Bride and Prejudice - A Bollywood Jane Austen!

Director: Gurinder Chadha
Cast: Aishwarya Rai, Martin Henderson, Anupam Kher, Namrata Shirodkar, Naveen Andrews, Nadira Babbar, Meghana Kothari, Peeya Rai Choudhray, Indira Verma, Daniel Gillies

Rating: PG-13
Genre: Drama; Based on a Book
Movie Overall Rating: ***** (2 star out of 5)

Gurinder Chadha (Bend it like Beckham’s director) made a reinvigorating effort with the classic Jane Austen novel- “Pride and Prejudice”. She reworked its script to Bollywood style and set it globally in Amritsar, Goa, London and Los Angles. The Novel had been adapted to an Indian setting before for an Indian TV soap called ‘Trishna’. But here Chadha moves the story across the seas and changes the conflicts of social status as in the novel, to cross culture disputes in the movie.

The Bennets here are the Bakshis. The father of no great means and four daughters is played by the talented Anupam kher. The popular stage actor Nadira Babbar plays the overbearing and intrusive mother. Mrs. Bakshi’s sole aim here is finding appropriate suitors for her daughters. The daughters Jane, is Jaya (played by Namrata Shirodkar who looks charming despite the little makeup and simpler outfits, to probably not overshadow Aishwarya); Elizabeth or Lizzy, is Lalitha played by the beautiful Aishwarya Rai; Lydia, is the promiscuous Lucky; and Mary, is Maya.

Mr. Bingley is a British Indian Balraj (Naveen Andrews) who has come down from London for a friend’s wedding. He finds himself being appeased by all since he is the most eligible bachelor in town. Will Darcy (Martin Henderson) is an American hotelier who has accompanied Balraj for the India trip to add a luxury hotel in India to his chain. The other prominent characters, Mr. Collins here is Mr. Kholi, the ill-mannered hilarious businessman from LA visiting India to seek a beautiful wife. Johnny Wickham (Daniel Gillies) is the shady, free spirited backpacker who flirts with both Lalitha and Lucky.

Bride and Prejudice can be called a romantic comedy, which picks the substance of the novel, highlights certain aspects and certain characters. And still makes it entertaining. (No movie of course can justify any book). If Austen’s novel had sharp and incisive satire, bright and witty humor; Chadha comes up with wit and verve and many laugh-out-loud funny moments. (The witty repartees intermittently in the movie made an old American gentleman in the front seats consistently laugh, which made my friend think it was sound effects/ applause factor in the movie!)

The movie has flamboyant and lavish settings, bright colors and a lot of music. The movie looks like any Bollywood masala movie except for the conversations and songs being in the English language! The song and dance numbers were fun; it had bhangra, dandia, pop, and gospel singing. All songs except for one were in English. The most hilarious scene, though common in many Hindi movies and unexpected in this one, was the song with Aishwarya and Henderson dancing among fountains and on the beach, with lifeguards and surfers popping in chorus in the background. Hollywood movie audiences surely get an education in Bollywood cinema!

The story has some inadequacies too:
1. The lack of chemistry and attraction between the lead pair Henderson and Aishwarya makes the romance looks pretentious. The other pair Naveen and Namrata probably showed more attraction in the few scenes they got.
2. Aishwarya Rai in spite of her beauty and charm couldn’t hide her conscious awareness that she was acting in an English movie with an American actor. Her acting seemed put on!
3. Henderson looks uneasy and uncomfortable in some scenes too, but his discomfort could be excused as culture shock.
4. The other characters in the movie had smaller roles compared to the lead pair. Chadha doesn’t go deep into any of Austen’s characters, even the lead pair. But of course a movie can’t accomplish the whole book in 2 hours.
5. America and American culture bashing by Lalitha was uncalled for. One can praise one’s country without being disdainful of the others.

The movie scores good points for:
1. Chadha’s choice of Indian setting. It is appropriate, because arranged marriage is still a norm in this country and the conventions of Jane Austen’s novel apply brilliantly here.
2. The brilliant casting of the hilarious Nitin Ganatra, who played a great role as the fumbling Mr. Kholi; Nadira Babbar as Mrs. Bakshi who brought great life to her character.
3. The handling of the scene where Chandra (Sonali Kulkarni) gives her practical reasoning for accepting Mr. Kholi’s proposal on the rebound.
4. The flamboyant settings and vibrant kaleidoscope of colors, elephants and all add spice to the movie.
Bride and Prejudice can be called an entertaining movie!