Amazon.co.uk Review
The exotic sounds, vibrant colours, and ecstatic dancing of Bollywood collide with the cunning storytelling of Jane Austen in Bride & Prejudice (from the writer/director of previous East/West hybrid Bend It Like Beckham). When smart, outspoken Lalita Bakshi (Indian beauty Aishwarya Rai) meets Will Darcy (Martin Henderson, The Ring), she finds this American businessman arrogant and conceited--but because his best friend is falling in love with her sister, Lalita agrees to travel around India with Darcy. On the trip, a childhood friend of Darcy's named Johnny (Daniel Gillies, Spider-Man 2) both tickles Lalita's fancy and confirms her worst suspicions about Darcy. But as events unfold, Lalita wonders if she hasn't misjudged Darcy--and Johnny. Austen fans will be find much to criticize; Bride & Prejudice transplants the basic plot of Pride & Prejudice to modern India, but not much of Austen's sly wit or her insights about character and society have survived the translation. Henderson, though handsome, lacks the intimidating charisma of previous Mr. Darcys (including Laurence Olivier and Colin Firth). Thank goodness for the delightful Rai, here making her first all-English-language movie. She commands the screen like a true star (unsurprisingly, she's hugely popular in India, and previously starred in a more homegrown Austen adaptation: I Have Found It, based on Sense & Sensibility). For Western audiences unfamiliar with the freewheeling exuberance of Indian movies--wild musical numbers can break out at almost any moment--Bride & Prejudice offers an engaging taste of this fantastic cinematic style. --Bret Fetzer
Customer Reviews:
Culture Clash and Romance.......2008-02-02
Gurinder Chadha produces a fantastic film with a new twist to the classical conundrum: how does an independent minded female connect with the opposite sex? Jane Austen could never in her wildest dreams imagine the outstanding Bollywood like dance and music numbers which make this film such a delightful viewing experience. Ashanti does a magical song and dance called "Take Me to Love." The Bakshi sisters sing and express appropriate sentiment in "No Life without Wife" which is a delightful song mocking the awkward attempts by Mr. Kholi, an accountant of Indian background who lives near Hollywood, who returned to Amritsar, India to find himself a wife. Despite his obvious material successes in the USA, which he keeps pointing out to the Bakshi family, he can not connect socially with the right kind of female who appreciates his hard work and who possesses the cultural traits which he is seeking in a wife ... Mrs Bakshi is over-joyed to present and introduce her daughters to him. She wishes to marry her daughters off, one after the other to socially prominent, wealthy successful men, with the goal of climbing to a higher social class. The humorous lyrics of the song and amusing delivery by the Bakshi sisters captures the mood and feeling of the film.
Nor could Jane Austen envision the beautiful Lalita played by one of India's most gorgeous and popular actresses, Aishwarya Rai. Mrs Bakshi plays a well meaning but scheming mother whose main concern is marrying off each of her four daughters to wealthy but worthy gentlemen of suitable families. Mr. Bakshi is a devoted and doting father who worked hard to build his business into a success. It provides his family a comfortable middle class lifestyle, nonetheless it still leaves his wife trying to improve upon the social status of her daughters through suitable marriage matches ... Lalita is the most beautiful and outspoken of the four girls in the Bakshi family. She is pleased her older sister Jaya met a barrister from London, who is of Indian background, whose busy lifestyle prevented him from meeting eligible female companions. He obviously fell head over heels in love with the lovely and quiet Jaya, after returning to Amritsar for exactly the purpose of finding a wife. His sister came along on the trip as did a wealthy American friend whose family is in the hotel business. The American friend, Will Darcy is captivated by the beauty, quick mind and outspoken nature of Lalita. She assertively voices her opinions which is not a trait held in high esteem by most eligible handsome wealthy bachelors. Will discovers Lalita is intriguing and attractive yet is put off by her outspokenness. He occassionally finds himself on the defensive when conversing with her but in the end her ideas cause him to ponder and question his personal values ... and also the ethical motives behind business deals.
Lalita also discovers to her chagrin she is attracted to Will who is a handsome, worthy and intelligent opponent ... At social gatherings they manage to magnetize and repel each other with their heated debates about social and cultural values and differences. To Lalita's surprise, one of her best friends agrees to an arranged marriage to Mr. Kholi ... The Bakshi family is sent an invitaton to the wedding along with economy class airline tickets to attend the ceremony in America. The wedding takes place on the grounds of the magnificent hotel owned by Will Darcy's family. Will takes Lalita on a whirlwind tour of California and the Southwest. She sees a different side to Will Darcy, one she never knew existed. She falls in love with him but then overhears someone whisper how something Will had said to his Indian barrister friend caused the break up of his romance with her sister Jaya ... Lalita is broken hearted and devasted. She confronts Will. He admits the break-up was his fault. The reader must view the film to discover how these two people of such vastly different backgrounds make peace and rekindle their romance and love. In the end it burns brighter than ever. The film is filled with passion, energy, romance, class differences, cultural clashes and to the viewer's immense satisfaciton, a happy ending. It is a colorful pageantry of the sights, sounds, and music of India in the best Bollywood tradition. A most hightly recommended film. Erika Borsos [pepper flower]
Histerical.......2007-10-31
I love this movie, its funny, light hearted and not too serious or emotional something to relax and kick back. An indian movie in English =)
Pride and Prejudice with 'Laughter, colour, light and sound'.......2007-07-26
'Bride& Prejudice' is a fun, entertaining movie. I think that if you are feeling a little down, this movie will no doubt cheer you up. The movie is based on the story of Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen but if the Janeites and other Jane Austen lovers are looking for a faithful adaptation, you might be slightly disappointed. Some situations are different from the book and the names were changed to look more authentic. After all, it is a modern version with a great deal of dancing and singing; The result is that it is more a Bollywood movie which takes up some elements of the original story than an adaptation of the novel. But if you don't know much about the Bolloywood genre, this might be a good start.
Lalita (Aishwarya Rai)is a strong-willed, spirited but idealist young woman who lives in India with her three sisters who are not married yet. Just as Mrs Bakshi is anxious to marry them to rich gentlemen, Baraj ( handsome Naveen Andrews), an English barrister from Indian origin, arrives in India with his sister and his friend, Will Darcy (Martin Handerson), a rich American hotel-owner. Darcy is soon attracted to Lalita but they come from two different backgrounds and not only pride and prejudice oppose them but also their own distinctive cultures...
The dances (the 'No life without wife' is a must-see) are really superb and very creative. It is very colourful (the costumes are exceptional) and the songs are beautiful. Some characters are really irresistible like Mr Koli and you can't help laughing at some delightful situations, at some comments by Mr Koli or at some memorable scenes like the Snake Dance of Lalita's sister, Maya.
'Bride and Prejudice' is not the best movie you may ever see but you definitely shouldn't miss it. It is a must-see.
blazing!.......2006-10-25
Charismatic actors, nice songs, color everywhere, and very funny scenes... Bride and Prejudice is a must-have! only the ending is too short to my mind; everything is concluded too rapidly.
the best movie interpretation of Jane Austen yet.......2006-07-28
This is a virtuoso performance by the director. She manages to set most of Pride and Prejudice's storyline into a cross-cultural Indian-Western setting, deftly using the oft belabored "arranged marriage" theme to represent what was also the main social goal of women during Jane Austen's time. The setting is brought off perfectly -- a very difficult job, in view of the requirements of "Bollywood" movies for sing and dance pieces; here, the sing and dance pieces move the story along, stand for the social entertainment of the times (Lizzy spends hours at the piano providing dancing music, with Darcy listening), and provide color, excellent music, and, most importantly, fun. Lizzy is an ebullient and irrepressible character, as Jane Austen makes clear through her characterization, but also in direct author's remarks to the reader. Her singing, but most dancing in this movie does a great job of conveying this exuberance. Just watch the garba episode! The director also pokes fun at this very tradition of "interrupting" the movie for song and dance, but in an inspired way -- the song and dance on the beach, featuring a black church choir, is a stroke of genius, because it rings true and is at the same time nearly ridiculous, poking gentle fun at itself.
Northern Indians are fond of bright colors, something this movie displays in abundance. While very colorful, the clothes are simply gorgeous -- and the radiant Aishwarya Rai, already the most strikingly beautiful actress anywhere, looks simply breathtaking in her outfits as Lalita/Lizzy. No wonder Darcy falls in love at first sight!
The actors are excellent at their jobs, even though most members of Lizzy's family are painted in a more sympathetic light than in the book. Kitty, who is pretty much a cipher in the book anyway, is entirely omitted, while Mary/Maya provides more comic relief than in the book. Darcy's friend is once again cast in an intercultural light, as Balraj, a wealthy British barrister of Indian origin -- and is strikingly attractive as well as simpatico; here we can well understand Jane's immediate attraction to him. Once again, the movie is gentler than the book when it comes to his sister, who can be catty (watch her predatory smile as she offers cakes in her London mansion), but ultimately enjoys life too much to be really nasty.
I found the two actors who play Lizzy's parents to be outstanding and finely matched to the softened characterization chosen by the director. Darcy (who stays Darcy in the movie, the only one to do so with his sister and his now mother, Catherine) and his bosom friend Balraj are great. But the two who steal the show are Aishwarya Rai, by her beauty, her truly Lizzy-like wit and fast eyebrows, and her power to evoke dreams as easily as daily drab, and an actor who was entirely unknown to me who plays Mr. Collins, the character who, in the book, will inherit the estate and marries Charlotte, Lizzy's best friend. Here, he is an accountant in California and does work for Darcy's (god)mother. His character has to be one of the great comic creations in movies; his spectacular braying laugh, his unbelievable table manners ("like watching a Jackson Pollock painting", says Lizzy-Lalita), his simple belief in money, all mixed with his obvious devotion to his wife and generally good character, make for an unforgettable performance. I do not know who created this character, who, in the book, is simply a pompous and obsequious ass; but the notion, for instance, of marking him as an ass by having him bray at every "bon mot", while giving him sufficient redeeming qualities not to turn him into a simple churl, is brilliant.
Pride and Prejudice is my favorite book; I must have read it at least 40 times cover to cover. Past movie settings tried to reproduce the English and period setting and never quite got to what the book really conveys, which is pretty much timeless; this movie only tries to get to the heart of the book -- the dilemma every woman in the book faced when coming of age and the hesitant, on again and off again, relationship between a very serious Darcy and a very ebullient Lizzy, and succeeds brilliantly. I am well on my way to matching my number of book readings by my number of movie watchings -- and watching the movie made me re-read the book a few more times as well. THere is alway more to discover in Jane Austen's writings and, incredibly, I keep discovering more nice small touches (Charlotte's mother's pushing her into the dance at the first dance scene, for instance) in the movie. The movie is dense; not as richly textured as, say, Lord of the Rings (one of the few movies to really make one feel "there" because of the incredibly dense quality of each setting), but still much richer than most contemporary movies. Very highly recommended!
Customer Reviews:
Bollywood Lite.......2006-11-03
If you are looking to get a feel for what a Bollywood movie might be like, this will give you a taste, while still being grounded in the more familiar English and American styles. Filmed mostly in England, there were exterior scenes filmed in India and the United States as well. "Bride & Prejudice" was first released in the United Arab Emirates on October 6th of 2004, which was shortly followed by its release in India, the United Kingdom and France on October 8th. One interesting fact mentioned in the commentary, is that it was the number one film in both India and the United Kingdom when it opened, which no other film has ever done. The film was not released in the United States until February 11th of 2005.
As one might easily guess, this is an adaptation of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", adding in the Bollywood musical numbers, and updating the story to be about a wealthy American, William Darcy (Martin Henderson), and a poor Indian woman, Lalita Bakshi (Aishwarya Rai), who is one of four daughters that her mother is trying to marry off. This movie is at times hilariously funny, and at other times cheesily romantic. The movie was directed by Gurinder Chadha, who also directed "Bend It like Beckham" (2002).
The best moments of the movie for me were the songs "Marriage Song", and "No Life without Wife", and the hilarious snake dance scene. The weaknesses were in some of the acting, in particular for the role of William Darcy. I am not very familiar with Martin Henderson, so I am not sure if the problem was acting or direction, but I thought the performance was very wooden overall. I think the movie also suffered from being based on a fairly long book, so they had to cut it down a lot, especially to fit in the long elaborate musical numbers.
The DVD has a nice set of features, including deleted scenes, extended versions of the songs, Ashanti's song, a featurette on the making of "Bride & Prejudice", interviews with Aishwarya Rai and Martin Henderson, and a feature length commentary by Gurinder Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges. I would not call this a great movie, but I certainly was entertained by it. Overall, I would like to give it 3 ½ stars because this is clearly above average, however Amazon doesn't allow reviewers to do that. So in choosing between 3 and 4 stars, I would have to say it is closer to a 3 star item than a 4 star one.
Jane Austen done Bollywood style means fun, fun, fun!.......2005-08-02
"Bride and Prejudice" is a lot of fun. I have never seen a "Bollywood" movie before, so this was a totally new experience for me. I liked the orgy of bright colors and was intrigued by the dancing, which certainly made the songs more memorable for their rhythms than their lyrics. But what is wrong with that? Dancing with a sense of grace seems beyond me, but I think I could do some of the dances in this movie and lose some weight. Especially if I am trying to do the extended versions of the four big dance numbers provided in the special features. They were, to repeat the initial sentiment expressed above, fun. It has been a while since I have seen a movie and just had fun watching it. After all, I know what is going to happen, so stressing style over substance is fine with me.
I found the idea of putting Jane Austen's novel in the context of a modern family in India totally charming at face value, especially knowing that director Gurinder Chadha ("Bend It Like Beckahm") was the one making the movie. My familiarity with the story of the Bennett family is such that I was instantly able to recognize who was now who in the new configuration and what the corresponding scene from the novel would be for most of what was happening. I liked a lot of what they did in this regard, such as transforming Mary's piano playing debacle into an equally overplayed example of traditional Indian dance by Maya (Meghna Kothari). None of the transformations were heavy handed, which can be dangerous in an attempt such as this, and the key thing was the delight of discovering each act of translation.
I even figured out that Mrs. Darcy (Marsha Mason) was going to be the Lady Catherine de Bourgh character and was somewhat surprised that the scene where she insists that Lalitha not marry her son ended up in the deleted scenes. That is the pivotal scene in the novel, the point at which it suddenly dawns on Elizabeth that marrying Mr. Darcy is not the worst thing in the world, but its omission in "Bride and Prejudice" makes sense because the script by Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges moves his first proposal to much latter in the narrative. I agree that what made sense for a story set amongst the landed gentry of Hanoverian England does not necessarily work for modern India, so the change was a smart move. Besides, Lalitha has a scene where she goes toe-to-toe with Mrs. Darcy, which is the other important aspect of the scene. Consequently, Chadha and Berges have shown the requisite fidelity to the essence and key details of the Austen novel even as they change locations and nationalities.
It is not like the universality of "Pride and Prejudice" was every lost on us in the first place, even as we have come to admire Austen's attention to period detail and socially attuned characterizations. The Bakshi family lives in a rural town in India where the mother (Nadira Babbar) is wholly committed to getting her four daughters married, while her husband (Anupam Khre) endures the trials and tribulations of her frantic efforts. When Jaya (Namrata Shirodkar) and Balraj Bingley (Naveen Andrews) spark when they meet at a wedding it looks like the dreams of Mrs. Bakshi will come true for one of her girls. But William Darcy (Martin Henderson) disapproves of Balraj's interest, which gives Lalitah (Aishwarya Rai), the oldest daughter and the one always being warned by her mother not to seem too intelligent, another reason not to like him.
Darcy is to some extent an Ugly American in this incarnation, which lets the second key word of the title resonate in a slightly different way in this version, but not too much, because a bigoted Mr. Darcy is not going to be accepted by anybody. That is also why the subplot involving Johnny Wickham (Daniel Gillies) and Lakhi (Peeya Rai Chowdhary) is a tad differently. Again, this all shows the screenwriters understood what they were doing in translating Austen's novel to the screen in this fashion, and reinforces the idea that the primary purpose here was to have fun. For all I know the musical numbers here are only second-rate Bollywood extravaganzas, in which case I cannot wait to see what else is out there. The bottom line here is simple: you have to know going in whether or not you buy the idea of turning Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" into a Bollywood number. If you think that is a great idea, then you will enjoy this 2004 film. If you think that sounds weird, then lighten up. You are missing out on the fun here.
UK DVD:
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