brianhamilton-76406 Bride and Prejudice is a nice bollywood take on Jane Austen's famous novel. It is fun, colorful and flamboyant and features the ravishing Aishwarya Rai as the main lead. Martin Henderson from New Zealand is more than competent as Darcy and holds his own even in dance sequences. Watch it for the Indianized flavor that the director Gurinder Chadda infuses this old tale with.

hdedga Bride and Prejudice is a film that intertwines Indian culture and Bollywood style with Western audiences in mind. The movie begins by introducing the main character, Lalita, and her sister who is getting married to a rich businessman from the west. Lalita meets Darcy, the other main character, who comes off as an arrogant American who refuses to learn the culture of India because it's "beneath him". Various drama comes into play with Darcy's old enemy stirring trouble and with Lalita misinterpreting Darcy's intentions but it ends with the standard Hollywood ending. The film was definitely enjoyable although I would have preferred it to include more Bollywood elements in it. Although I do appreciate that the characters speak in English even if it is unrealistic. The Bollywood elements that are prevalent are the costumes and the location, and the acting seemed more Hollywood. I first learned about Bollywood directly before viewing this film. I watched several clips from Indian Bollywood movies and learned about what makes Bollywood what it is. The clips I watched showed very synchronized passionate dances with singing in different languages. Bride and Prejudice includes one, maybe two scenes where the actors are dancing to songs in Punjab. It seemed more Hollywood than Bollywood to me but that doesn't mean it was a bad movie. The character's have diverse personalities with viewpoints that change over time. For example Will Darcy begins the film telling his friend that he should have married a western Indian girl and not to mix cultures. But by the end of the film he was pounding in the drums in an Indian wedding. I don't have any prior knowledge about family values and traditions in India but according to this movie, young women are primarily focused on getting married to a rich family. For example, Lalita's mother in the movie had the sole purpose of pushing her daughters to marry someone. Even in the first few minutes she is seen scolding her youngest daughter for being too provocative saying she has to let her elder sisters get married first. Many people get married or think about getting married, as Lalita's sister, her best friend and Lalita herself get marriage proposals. I feel like the movie was too focused on marriage and love and avoided displaying other cultural elements in India. If the main purpose of Bride and Prejudice was to make a film that introduced western audiences to Indian culture, than this movie has ultimately failed. If the purpose was to make a good movie with some Indian culture thrown in, than it has succeeded. Lalita dismisses building a resort in India in the movie because it isolated tourists from the "real India" with all its flaws. This movie was like a resort, it was very enjoyable to tourists but it didn't show the real India.

d-17773 When marriage has two different meanings, Lalita and Darcy have trouble with love. Mrs. Bakshi wants nothing more for her four daughters than a rich husband of her choosing, but when her two eldest play by their own rules, trouble stirs. The oldest sister, Jaya, falls in love with an Indian man who lives in London named Balraj, who brought along a friend, Will Darcy. Lalita, the second oldest, caught Darcy's eye the moment he saw her. However, coming from two different cultures, they find themselves in multiple disagreements. With Lalita's mother trying to set her up with Mr. Kholi, Johnny Wickham showing up and charming the sisters, and Darcy trying to win her over, it is hard for Lalita to know what or who she wants. Personally, I loved the film. I'm a sucker for cheesy love stories.I thought Bride and Prejudice was a great film to introduce me to Bollywood. Aside from the love story, the song and dance numbers were my favorite part. The song "Marriage has Come to Town" had an amazing set and such intricate costumes that could draw anyone's eyes. Not to mention the incredibly quick and sharp dance moves. Watching this crossover Bollywood film actually made me want to watch more, full-on Bollywood movies. The one critique I have is that the actors need to practice their lip-syncing because that was not so great. Overall, Bride and Prejudice is a great Bollywood introductory film.Although the plot was a basic, cheesy, love story, there was a lot that could be learned from the film. Indian culture was very prominent in this film, more specifically, their values of marriage. In India, arranged marriages are very common. It is likely that the parents will find their child a suitor who the parents think they will later on (in the marriage) fall in love with. Whereas, in America, it is most common to fall in love and then get married. Mrs. Bakshi wanted Lalita to marry Mr. Kholi, a rich Indian who lives in America and could provide her with a beautiful home. Lalita, on the other hand, wanted her parents to have nothing to do with her marriage, she wanted to find love on her own like an American. Another value learned is family. Family will always come first in India, especially with the Bakshi family. When Lachi left with Wickham, Lalita did everything in her power to search for her and save her from what could have been done to her. Adding on to that, Mr. Bakshi wanted to keep his four daughters close when they married so marrying a man who didn't live in India was unsettling to him. We can also learn how important India is to its natives. Tourists tend to see the beautiful, rich, Americanized side of India, when in reality most of India is not very "upper-class", but the natives appreciate it. When Darcy claims to have seen the real India Lalita is the first to step up and prove him wrong, showing him how he's only seen what he's wanted to see, not what was truly there.

PL1981 Creating a modern-day Bollywood version of "Pride and Prejudice" was a novel idea and was always going to be a challenging enterprise and director Gurinda Chandha deserves great credit for attempting to try to do so. What she produces is a worthwhile product with some great flaws The movie is to be credited for seeking to introduce western audiences to Bollywood entertainment and I like that that the film incorporates most of the traditional aspects of Bollywood productions -singing, dancing, guest appearances unrelated to the movie's plot and so on. It also provides us with an interesting and colorful, if I suspect somewhat superficial, overview of some aspects of Indian lifestyle and culture. The singing and dancing is well choreographed and fun even if the lyrics appeared slightly clichéd. I have a feeling Chandha was having a good-natured dig at Bollywood tradition at some parts The plot flows nicely with most of the similarities to the Jane Austen novel plainly evident.The casting was mostly good. Most of the Bakshi family closely matched their equivalents in the Bennett family and gave excellent performances in their respective roles. Martin Henderson was good as Will Darcy, Naveen Andrews was great as Balraj and the very talented Indira Varma was great as Kiran, the equivalent to Caroline Bingley. Daniel Gillies was good -if slightly forgettable as Johnny Wickham and Nitin Ganatra was hilarious as the irrepressible Mr Kohli.I could think of no better actress to play the Lady Catherine De Bourgh-like character Catherine Darcy than the very talented Marsha Mason.The one disappointment (other than what I'm going to get to in the next paragraph) was Alexis Bledel as Georgiana Darcy. Georgiana Darcy is one of my favorite characters in "Pride and Prejudice" but this version of Georgiana Darcy comes across as flat and unlikeable But what really spoiled the movie for me was Aishwarya Rai in the main role of Lalita Bakshi, although in all fairness she was given some very sloppy character development and dialogue to work with by Chandha. She's such an irritating, annoying actress and her performance -at least in this movie -was horrible and her being the main character definitely destroyed the charm of this movie was for me. Rai has been quoted in interviews as saying that she didn't read "Pride and Prejudice" before appearing in this movie. Well, perhaps she should have. Lizzie Bennett is definitely opinionated and headstrong but she's also a very sympathetic character and the reader can passionately identify with where she's coming from. Even when we see the flaws in Lizzie's character, they are still portrayed in a sympathetic way in relation to her overall personality. Rai and Chandha make Lalita's character arrogant, rude and pretentious to the point where I was cheering on Darcy when he was being obnoxious to her. That shouldn't be how it is in a "Pride and Prejudice" adaptation Perhaps this is a reflection of the overall script and character development in this movie, though. Many of the characters could have done with more depth, dimension and substance and there was a huge potential for greater fulfillment of the premise of this movie.The dialogue also fell flat at certain parts.I think this movie has an interesting premise and the casting, the insights into some aspects of Indian life and the singing and dancing make this worthwhile viewing. However, the sloppy script, dialogue, character development and the casting of Aishwarya Rai in the role of Lalita detract from what otherwise could have been a great movie