Starring: Aishwarya Rai, Martin Henderson, Daniel Gillies
Director: Gurinder Chadha
Rated: PG
GURINDER Chadha has made two British films with Indian themes, Bhaji on the Beach and Bend it Like Beckham.
She also made the interesting Thanksgiving multi-racial film in the US, What’s Cooking?
Why not follow the lead of Mira Nair who has done Bollywood with Monsoon Wedding and follow it with a version of a British classic, Vanity Fair?
Better still, why not combine Bollywood style with an updating of a classic novel? Jane Austen meets India.
It works very well indeed. For those who want to see Bollywood colour, costumes, decor and, of course, many songs and dances, they’re all here at the drop of a hat and cane.
They are quite lavish. The setting is Amritsar with a holiday on the beachfront in Goa.
For those who are wondering whether Jane Austen can transcend the 19th century they can be reassured.
Bride & Prejudice keeps very close to the original plot, even keeping some of the names, especially Mr Darcy, now a prejudiced American played by New Zealander Martin Henderson (The Ring, Torque) and the villain, Wickham.
The Bennets are now the Bakshis. Mr Bakshi is still henpecked by a loud and vulgar wife but is supportive of his daughters, Lalita and Jaya (instead of Elizabeth and Jane).
There is also the snobbish Miss Bingley and her brother Balraj. The eccentric suitor, Mr Collins, is now Mr Kholi who has absorbed American culture at its most blatantly American.
One of the features of Bollywood films is that they are set in an unreal affluent world that gives no indication of poverty or hunger. They are truly escapist.
And the characters here can also escape for visits to London and to California – which will make British and American audiences just that bit more comfortable watching what might be for some an exotic confection.
Jane Austen understood human nature in the microcosms where her novels are set. This understanding has made a very entertaining transition to India.
