Introduction
Bride and Prejudice belongs to an increasing set of makeover films made by Indian Directors settled abroad. These set of movies usually represent their views on how the different cultures would mix-up in India in the current scenario. So Gurinder Chadda of the 'Bend it Like Beckham' fame decided that it was time to take Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and make a desi version of it.
The Plot
So the Bennet's of the novel are replaced by the Bakshi's in the movie. Mrs. Bakshi is hell bent on getting her daughters married to highly respectful people. She manages to land up an English Groom (Naveen Andrews as Balraj Bingley) for one of her daughter Jaya (Namrata Shirodkar). Accompanying Balraj for the marriage is William Darcy (Martin Henderson) , an American friend of Balraj. William meets Lalitha Bakshi (Aishwarya Rai) and they have a love-hate relationship going. William loves Lalitha and Lalitha hates William for his snobbishness.
After this stage the movie labours from scene to scene as Lalitha and Darcy have shots at each other and keep getting closer all the time. To add some more drama, Williams half brother, Wickham tries to take advantage of one of the Bakshi girls, but is thwarted in time.
The Movie
The movie starts briskly, but loses path very quickly and by the end becomes totally insipid. There is no explanation whatsoever for the events on the movie, why Lalitha feels William is a snob or why Wickham is trying to take advantage of the Bakshi girls. In fact, it looks more like Lalitha is a snob if anything.
Like most crossover movies, there is lots of songs and dance sequences. There is a desperate attempt to give a goody goody feel to the movie. But again these sequences are not very imaginative and seem to be taken from a dozen other crossover movies. The mantra seems to be 'Pump up the Bhangra music' and you have a great dance sequence!!
I thought the pacing of the movie was awful. The movie seemed to go for a sleep at most places. I have seen Gurinder Chaddha's 'Bend it Like Beckham'. That movie was very well paced and compared with that, the question seems to arise, is this the same director?
Performances
Aishwarya Rai (Former miss world) and Henderson seem to have a decent on-screen chemistry going, but more or less seem wasted in a lacklustre direction. The same can be said of the rest of the cast, especially Mrs. Bakshi, she just seemed so untolerable.
The music was loud and brash and the dance sets were huge. But there was nothing unique of great of the dance sequences.
Summary
If you want to see a crossover movie, this is not one. If you want to see a movie adoption of Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' better wait for the original adoption which is slated for release soon.
All in all a disappointing affair and 1 star rating from me.
Lean-n-mean III
Lean-n-mean III is officially open now, so I decided to enter this review into it. For more details of Lean-n-mean III check out:
Lean-n-Mean III
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