Bride & Prejudice

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-

Well, it's pretty hard, isn't it, to write a spoiler for a film which is based on such a well-known, well-loved novel! I will show my hand here and say that I am a Janeite. However, I am not a purist and I like many Jane Austen adaptations that many Janeites don't (for example I like 'Mansfield Park'). I enjoyed 'Bride and prejudice' for its colour and fun. The attempt to update 'P&P' to a contemporary Indian setting worked well most of the time, with the translation to India being effective because it is a society where arranged marriages are still an accepted way to go. The script did a pretty good job of capturing the essence of the story whilst playing around with some of the details eg cutting out the fifth daughter whose role in the story is pretty minimal, and making the 'tyrant' in Darcy's life his mother not his aunt (a more realistic situation in its modern setting). I loved the 'no life without a wife' song and dance routine though it reminded me at times of the 'Matchmaker' song in 'Fiddler on the roof'. However, the film suffered a little, for a number of reasons, the main ones being that it left the Bollywood- style when it went to Hollywood (which changed the tone of the film), it didn't really find a good way to make Wickham as wicked as he is in the original, and there did not seem to be the same desperate need to be married as there was for the Bennet sisters in 'P&P'. These modern Indian women had jobs and could, it appeared, be independent without having husbands, removing the urgency that drives its 'P&P' original. Despite this, though, it does manage to incorporate some of the satire against pomposity and the arrogance of the moneyed class that makes 'P&P' more than a simple romance. Overall, then, I found it a fun film and an entertaining take on my favourite novel.

Well, God help me, I enjoyed it. Director Gurinder Chadha's follow-up to smash hit "Bend it Like Beckham" is enjoyable nonsense, an earnestly acted mess of vibrant Bollywood musical sequences (sometimes set to English-language songs) and romantic pap. It doesn't seem to take itself seriously at all, which instantly puts it ahead of most nonsense. Eh, it's pointless to go on any further. It's rubbish, really, I'm not quite sure why I sat through it but bizarrely it manages to be a lot of fun. Chadha is a solid enough director to keep things more or less interesting, and the musical sequences are pulled off with aplomb. Naveen Andrews is good here as well.

6/10

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.

Went to see that movie twice and it only came out on the 22nd December in France!!! Full of color and great music!! If u want to spend a really nice time in cinema and laughing your head off over Mr Kholi, go at once.... And if u wanna check out nice a nice guy , go at least for Mr Will Darcy!! All jokes aside, Ash's first "american" movie is a success. They are all acting greatly and makes us want to go and visit Amritsar!! A big surprise also for hip-hop lovers: Ashanti's appearance for "Payal Bajake"'s song. The landscapes are wonderful. East really meets West.. and it's an enjoyable mix or how to teach a Westerner that he doesn't have it all...And as in all of Chandha movie's, the end is a delight!! ENJOY!!