Bride & Prejudice

It's no new news that Chaddha's 'Bride and Brejudice' is based on Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice'. Chaddha Bollywoodizes the film by adding numerous songs, dance numbers, setting it in India and casting Indian actors but she also tries to Hollywoodize it by casting Hollywood actors. So this is what has been called a 'crossover' film.

Result: I found it to be very boring. The screenplay drags. The lead pair have no chemistry. Rai is strictly okay in some scenes and wooden in others. Hendersen is wooden in most scenes. Kulkarni deserved a much better role. Shirodkar is grateful and makes her presence felt. Kothari's snake dance is one of the plus points. Alexis Bledel has a tiny role but I just had to mention her. It's hilarious. Most of the songs are sleep inducing. No Life Without Wife looks funny but the song itself is irritating. Ashanti's item number is unintentionally funny.

Chaddha was probably too focused on making 'Bride and Brejudice' into a Bollywood meets Hollywood film which is why the film failed (in terms of screenplay, performances as) as a whole. The colourful locations and set design are pleasant but you can see those in numerous much better Indian movies that would be more worthy of your time.

A fun movie. I watched it twice, once at the theater and once on DVD. The DVD has extended versions of the song and dance sequences which were also great.

What I like about this movie: Well, first of all, the fun factor. The pretty stars, the toe-tapping music, the dance sequences, the scenery of India, England and the US. These things all added up to pretty tasty eye-candy.

I also liked the international flavor and themes of the film. As was pointed out in the DVD commentary, it was a British film with a decidedly non-Eurocentric point of view. It was this while being a populist film at the same time. There are Indian actors from India, as well as British Indians and US Indians. Of course, there are white folk too.

The movie handles conflict between "Western arrogance" and native defensiveness without making one side more righteous than the other. And, of course, in the end, love conquers all. Well, love and wealth conquers all... Which leads me to what I didn't like about the film.

I have to admit, one reason I liked the film was because I loved looking at the beautiful, young actresses. So, maybe it is a tad hypocritical of me that the biggest turn-off was that the main appeal of the male protagonists (to the female characters) was their wealth and power.

Anyway. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and recommend it highly.

OK, if you don't like people breaking into song unexpectedly, don't go see this movie - let me just say that upfront!

I went to see this re-work of my favourite novel and thought it would be atrocious and envisaged walking out of the theatre in disgust in advance. What I got was an explosion of colour and music, Bollywood style, and sure some of the songs were pretty awful, but hey, there were a few terrible numbers in Grease too, and I still love that movie!

The lead players were all virtually unknown to me but they were perfect in their roles. The role of Lalita (the Elizabeth role in the original book) was perfectly cast - she was beautiful and she really held the whole movie together. And Martin Henderson was perfect as the American version of the disdainful Mr Darcy, this time Mr Will Darcy.

Go and see this film if you are open to something new - it really is quite a faithful re-work of the story, and it is very entertaining.

The only people who won't enjoy this are people who hate musicals with a passion, or people who are purists to the original.

If you liked Chicago, then you can definitely enjoy this one too. (That also had some dodgy old songs, but the story carried you past those parts!)

Bring on the Bollywood!

Inspired by Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, this Western-style Bollywood musical can't possibly achieve the heights that a union of the best of East and West movie making and English literature might suggests, but it manages to fulfil a delightful couple of hours of song and dance that Western cinema these days struggles to accomplish.

Like the novel, Bride and Prejudice uses the ideas that that first impressions are often wrong, and that a person can mature if he or she keeps an open mind. The unlikely courtship of Mr Darcy and (in our movie) a beautiful Indian girl starts with mutual contempt, but moves forward as they become wiser and learn that their first instincts, based on pride, prejudice and illusions, were wrong.

The scene moves between Amritsar and Goa to London and Beverley Hills, all in brighter-than-bright super-saturated colour, with an assortment of equally colourful characters, wonderful costumes, lavish dance pieces and heavenly bollywood-style ballads. While almost everything is in English (except for a few subtitled songs), nearly all the characters are top Indian performers.

In the golden age of musicals, stars such as Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire had a whole sub-industry to draw on for good dancers who could also sing and act well, plus the technicians used to producing high-end musicals. As demand waned, so did supply, and the West is now hard pressed to produce song and dance films that don't rely on snappy editing to suggest good dancing from top actors, or heavy coaching to suggest top dancers can act. Bollywood, on the other hand, has no such shortage, and Bride and Prejudice is the sumptuously choreographed musical with Indian dancing that has become nigh impossible with western dancers.

Admittedly it's a bit cheesy at times - but it's self-consciously so, and as endearing as warm, gushy Indian hospitality. The sets and dialogue give authentic, if stereotypical, glimpses of Indian life and values. Like many east-meets-west movies, the stereotypes are a handle to allow easy assimilation of foreign ideas, and the heavy Indian involvement wards off any tendency to patronise (which is one of the themes explored in the film).

This is not high drama or high art, but it's an accomplished romantic comedy / song-and-dance film, and one that warms the heart and makes you want to wave your arms in the air Indian-dance-style for the sheer joy and exuberance of happy endings.

Unless you're just determined not to have a good time, I can't imagine how you could watch "Bride & Prejudice" and not come out of it with a smile on your face. Colorful, splashy, cheesy, and starring a bunch of gorgeous actors, both male and female, it updates Jane Austen's classic tale and tells it in the style of a Bollywood musical.

Like most Bollywood musicals, the music in this is catchy while it's playing, but you won't remember any of it afterwards, since there are no strong discernible melodies. And the dance numbers aren't necessarily dance numbers so much as they are choreographed movement. But everything is sold so energetically that the festive mood is infectious.

Aishwarya Rai just may be the most beautiful woman on the face of the earth, but women viewers will have plenty of eye candy to keep them happy as well. And fans of Marsha Mason will be pleased, as she makes an unexpected cameo late in the film.

A treat.

Grade: A-