Profile of Hanif Kureishi on Famous Like Me

Hanif Kureishi (born December 5, 1954 in London), is a Pakistani-British playwright, author, and director on topics of race, nationalism, immigration, and sexuality. He is married and has three sons.

His most famous production was My Beautiful Laundrette, a play about a gay, Pakistani-British boy growing up in 1980's London. My Beautiful Laundrette was later made into a film. 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 book Intimacy (1998) created some controversy. The story includes a man leaving his wife and 2 young sons, for he feels physically and emotionally rejected by his wife. The controversy was not the novel itself, but the fact that the author himself, had just recently left his wife and 2 young sons. In 2000/2001 the novel was loosely adapted to a movie Intimacy by Patrice Chéreau. Its a tragedy about dreams, which do not come true for the lovers do not want to hurt others, or even break up a family. The movie 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 next controversy was about his drama The Mother adapted to a movie by Roger Michell, which won a joint First Prize in the Director’s Fortnight section at Cannes Film Festival. It showed a cross-generational relationship with changed roles: a seventy-year-old English lady and grandmother (Anne Reid) dares to seduce the boy-friend (Peter Vaughan) of her daughter, a thirty-year-old craftsman. Too permissive sex scenes this time are approached via the arts: shown in realistic drawings only, thus avoiding censorship.

Timeline

• 1954 Born in London.
• 1976 First play, Soaking the Heat, staged at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs.
• 1979 The King and Me produced at the Soho Poly.
• 1980 The Mother Country staged in the Riverside Studios' Plays Umbrella season.
• 1981 Wins the George Devine Award for Outskirts, presented at the Warehouse at the Soho Poly; Borderline another play of his' opens at the Royal Court Theatre.
• 1982 Becomes Writer-in-Residence at the Royal Court.
• 1983 Birds of Passage opens at Hampstead Theatre.
• 1984 Adaptation of Mother Courage staged at the Barbican
• 1985 Film My Beautiful Laundrette released. Kureishi’s first screenplay, director Stephen Frears, My Beautiful Laundrette is nominated for BAFTA Best Screenplay Award. Wins New York Film Critics Best Screenplay Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay.
• 1988 Film Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, written by Kureishi released. The screenplay, together with Kureishi's diary about making the film with director Stephen Frears, has since been published.
• 1990 The Buddha of Suburbia published. Novel wins the Whitbread Award for the best first novel.
• 1991 Release of film London Kills Me, written and directed by Kureishi.
• 1993 Adapts The Buddha of Suburbia for broadcast as 4 part BBC TV Miniseries, soundtrack by David Bowie.
• 1993 Adaptation of Mother Courage produced as a mobile tour in the UK by the National's education department.
• 1995 Second novel The Black Album published. The Faber Book of Pop edited with Jon Savage published.
• 1997 Collection of short stories, Love in a Blue Time, published.
• 1998 Film release of My Son the Fanatic, adapted from his short story by Kureishi for film. Third novel Intimacy is published.
• 1999 Production of his play Sleep with Me at the Royal National Theatre. Second collection of short stories, Midnight All Day published in the UK in November.
• 2001 The novel Intimacy was loosely adapted to a movie Intimacy by Patrice Chéreau which won the Berlin Film Festival as best film
• 2001 His fourth novel Gabriel's Gift (Faber and Faber publ.) deals with a father son conflict.
• 2001 A book about Hanif Kureishi is published in the Contemporary World Writers' serial, ed. B. J. Moore, Manchester Univ. Press.
• 2003 His novel The Body is published by Faber and Faber and highly praised.
• 2003 The drama The Mother (about a cross-generational relationship) is published, the adapted movie (by Roger Michell) wins a joint first prize in the Director’s Fortnight section at Cannes Film Festival.
• 2004 My Ear at His Heart is an autobiography, dealing with his youth in London, his first attempts of becoming an artist and philosopher, and shows the influences his father had on him as a writer.

External link

• http://www.hanifkureishi.com/ His official homepage
• Hanif Kureishi at www.contemporarywriters.com
• Hanif Kureishi at the Internet Movie Database

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