Bride & Prejudice (2004)

A modern adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel, Pride and Prejudice, that features the lives of four unmarried daughters in an Indian family.

Director:

Gurinder Chadha

Writers:

Jane Austen (novel), Paul Mayeda Berges

Stars:

Martin Henderson, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Nadira Babbar

4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan	...	Lalita Bakshi (as Aishwarya Rai)
Martin Henderson	...	William Darcy
Nadira Babbar	...	Manorama Bakshi
Anupam Kher	...	Chaman Bakshi
Naveen Andrews	...	Balraj
Namrata Shirodkar	...	Jaya Bakshi
Daniel Gillies	...	Johnny Wickham
Indira Varma	...	Kiran
Sonali Kulkarni	...	Chandra Lamba
Nitin Ganatra	...	Mr. Kohli
Meghna Kothari	...	Maya Bakshi (as Meghnaa)
Peeya Rai Chowdhary	...	Lakhi Bakshi (as Peeya Rai Choudhuri)
Alexis Bledel	...	Georgina 'Georgie' Darcy
Marsha Mason	...	Catherine Darcy
Ashanti	...	Ashanti

Storyline

A Bollywood-style update of Jane Austen's classic tale, in which Mrs. Bakshi is eager to find suitable husbands for her four unmarried daughters. When the rich single gentlemen Balraj and Darcy come to visit, the Bakshis have high hopes, though circumstance and boorish opinions threaten to get in the way of romance.

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Plot Keywords:

f rated | elizabeth bennet character | mr wickham character | lydia bennet character | mr. darcy character | 

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Taglines:

Bollywood meets Hollywood... And it's a perfect match

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Musical | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some sexual references

Details

Official Sites:

BIM Distribuzione [Italy] Miramax [United States]

Country:

UK USA India

Language:

English Hindi Punjabi Spanish

Release Date:

11 March 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Coup de foudre à Bollywood

Filming Locations:

Amritsar, Punjab, India

Box Office

Budget:

$7,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£1,667,616 (United Kingdom), 10 October 2004, Limited Release

Opening Weekend USA:

$385,848, 13 February 2005, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$6,601,079, 22 May 2005

Company Credits

Production Co:

Pathé Pictures International, UK Film Council, Kintop Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

111 min (International) 122 min (Hindi)

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

A working title for this film was "Pride and Prejudice (The Bollywood Musical)."

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Goofs

The indoor shots of Darcy's hotel in Beverly Hills is actually the interior of the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

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Quotes

Lalita Bakshi: Five star comfort with a bit of culture thrown in? Well, I don't want you to turn India into a theme park.

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Crazy Credits

Out-takes, behind the scenes footage and clips of the cast and crew singing along to the music are shown during the credits.

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Connections

Version of Pride and Prejudice (1958)

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Soundtracks

My Lips Are Waiting (a.k.a. Goa Groove)
Composed by Anu Malik
Arranged by Ranjit Barot
Written by Paul Mayeda Berges and Dev Kohli
Main Vocals by Ashanti
Background Vocals by Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Martin Henderson, Namrata Shirodkar,
Meghna Kothari, Peeya Rai Chowdhary, Nitin Ganatra, Gurinder Chadha,
, and Mellan Mitchell
Used courtesy of Casablanca Music, LLC
Ashanti appears courtesy of The Inc
(c) Pathé Fund Ltd 2004

User Reviews

Far too empty to really work as a story despite colour and being sporadically lively and entertaining Bollywood homage

The Bakshi family have several daughters, all of whom are of the age where they really need to be getting married off. One likely suitor (Balraj) arrives from the UK with his wealthy American friend William Darcy in tow. While potential suitors come and go around the Bakshi family, Darcy's initial attraction to daughter Lalita is dashed on the rocks as their first impressions of one another sees them treating each other with contempt. However as times goes by, relationships change.

This Western/Bollywood crossover is not the easiest to watch if you are a bit cynical (which, being Northern Irish, I am) because the use of India, the UK and the US in the storyline does seem designed to market the film to the maximum audience. I did get past this though and tried to see the film as the delightful crossover that others had commented on it being on this site. Problem was, that is not the film I found because aside from the crossover novelty appeal, I found little else to recommend it for. As director, Chadha has done well to capture the colour and vibrancy of Bollywood films but she also has captured some of the faults that your typical Bollywood film has as well.

By this I mean that the story is not that great and isn't helped by the characters being so very weak. There are lots of relationships within the story and the aim clearly was that the dynamics and chemistry of these would carry the film. Sadly there isn't anything real or engaging in this script and I found it to be quite distant from me. Even as the conclusion approached I still found myself thinking "I don't really care about these people or what happens to them", which is a bit of a problem. The musical numbers were varied. Some were enjoyable and worked really well within the context of the crossover. However some others were surprisingly weak and clunky and just didn't work. With all these problems I was not surprised that the novelty value wore off and I tired of the film before it ended.

With the focus on the style rather than substance it is no surprise that the performances are mostly mediocre. There is no denying that Rai has the charisma and the looks needed to lead the film but she cannot get a character out of her. Of course next to the wooden and miscast Martin Henderson she comes across as quite brilliant – but his stiff Darcy has no character and the couple have zero chemistry. Andrews is OK but more notable for his fame in Lost than his performance. Gillies is sinisterly camp – even when he is meant to be charming. Ganatra is amusing but perhaps a bit too basic as a source of humour. Choudhuri is the only other standout but only because she has a "sexy, sassy lil' sister" character – not because she is good.

Overall then, an interesting crossover film but nowhere near good enough to be memorable for anything other than this. On top of that, it is a bit distracting to see it put so much effort into appealing to as big an audience as possible by covering the globe but to have put so little effort into everything else.