An ironic clash. Review on Bride and Prejudice

I was apprehensive about watching the movie because so many seem to be spewing poison about it in Mouthshut but since I was assigned to watch it, off I went. I think there really is no two way about this movie. you'll either enjoy it and laugh your heart out or hate it and cringe.

If you?re expecting another ?Bend It Like Beckham?, then you?re looking in the wrong place. ?Bride And Prejudice? is nothing like it and doesn?t even pretend to be. What ?Bride And Prejudice? is, is a very brave and amazing attempt by Gurinder Chadha to bring the Bollywood cinema overseas and she does it in style. I understand that many thought her potrayal of Indians is backwater and absolute rubbish and nonsense, but you need to understand that this is a remake of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice where the characters were all already written out.

Mrs Bakshi counter part in the original novel, Mrs. Bennet WAS like that! Her sole purpose in life is to get her daughters married! And all the characters in Pride And Prejudice didn't seem to have much more in their life than going for functions and trying to get married.

Therefore I think Gurinder should not be blamed for how the characters come across.

The Story

The story starts in Amritsar, India, where we have the overbearing Mrs. Bakshi who is desperately and valiantly trying to marry off her four daughters, Jaya (Namrata Shirodkar), Lalita (Aishwarya Rai), Lucky (Peeya Rai Chowdhary) and Maya (Meghna Kothari). At a wedding of a friend, Jaya meets rich Mr. Balraj and they immediately hit it off much to Mrs. Bakshi?s delight. It was at the wedding as well that Lalita meets Will Darcy, a rich American hotelier, Balraj?s best friend who certainly did not bother trying to hide his ignorance or contempt for the whole Indian affair as well as his views on arranged marriage. Wilful and proud Lalita certainly did not like the idea that ANYONE would think badly of her beloved India and thus did not hit it off with Darcy. Though Jaya and Balraj?s romance seemed to be going well, things began to happen for Lalita as well when the group headed to Goa and Lalita meets Johnny Wickham who sweeps her off her feet.

Everything Else

Acting wise, the entire cast carried their role very well. Aishwarya did an excellent job portraying the head strong and opinionated Lalita Bakshi. Not only did she look amazingly gorgeous, one cannot deny that her acting is definitely improving since her ?Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam? days. Too bad there wasn?t many scenes for her to showcase her exquisite dancing skills in this movie though. Martin Henderson will certainly make the ladies sit up with his suave personality simply dripping out of the screen. Tall, good-looking and simply pleasing to the eyes, Martin has an old world charm to him, which suited Will Darcy?s character to a T.

Music wise, the tunes were typical Bollywood fare and Hindi movie fans will certainly recognised Anu Malik?s touch to it. The problem though lies in the https://lyrics. They sound as though they were translated directly from Hindi, which will certainly either amuse you or put you off. I couldn;t quite fanthom why the lyrics had to be incredibly lame.. I did enjoy the starting wedding number though. An excellent Bhangra number, which will certainly make you want to balle balle. Lip-syncing was a bit bad and a little too obvious, something Gurinder should have looked into. Though all Bollywood movies lip sync, they certainly do not make it THIS obvious.

There will certainly be moments that the movie will have you rolling in the aisle with laughter. Nadira Babbar as the over the top Mrs. Bakshi is fairly amusing and bumbling Mr. Kohli is absolutely hilarious. As for the scene with Maya?s snake dance number ? well, words fail to describe it. Actually, come to think of it, there is a word, horrible. So horribly bad and so horribly funny that it gave me a headache on its pathethic -ness and a stomachache from laughing. There are plenty of exaggerated moments in the story as well though and moments where you just want to go aiyooo like the time the whole town burst into song to congratulate the bride on her upcoming wedding. I mean, come on, even Bollywood is not that passé anymore. I must say though that I enjoyed watching Lalita giving Mr. Darcy a tongue lashing; and the line People haven?t stop going to Italy just because Pizza Hut is around the corner, now that is PRICELESS.

The story kept quite faithfully to the novel and all in all was an entertaining package of sight and sound. Like I said, there?s really no two way about this movie, it?s either you?ll like it or you?ll hate it. Fortunately for me I liked it and enjoyed the whole affair immensely.

Of course, I can understand how people hated it and felt that Gurinder is living in her own world. I had this bizzare experience of thinking the movie was extremely lame but at the same time I enjoyed it.

How ironic is that?