England, along with his Caucasian wife, Cherry; son - Salim; and three daughters, one of! whose name is Tania. He owns and operates two businesses name! ly a gar age, and 'Churchill's Laundrette'. When his widower and alcoholic brother asks him to hire his son, Omar, Nasser meets with him, and initially asks him to wash cars. Subsequently he takes him to the laundrette, asks him to mope it's floors, but decides to let Omar manage it, and hopes to wed him with Tania. Nasser does not realize that soon the laundrette will have a new look and name 'Powders', and the lives of the Husseins will also never be the same again. Written by rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)





My Beautiful Laundrette is set within the Asian community in London, during the Thatcher years, and displays those values, of money but 'anybody can make it.' Omar gains the running of his Uncle Nasser's laundrette. He is helped by his friend Johnny who is an outsider, white but not entirely accepted by either the white or Asian Londoners. There are many memorable characters: Tania, Omar's cousin whom he might marry. Salim the manager of Nasser's gara! ge and sometime drug importer. Rachel, Nasser's white mistress, who like Johnny seems to be another outsider. Written by Matthew Stanfield <mattst@cogs.susx.ac.uk>

Genres: Comedy Drama Romance

Release year: 1985