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My Beautiful Laundrette (1985)

15 97 min  -  Comedy | Drama | Romance  -   April 1986 (USA)
6.9
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Ratings: 6.9/10 from 6,609 users  
Reviews: 45 user | 31 critic

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

Director:

Stephen Frears
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Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Saeed Jaffrey Saeed Jaffrey ...
Nasser Ali
Roshan Seth ...
Hussein Ali
Daniel Day-Lewis ...
Johnny (as Daniel Day Lewis)
Gordon Warnecke Gordon Warnecke ...
Derrick Branche Derrick Branche ...
Salim N. Ali
Rita Wolf Rita Wolf ...
Souad Faress Souad Faress ...
Cherry N. Ali
Richard Graham Richard Graham ...
Genghis
Shirley Anne Field Shirley Anne Field ...
Rachel
Winston Graham Winston Graham ...
Jamaican One
Charu Bala Chokshi Charu Bala Chokshi ...
Bilquis (as Charu Bala Choksi)
Dudley Thomas Dudley Thomas ...
Jamaican Two
Garry Cooper ...
Squatter
Neil Cunningham Neil Cunningham ...
Englishman
Persis Maravala Persis Maravala ...
Nasser's Elder Daughter
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Storyline

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... Written by Huggo  

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Plot Keywords:

England | Laundromat | Thatcher | Mistress | Pakistani  | See more »

Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English | Urdu (some dialogue)

Release Date:

(USA) See more »

Also Known As:

Én szép kis mosodám See more »

Box Office

Budget:

£650,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$2,451,545 (USA)
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Company Credits

Show detailed company contact information on IMDbPro »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1
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Did You Know?

Trivia

My Beautiful Laundrette and A Room with a View both opened in New York on the same day, March 7, 1986. Both movies featured Daniel Day-Lewis in prominent and very different roles: in A Room with a View, he played a repressed, snobbish Edwardian upperclassman, while in Laundrette, he played a lower-class gay ex-skinhead in love with an ambitious Pakistani businessman in Thatcher's London. When American critics saw Day-Lewis, who was then virtually unknown in the US, in two such different roles on the same day, many (including Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times and Vincent Canby of The New York Times) raved about the talent it must have taken him to play such vastly different characters. See more »

Quotes

[first lines]
Johnny: We're moving house.
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Connections

Referenced in "Seinfeld: The Stakeout (#1.1)" (1990) See more »