Jane Austen has been unceremoniously shoved into mainstream cinema over the past decade through a number of BBC adaptations, fumbling Hugh Grant variations, and Alicia Silverstone's "as if" alterations. Now, Bollywood has brought its unique style to an Austen-inspired movie.
Gurinder Chadha, ingenious creator of the 2002 hit "Bend It Like Beckham," unfortunately misses the mark with this mesh of Western and Indian culture in the musical "Bride & Prejudice." Maybe it's the lack of Keira Knightly, or a swooning Hollywood screen kiss, but this film is definitely lacking at least one key element.
A remake of "Pride & Prejudice," Chadha sets her story in the Bakshi residence, home of Lalita Bakshi, her four sisters, and an embarrassingly forward mother set on marrying each one of them off. A friend's wedding gives the audience hope for the eldest daughters, where they encounter Balraj Bingley (pompously played by "Lost" star Naveen Andrews with his posh English accent) and his American friend Will Darcy.
Attraction and disdain ensue through miscommunication and cultural differences, following Austen's model, until we come across those quintessential Bollywood cinematic traits. Lalita and her sisters dance in the street, but sing in English rather than Hindi, making already bad musical numbers even worse with lyrics like: "No life, without wife, oh yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah..." And later, Ashanti makes a scandalous appearance singing in Hindi rather than English, one of the Bakshi girls performs a hilariously scary "snake dance" for her guests, and a gospel choir joins Lalita and Will as they frolic across a sunny beach.
The expected happy ending is found after hours of vibrant color, mediocre music, and poor acting (this coming from a huge fan of the Bollywood genre, with high hopes for the "Devdas" actress and a cross-cultural storyline.)
Starring Martin Henderson of "The Ring" opposite former Miss World, new L'Oreal spokeswoman, and "most beautiful woman in the world" Aishwarya Rai, the cast is a cache of cultures; it is a unique composite that unfortunately does not work. Henderson is the sterile opposite of the passionate Bollywood beaus Rai is accustomed to, and she does not do her best work with this English script.
Although the script does have its moments with the character Mr. Kholi, the amusingly awkward Mr. Collins equivalent, it falls flat too many times. There were laughs aplenty, but it is doubtful that this is what the director intended to produce.
The dancing was definitely decent, but until a proper cross-cultural movie of this genre appears, just leave out the American-Indian love story and settle into a classic Yash Chopra film. The actors have more chemistry, the music actually has a chance of emotionally pulling you through the film, and the dancing will most certainly be of higher caliber.
If you've never had a Bollywood experience, you might initially be shocked by the Menudo-like film quality, but once you've recovered from the onslaught of product placements, wind machines, and dramatic pauses, you will find yourself taken into a distant but appealingly fantastic world. With its rich colors and decadent costumes, Bollywood has happily gained a cult following in the States, and hopefully this is just the shaky start of that film industry's foray into traditional American cinema.
