My Beautiful Laundrette

My Beautiful Laundrette centres on Omar, a young British Pakistani living in south London with his father, a former journalist who has turned to drink. Omar's uncle Nasser, a prosperous businessman with ties to the criminal underworld, puts him in charge of a rundown laundrette. Omar sets about restoring it, and he takes on as his partner Johnny, a white former schoolfriend who once ran with a far-right gang that terrorised the local Asian community. The two become lovers, a relationship that unsettles both Omar's family and those around them, while the laundrette's success draws resentment from former associates.

Stephen Frears directed the film, the third of the twenty-three features listed for him in chronological order, following The Hit and preceding Dangerous Liaisons. Hanif Kureishi wrote the screenplay, and Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe produced. Gordon Warnecke plays Omar, with Daniel Day-Lewis as Johnny, Roshan Seth as Omar's father, Saeed Jaffrey as Nasser, and Derrick Branche and Rita Wolf among a credited cast of thirty-one.

Released in November 1985, the film earned about 2 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 6.8 out of 10 from roughly 19,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.7 from a much smaller base of 324 votes. A critics' rating of 7.9 from 103 reviews places it noticeably higher than either audience score, indicating stronger approval among reviewers than among general viewers.