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Bride and Prejudice (2005)
Rated: 12A [See Full Rating] for some sexual references.
Runtime: 1 hr 51 mins
Theatrical Release: 08-10-2004
Synopsis: From director Gurinder Chadha and the team that created “Bend It Like Beckham” comes a classic romance not just retold, but reinvented in a new globally connected world. BRIDE AND PREJUDICE puts an entirely different spin on Jane Austen’s story of spirited courtship - Bollywood-style.... From director Gurinder Chadha and the team that created “Bend It Like Beckham” comes a classic romance not just retold, but reinvented in a new globally connected world. BRIDE AND PREJUDICE puts an entirely different spin on Jane Austen’s story of spirited courtship - Bollywood-style. Music, dance and spectacle merge with love, vanity and social pressures, as Chadha transports the comic tale of a witty young woman trying to find a suitable husband to a cross-cultural setting that spans 21st century India, London and America. It all begins in a modest Indian village when the determined Mrs. Bakshi sets out to find marriage matches for her four beautiful daughters while there’s a lavish wedding party in town. Right away, the smart and headstrong Lalita (Aishwarya Rai) announces she will only marry for love, giving her mother nightmares. Then Lalita meets the wealthy American Will Darcy (Martin Henderson) and sparks immediately fly. But is it love or hate? Darcy comes off to Lalita as an arrogant California snob. Lalita looks to Darcy like a small-town Indian beauty who knows nothing of the world. Alternately enchanted by and suspicious of one another, Lalita and Darcy nearly fall prey to assumptions, gossip and a comedy of errors . . . until pride is humbled and prejudice overcome so that love can triumph. Gurinder Chadha directs BRIDE AND PREJUDICE from a script by Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges, which brings to the plot of Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” elements of high-style Bollywood romance, Hollywood songand- dance and the modern realities of international romance. The film features a cast and crew that includes both Bollywood and Hollywood talent including Indian superstar Aishwarya Rai as Lalita; rising star Martin Henderson (THE RING) as Darcy, as well as Daniel Gillies, Naveen Andrews, Namrate Shirodkar, Indira Varma, Nadira Babbar, Aunupam Kher, Meghna Kotari, Peeya Rai and Nitin Chandra Ganatra. The film is produced by Chadha and Deepak Nayar, and the executive producers are Francois Ivernal and Cameron McCracken [More]
Starring: Martin Henderson, Aishwarya Rai, Naveen Andrews, Nitin Ganatra
Screenwriter: Paul Mayeda Berges
Producer: Deepak Nayar
Composer: Santosh Sivan
DVD Info
Release:
May 7, 2005
Reviews
It's enjoyable, colourful, exuberant and ultimately a surprisingly faithful adaptation of a near perfect book.
Gurinder Chada's film has all the feminist clout of a giant blancmange
What Chadha loses in the sly subtext that made Austen's novel so compelling, she makes up for with wit and mischief.
Cleverly turns Jane Austen's classic story into a colourful Bollywood epic that's thoroughly good fun, even if it doesn't live up to the promise.
If you want a wacky multicultural pairing to make you laugh a lot and learn a little, head for the movie theater playing Bride & Prejudice.
... a funny, festive, genre-bending adaptation of Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
Every so often, the unseen managers of the galaxy bestow on us mere mortals a vision of rare incongruous beauty: a solar eclipse, a streaking comet, a shooting star, Bollywood goddess Aishwarya Rai happily riding a tractor.
Its weakness is its bland predictability. But for the fan of Bollywood films or old-fashioned romances, its weakness may be its strength.
Bride & Prejudice is like a curry milkshake or Tandoori kippers. It's a mix that some might find appetizing, but it doesn't quite come off.
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