Bride and Prejudice (2004)
Director: Gurinder Chadha
Movie review
From Time Out London
Using Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ as the inspiration for a Bollywood movie is so obvious you wonder why no-one’s tried it before. The concerns of a twenty-first-century family in small-town India and Austen’s nineteenth-century characters are remarkably similar: a mother’s ambition drives her daughters towards early betrothment; wealth and status threaten to outweigh the importance of affection or compatibility; family loyalty is pitched against better judgement. These perennial intrigues hang on the friction between an arrogant but eligible bachelor (Martin Henderson) and the more sympathetic character of his quick-witted potential bride (Aishwarya Rai).
But cinema-goers expecting a conventional British costume drama will be in for a shock. Chadha (‘Bend It Like Beckham’) has given Austen’s tale a Bollywood makeover: from the squirting fountains of the ‘wet sari’ scene to the absence of screen kisses, Bollywood style has been appropriated, and the plot stretched across three continents. Although some aspects of a Bollywood production can grate – the obvious dubbing of voices over an east-meets-west soundtrack, the occasional ham acting, the clumsy editing – it’s both surprising and funny. The principal weakness is that the ‘romance’ of the two lead characters is unconvincing; they are so different (a feisty feminist and a fumbling chauvinist) that their eventual chemistry seems phoney. Yet they both manage to overcome their pride, and prejudices, to arrive at a happy ending. So it’s Jane Austen – but it’s also Bollywood.
Author: GD
Time Out London Issue 1781: October 6-13, 2004
Cast & crew
Director: Gurinder Chadha
Cast: Martin Henderson, Naveen Andrews, Namrata Shirodkar, Nitin Ganatra, Daniel Gillies
Genre(s): Comedy, Musicals, Romance
Rated: 12A
Duration: 112 mins
UK Release: Oct 8 2004
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Hippies who work for The Man
To celebrate George Clooney comedy 'The Men who Stare at Goats', we look back at six memorable onscreen hippies who fought the system from within
Roland Emmerich's guide to disaster movies
Ahead of the release of '2012', Roland Emmerich offers his ten tips on creating the perfect global catastrophe
Grant Heslov: interview
Grant Heslov, director of 'The Men who Stare at Goats' talks about his old pal George Clooney, his interest in the paranormal, and his fond memories of working on 'Happy Days'
The Coen brothers discuss 'A Serious Man'
Masters of contrary comedy, Joel and Ethan Coen have struck gold again with their latest, ‘A Serious Man’
Ten inspirations behind 'Avatar'?
Time Out ponders the influences behind James Cameron's anticipated space-opera on the basis of the trailer
Michael Jackson's This Is It: review
Kenny Ortega's posthumous concert film is a rousing eulogy for one of pop's great enigmas
Michael Haneke: The man behind the menace
From Cannes to Munich to London, Dave Calhoun tours Michael Haneke's Palme d'Or winner, 'The White Ribbon'
Lone Scherfig talks 'An Education'
Danish director Lone Scherfig was an unlikely choice for a very English affair like 'An Education'. Cath Clarke meets her
How Jane Campion brought John Keats back to life
Time Out gets Romantic with the ‘difficult’ New Zealander about her new film, 'Bright Star'
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations












What do you think?
Post your review now