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My Beautiful Laundrette and Other Writings
Whitbread Prize winner Kureshi is one of a new generation of British writers whose experience is refracted through his Pakistani heritage. These collected screenplays and essays also include "My Son the Fanatic".
170 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1996
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About the author
Hanif Kureishi
131 books1,130 followersHanif Kureishi is the author of novels (including The Buddha of Suburbia, The Black Album and Intimacy), story collections (Love in a Blue Time, Midnight All Day, The Body), plays (including Outskirts, Borderline and Sleep With Me), and screenplays (including My Beautiful Laundrette, My Son the Fanatic and Venus). Among his other publications are the collection of essays Dreaming and Scheming, The Word and the Bomb and the memoir My Ear at His Heart.
Kureishi was born in London to a Pakistani father and an English mother. His father, Rafiushan, was from a wealthy Madras family, most of whose members moved to Pakistan after the Partition of India in 1947. He came to Britain to study law but soon abandoned his studies. After meeting and marrying Kureishi’s mother Audrey, Rafiushan settled in Bromley, where Kureishi was born, and worked at the Pakistan Embassy.
Kureishi attended Bromley Technical High School where David Bowie had also been a pupil and after taking his A levels at a local sixth form college, he spent a year studying philosophy at Lancaster University before dropping out. Later he attended King’s College London and took a degree in philosophy. In 1985 he wrote My Beautiful Laundrette, a screenplay about a gay Pakistani-British boy growing up in 1980’s London for a film directed by Stephen Frears. It won the New York Film Critics Best Screenplay Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay.
His book The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) won the Whitbread Award for the best first novel, and was also made into a BBC television series with a soundtrack by David Bowie. The next year, 1991, saw the release of the feature film entitled London Kills Me; a film written and directed Kureishi.
His novel Intimacy (1998) revolved around the story of a man leaving his wife and two young sons after feeling physically and emotionally rejected by his wife. This created certain controversy as Kureishi himself had recently left his wife and two young sons. It is assumed to be at least semi-autobiographical. In 2000/2001 the novel was loosely adapted to a movie Intimacy by Patrice Chéreau, which won two Bears at the Berlin Film Festival: a Golden Bear for Best Film, and a Silver Bear for Best Actress (Kerry Fox). It was controversial for its unreserved sex scenes. The book was translated into Persian by Niki Karimi in 2005.
He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours.
Kureishi is married and has a pair of twins and a younger son.
Kureishi was born in London to a Pakistani father and an English mother. His father, Rafiushan, was from a wealthy Madras family, most of whose members moved to Pakistan after the Partition of India in 1947. He came to Britain to study law but soon abandoned his studies. After meeting and marrying Kureishi’s mother Audrey, Rafiushan settled in Bromley, where Kureishi was born, and worked at the Pakistan Embassy.
Kureishi attended Bromley Technical High School where David Bowie had also been a pupil and after taking his A levels at a local sixth form college, he spent a year studying philosophy at Lancaster University before dropping out. Later he attended King’s College London and took a degree in philosophy. In 1985 he wrote My Beautiful Laundrette, a screenplay about a gay Pakistani-British boy growing up in 1980’s London for a film directed by Stephen Frears. It won the New York Film Critics Best Screenplay Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay.
His book The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) won the Whitbread Award for the best first novel, and was also made into a BBC television series with a soundtrack by David Bowie. The next year, 1991, saw the release of the feature film entitled London Kills Me; a film written and directed Kureishi.
His novel Intimacy (1998) revolved around the story of a man leaving his wife and two young sons after feeling physically and emotionally rejected by his wife. This created certain controversy as Kureishi himself had recently left his wife and two young sons. It is assumed to be at least semi-autobiographical. In 2000/2001 the novel was loosely adapted to a movie Intimacy by Patrice Chéreau, which won two Bears at the Berlin Film Festival: a Golden Bear for Best Film, and a Silver Bear for Best Actress (Kerry Fox). It was controversial for its unreserved sex scenes. The book was translated into Persian by Niki Karimi in 2005.
He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours.
Kureishi is married and has a pair of twins and a younger son.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 2, 2020
Published 1986. The Rainbow Sign is an autobiographical introduction to Kureishi and his film script, My Beautiful Laundrette (MBL). Like the character Omar in the film, the author is born to an English mother and a Pakistani father. Kureishi and his fictional creation/counterpart (?) are born in England and see themselves as British. They are aware of their racial identity; it would be hard not to, given the importance of the family in Pakistani culture and its power. Kureishi feels to be a stranger when he visits Pakistan for the first time; Omar has never visited his paternal home country and gets some stick, within the tribe, for that. Nonetheless he has little inclination to do so.
The script is set in the UK when ‘Paki bashing’ was much more fashionable, at least within the thuggish element of the white indigenous tribe. Kureishi (he of ‘The Buddha of Suburbia Fame’) is a fine caricaturist/satirist of national and cultural characteristics and he does a fine job here. The British Empire has all but gone but its legacy remains. Its values, inculcated into the inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent, will come back to bite the teacher. In essence they share the same prejudices – a hatred, or at least a distrust - of the ‘outsider’. The term is a catch-all, taking in the most obvious one, skin tone, but also class, the haves and the havenots; the savvy and the savvyless. The white middle classes prize education highly for their children; for the middle class Indian/Pakistani it seems more vital than their religion. Omar’s father, a pretty hopeless alcoholic, is more concerned about his son getting a good education than his making money. Tellingly, when Kureishi visits Pakistan for the first time he is aghast to find that his relations identify more with the Paki basher in the UK than the bashed, seeing the latter as unworthy, uneducated ‘scum’, not representative of the ‘true’ Pakistani.
Johnny and Omar are ‘outsiders’, former school friends and truants who look out for each other. Johnny is a former skinhead who hangs around with a gang of white nationalist thugs. Omar is the carer for his alcoholic and widowed father. The two boys’ paths cross again some years later. Their relationship develops personally and professionally. Johnny provides the muscle and a street wise savvy which is harnessed to Omar’s business ambitions and yields success in Thatcher’s Britain. 'Powders', as the laundrette is called - double entendre if ever there was one - indicates the source of the initial funding. The sexual chemistry between Johnny and Omar is interesting, as is the power dynamics of their relationship. Johnny is able to bridge both communities – white nationalist and asian and he is popular in both camps, but for how long?
The script is set in the UK when ‘Paki bashing’ was much more fashionable, at least within the thuggish element of the white indigenous tribe. Kureishi (he of ‘The Buddha of Suburbia Fame’) is a fine caricaturist/satirist of national and cultural characteristics and he does a fine job here. The British Empire has all but gone but its legacy remains. Its values, inculcated into the inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent, will come back to bite the teacher. In essence they share the same prejudices – a hatred, or at least a distrust - of the ‘outsider’. The term is a catch-all, taking in the most obvious one, skin tone, but also class, the haves and the havenots; the savvy and the savvyless. The white middle classes prize education highly for their children; for the middle class Indian/Pakistani it seems more vital than their religion. Omar’s father, a pretty hopeless alcoholic, is more concerned about his son getting a good education than his making money. Tellingly, when Kureishi visits Pakistan for the first time he is aghast to find that his relations identify more with the Paki basher in the UK than the bashed, seeing the latter as unworthy, uneducated ‘scum’, not representative of the ‘true’ Pakistani.
Johnny and Omar are ‘outsiders’, former school friends and truants who look out for each other. Johnny is a former skinhead who hangs around with a gang of white nationalist thugs. Omar is the carer for his alcoholic and widowed father. The two boys’ paths cross again some years later. Their relationship develops personally and professionally. Johnny provides the muscle and a street wise savvy which is harnessed to Omar’s business ambitions and yields success in Thatcher’s Britain. 'Powders', as the laundrette is called - double entendre if ever there was one - indicates the source of the initial funding. The sexual chemistry between Johnny and Omar is interesting, as is the power dynamics of their relationship. Johnny is able to bridge both communities – white nationalist and asian and he is popular in both camps, but for how long?
June 16, 2024
Mentre il film finisce e scorrono i titoli di coda 😄
L'avevo acquistato perché non sicura di vedere la pellicola in italiano, difficilmente reperibile, in tempi brevi. È trascorso un anno e invece ho avuto la possibilità di godere prima del film.
È la sceneggiatura, ci sono le istruzioni e che cosa succederà nell'inquadratura successiva, chi parla e rivolto a chi. Un po' inutile per chi già conosce il prodotto, tenero e nostalgico comunque per tutti quanti. Quattro stelle per la bella storia 'filmica'.
L'avevo acquistato perché non sicura di vedere la pellicola in italiano, difficilmente reperibile, in tempi brevi. È trascorso un anno e invece ho avuto la possibilità di godere prima del film.
È la sceneggiatura, ci sono le istruzioni e che cosa succederà nell'inquadratura successiva, chi parla e rivolto a chi. Un po' inutile per chi già conosce il prodotto, tenero e nostalgico comunque per tutti quanti. Quattro stelle per la bella storia 'filmica'.
May 29, 2024
I fucking love this movie so was delighted to see a copy of the screenplay in the library (weirdly next to villette? Haha) . The autobiographical part - The Rainbow Sign - is an excellent, funny and sad take down of Thatcherism and uneasily post-colonial Britain. Kureishi accurately diagnoses that Britain must reinvent itself, and predicts the failings which we have now seen come to pass. Very interesting hearing about middle class Pakistanis vigorously getting involved in small business culture and voting Tory, and how Britain suppresses community, actual disagreement and thought. We all know British public life was dead if it ever existed.
The screenplay itself also reveals much of the political life that the film found it hard to explicitly display. It is also very queer in a matter of fact way that is simply not a problem to the protagonists although they each deal with it differently.
Highly recommend this - not just to My Beautiful Laundrette fans :)
The screenplay itself also reveals much of the political life that the film found it hard to explicitly display. It is also very queer in a matter of fact way that is simply not a problem to the protagonists although they each deal with it differently.
Highly recommend this - not just to My Beautiful Laundrette fans :)
October 31, 2021
Nothing is black or white just shades of ugly or beautiful-
February 11, 2011
The Rainbow Sign explains nicely where Kureishi was coming from with My Beautiful Laundrette. And the introduction to the screenplay was illuminating. It definitely made sense that the film had originally been envisioned as an epic, life-spanning gangster thriller with bits of humor thrown in. And that Kureishi had made conscious efforts to minimize dialogue and maximize action (often, unfortunately, at the expense of a coherent narrative). Reading the screenplay after seeing the movie definitely clarified and solidified my opinions about the film, and helped me appreciate more of its humorous dimensions (with the understanding that they were intended to be so). Characters' motives remain puzzling to me, though. And Tania still confuses me. And I don't get Omar's grinning personality (which was apparently what Kureishi wanted, since he wrote the part with the actor in mind...)
May 23, 2019
The Rainbow Sign was absolutely fantastic, a required read. However, while I adore My Beautiful Laundrette, I have to admit it that the concept is better than the execution. In the introduction, Kureishi mentions that he replaced a large amount of dialogue with stage directions "as films require action." This assertion is certainly true, but even the actions in the script often leave questions in the reader's mind. Still, a good read and certainly one I'd recommend.
June 27, 2021
The movie was so, so unusual but I very much enjoyed the screenplay—reading it definitely gave it more of a Scorsese feel, though it’s also a movie that could only be set in England, perhaps. I could never tell, though, whether Kureishi considers My Beautiful Laundrette a love story driven by race/class politics or vice versa—a movie about English race/class politics made possible because of its love story.
This particular version is absolutely worth seeking for the brief essay on the making of My Beautiful Laundrette, as well as The Rainbow Sign, a longer essay about growing up between Pakistani and English worlds. There’s a sharp moment where he talks about retreating into music and writing down the speeches of politicians who influenced the neo-Nazi attitudes he saw emerging in the 60s, something he called “keeping the accounts.” And moreover, he recalls how he’d come to find heroes in the Black Panthers and James Baldwin, the latter being “intelligence and love combined.”
This particular version is absolutely worth seeking for the brief essay on the making of My Beautiful Laundrette, as well as The Rainbow Sign, a longer essay about growing up between Pakistani and English worlds. There’s a sharp moment where he talks about retreating into music and writing down the speeches of politicians who influenced the neo-Nazi attitudes he saw emerging in the 60s, something he called “keeping the accounts.” And moreover, he recalls how he’d come to find heroes in the Black Panthers and James Baldwin, the latter being “intelligence and love combined.”
May 25, 2025
Not too much to say about this, but I loved Kureishi’s foreword. It was insightful, and I used it extensively for my university essay. He was beautifully articulate in his description of his experiences as a British Asian man, and his disillusionment with both sides of his identity.
5 stars because it served its purpose wonderfully well (and it’s a fantastic screenplay).
5 stars because it served its purpose wonderfully well (and it’s a fantastic screenplay).
February 12, 2024
*Review for My Beautiful Laundrette only
Literally be gay do crime.
Also, I was annotating this like one of those booktok romance readers with hearts everywhere because it’s just too cute at times.
Can’t wait to actually rewatch it.
Literally be gay do crime.
Also, I was annotating this like one of those booktok romance readers with hearts everywhere because it’s just too cute at times.
Can’t wait to actually rewatch it.
August 2, 2012
Though I have taken out a copy of the book "My Beautiful Laundrette and the Rainbow Sign' I commenting specifically on "The Rainbow Sign". Kureishi's world is one that I have hardly delved into during my literary adventures. Kureishi describes his own experience as a "Paki" not to be confused with a "Pakistani" in this short autobiographical story. I enjoyed it for what it was; a short story. Do not be deterred by the lack of stars; this story was not my kettle of fish, but the language and the style is one that I truly admire. The subtle humor and wit is something that not many authors are able to master, but Hanif Kureishi has done it with experience and taste.
December 12, 2022
I have rented the movie, but wanted to read the story first.
Yes, I thought it was a story.
It was interesting to read a non-traditional movie script, and I am interested in seeing how it translates to the screen.
I am sad to say it felt a bit meh on paper, so I have high expectations for the movie.
As for the non-fiction writings at the end, I learnt a lot, by googling and talking with my British boyfriend about things Hanif brings up, even if it was before our times.
Yes, I thought it was a story.
It was interesting to read a non-traditional movie script, and I am interested in seeing how it translates to the screen.
I am sad to say it felt a bit meh on paper, so I have high expectations for the movie.
As for the non-fiction writings at the end, I learnt a lot, by googling and talking with my British boyfriend about things Hanif brings up, even if it was before our times.
April 13, 2007
Interesting enough - vaguely remember enjoying the film more than the book!
June 11, 2015
Enjoyable and interesting but not the best-written of works.
July 4, 2019
Definitely liked the movie better than the book.
April 27, 2017
The Rainbow Sign is fantastic, and having watched My Beautiful Laundrette a number of times, it's fun to see things that were changed from the script.
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May 26, 2019I have the german edition: Mein wunderbarer Waschsalon
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews