Buddha of Suburbia RE-RELEASE [DVD]

I had been waiting for this DVD for ages, as I fondly remembered many scenes from the original TV series (1993, that was). It portrays a phase in the life of a mid-1970s teenager, half Pakistani (I think - could be half Indian) half English, in suburban London. His dad is drawn into a kind of guru-ship by wealthy suburbanites eager for the latest 'real thing' - a mysterious eastern foreigner giving them spiritual enlightenment. This real thing is pretty fake - Dad is a Muslim, and a proper Brit to boot. Karim, the teenager, is taken along for a few of the 'seances' and is drawn into all kinds of trouble - sexual, moral, spiritual and whatnot. But all he wants (apart from getting laid and listening to excellent music) is... he's not sure. Something else. Everybody is using him in one way or another, and he wants to be himself - though he's not sure what that is, either.Good plot, lots of storylines, excellent 70s background, great music, brilliant acting. I was going to give this four stars, as I really only give five for almost perfect 'things' - but I realized this *is* almost perfect, so there you go. Great fun.

Very reasonable price good quality

A funny and insightful comment on the social values of the time, and still very entertaining. You don't need to have read the book to enjoy it, but I think those who have will appreciate the accurate casting and character representation. Excellent.

Having grown up in Orpington in the 70's this is so redolent of my youth! All of the characters are recognisable as real people i knew, especially Charlie and his adventures in the Music Biz! (Show me someone who came from Bromley at this time and wasn't in as punk band and I;ll show you someone who wasn't really there!)This is a well-scripted, plotted and paced tale, with enough laughs along the way to keep it light-hearted.

I remembered Buddha of Suburbia from when I was a teenager, watching it in my room, away from my parents. I remembered the sex and the gay storylines. What I didn't remember was this amazing protrayal of life at the end of the 70s, when hippies turned into punks, idealism into realism, and polical activism into apathy, Asian cultural issues meeting racism, cross cultural marriages etc etc. I love it!!!

I wanted to watch this again as I hadn't seen it since the second BBC 2 repeat in 1995 but having bought it I was very upset to see large chunks of it missing as it's clearly an edited version. Many great scences and great lines and concepts gone which is not how Roger and Kevin intended. Lovely to see the late great Susan Fleetwood again as she was wonderful as Eva and Naveen and Roshan Seth put in beautiful performances too. This is a masterpiece and beautifully shot by John McGlashan with a fine cast of actors, wonderful costumes and make up. Would definitely look to get the whole series 4 x 60mins rather than this version which seems to have more than 25 mins missing.

Very good to see this excellent dramatisation again. Great cast and production!

The series is a meandering load of rubbish. I was pleased to see the DVD had a nice surprise --- a bonus commentary by writer & director on it as well. The director tries to add some comments but Kureishi is practically comatose.