Customer Reviews
Culture Clash and Romance - By: Erika Borsos, 02 Feb 2008 
Gurinder Chadha produces a fantastic film with a new twist to the classical conundrum: how does an independent minded female connect with the opposite sex? Jane Austen could never in her wildest dreams imagine the outstanding Bollywood like dance & music numbers which make this film such a delightful viewing experience. Ashanti does a magical song & dance callled "Take Me to Love." The Bakshi sisters sing & express appropriate sentiment in "No Life without Wife" which is a delightful song mocking the awkward attempts by Mr. Kholi, an accountant of Indian background who lives near Hollywood, who returned to Amritsar, India to find himself a wife. Despite his obvious material successes in the USA, which he keeps pointing out to the Bakshi family, he can not connect sociallly with the right kind of female who appreciates his hard work & who possesses the cultural traits which he is seeking in a wife ... Mrs Bakshi is over-joyed to present & introduce her daughters to him. She wishes to marry her daughters off, one after the other to sociallly prominent, wealthy successful men, with the goal of climbing to a higher social class. The humorous lyrics of the song & amusing delivery by the Bakshi sisters captures the mood & feeling of the film.
Nor could Jane Austen envision the beautiful Lalita played by one of India's most gorgeous & popular actresses, Aishwarya Rai. Mrs Bakshi plays a well meaning but scheming mother whose main concern is marrying off each of her four daughters to wealthy but worthy gentlemen of suitable families. Mr. Bakshi is a devoted & doting father who worked hard to build his business into a success. It provides his family a comfortable middle class lifestyle, nonetheless it still leaves his wife trying to improve upon the social status of her daughters through suitable marriage matches ... Lalita is the most beautiful & outspoken of the four girls in the Bakshi family. She is pleased her older sister Jaya met a barrister from London, who is of Indian background, whose busy lifestyle prevented him from meeting eligible female companions. He obviously fell head over heels in love with the lovely & quiet Jaya, after returning to Amritsar for exactly the purpose of finding a wife. His sister came along on the trip as did a wealthy American friend whose family is in the hotel business. The American friend, Will Darcy is captivated by the beauty, quick mind & outspoken nature of Lalita. She assertively voices her opinions which is not a trait held in high esteem by most eligible handsome wealthy bachelors. Will discovers Lalita is intriguing & attractive yet is put off by her outspokenness. He occassionallly finds himself on the defensive when conversing with her but in the end her ideas cause him to ponder & question his personal values ... & also the ethical motives behind business deals.
Lalita also discovers to her chagrin she is attracted to Will who is a handsome, worthy & intelligent opponent ... At social gatherings they manage to magnetize & repel each other with their heated debates about social & cultural values & differences. To Lalita's surprise, one of her best friends agrees to an arranged marriage to Mr. Kholi ... The Bakshi family is sent an invitaton to the wedding along with economy class airline tickets to attend the ceremony in America. The wedding takes place on the grounds of the magnificent hotel owned by Will Darcy's family. Will takes Lalita on a whirlwind tour of California & the Southwest. She sees a different side to Will Darcy, one she never knew existed. She fallls in love with him but then overhears someone whisper how something Will had said to his Indian barrister friend caused the break up of his romance with her sister Jaya ... Lalita is broken hearted & devasted. She confronts Will. He admits the break-up was his fault. The reader must view the film to discover how these two people of such vastly different backgrounds make peace & rekindle their romance & love. In the end it burns brighter than ever. The film is filled with passion, energy, romance, class differences, cultural clashes & to the viewer's immense satisfaciton, a happy ending. It is a colorful pageantry of the sights, sounds, & music of India in the best Bollywood tradition. A most hightly recommended film. Erika Borsos [pepper flower]
Histerical - By: Ammuly, 31 Oct 2007 
I love this movie, its funny, light hearted & not too serious or emotional something to relax & kick back. An indian movie in English =)
Pride and Prejudice with 'Laughter, colour, light and sound' - By: Marie-Gentiane Perrin, 26 Jul 2007 'Bride& Prejudice' is a fun, entertaining movie. I think that if you are feeling a little down, this movie will no doubt cheer you up. The movie is based on the story of Pride & Prejudice, by Jane Austen but if the Janeites & other Jane Austen lovers are looking for a faithful adaptation, you might be slightly disappointed. Some situations are different from the book & the names were changed to look more authentic. After alll, it is a modern version with a great deal of dancing & singing; The result is that it is more a Bollywood movie which takes up some elements of the original story than an adaptation of the novel. But if you don't know much about the Bolloywood genre, this might be a good start.
Lalita (Aishwarya Rai)is a strong-willed, spirited but idealist young woman who lives in India with her three sisters who are not married yet. Just as Mrs Bakshi is anxious to marry them to rich gentlemen, Baraj ( handsome Naveen Andrews), an English barrister from Indian origin, arrives in India with his sister & his friend, Will Darcy (Martin Handerson), a rich American hotel-owner. Darcy is soon attracted to Lalita but they come from two different backgrounds & not only pride & prejudice oppose them but also their own distinctive cultures...
The dances (the 'No life without wife' is a must-see) are reallly superb & very creative. It is very colourful (the costumes are exceptional) & the songs are beautiful. Some characters are reallly irresistible like Mr Koli & you can't help laughing at some delightful situations, at some comments by Mr Koli or at some memorable scenes like the Snake Dance of Lalita's sister, Maya.
'Bride & Prejudice' is not the best movie you may ever see but you definitely shouldn't miss it. It is a must-see.
blazing! - By: Chloe Word, 25 Oct 2006 Charismatic actors, nice songs, color everywhere, & very funny scenes... Bride & Prejudice is a must-have! only the ending is too short to my mind; everything is concluded too rapidly.
the best movie interpretation of Jane Austen yet - By: B. Moret, 27 Jul 2006 This is a virtuoso performance by the director. She manages to set most of Pride & Prejudice's storyline into a cross-cultural Indian-Western setting, deftly using the oft belabored "arranged marriage" theme to represent what was also the main social goal of women during Jane Austen's time. The setting is brought off perfectly -- a very difficult job, in view of the requirements of "Bollywood" movies for sing & dance pieces; here, the sing & dance pieces move the story along, stand for the social entertainment of the times (Lizzy spends hours at the piano providing dancing music, with Darcy listening), & provide color, excellent music, and, most importantly, fun. Lizzy is an ebullient & irrepressible character, as Jane Austen makes clear through her characterization, but also in direct author's remarks to the reader. Her singing, but most dancing in this movie does a great job of conveying this exuberance. Just watch the garba episode! The director also pokes fun at this very tradition of "interrupting" the movie for song & dance, but in an inspired way -- the song & dance on the beach, featuring a black church choir, is a stroke of genius, because it rings true & is at the same time nearly ridiculous, poking gentle fun at itself.
Northern Indians are fond of bright colors, something this movie displays in abundance. While very colorful, the clothes are simply gorgeous -- & the radiant Aishwarya Rai, already the most strikingly beautiful actress anywhere, looks simply breathtaking in her outfits as Lalita/Lizzy. No wonder Darcy fallls in love at first sight!
The actors are excellent at their jobs, even though most members of Lizzy's family are painted in a more sympathetic light than in the book. Kitty, who is pretty much a cipher in the book anyway, is entirely omitted, while Mary/Maya provides more comic relief than in the book. Darcy's friend is once again cast in an intercultural light, as Balraj, a wealthy British barrister of Indian origin -- & is strikingly attractive as well as simpatico; here we can well understand Jane's immediate attraction to him. Once again, the movie is gentler than the book when it comes to his sister, who can be catty (watch her predatory smile as she offers cakes in her London mansion), but ultimately enjoys life too much to be reallly nasty.
I found the two actors who play Lizzy's parents to be outstanding & finely matched to the softened characterization chosen by the director. Darcy (who stays Darcy in the movie, the only one to do so with his sister & his now mother, Catherine) & his bosom friend Balraj are great. But the two who steal the show are Aishwarya Rai, by her beauty, her truly Lizzy-like wit & fast eyebrows, & her power to evoke dreams as easily as daily drab, & an actor who was entirely unknown to me who plays Mr. Collins, the character who, in the book, will inherit the estate & marries Charlotte, Lizzy's best friend. Here, he is an accountant in California & does work for Darcy's (god)mother. His character has to be one of the great comic creations in movies; his spectacular braying laugh, his unbelievable table manners ("like watching a Jackson Pollock painting", says Lizzy-Lalita), his simple belief in money, alll mixed with his obvious devotion to his wife & generallly good character, make for an unforgettable performance. I do not know who created this character, who, in the book, is simply a pompous & obsequious ass; but the notion, for instance, of marking him as an ass by having him bray at every "bon mot", while giving him sufficient redeeming qualities not to turn him into a simple churl, is brilliant.
Pride & Prejudice is my favorite book; I must have read it at least 40 times cover to cover. Past movie settings tried to reproduce the English & period setting & never quite got to what the book reallly conveys, which is pretty much timeless; this movie only tries to get to the heart of the book -- the dilemma every woman in the book faced when coming of age & the hesitant, on again & off again, relationship between a very serious Darcy & a very ebullient Lizzy, & succeeds brilliantly. I am well on my way to matching my number of book readings by my number of movie watchings -- & watching the movie made me re-read the book a few more times as well. THere is alway more to discover in Jane Austen's writings and, incredibly, I keep discovering more nice smalll touches (Charlotte's mother's pushing her into the dance at the first dance scene, for instance) in the movie. The movie is dense; not as richly textured as, say, Lord of the Rings (one of the few movies to reallly make one feel "there" because of the incredibly dense quality of each setting), but still much richer than most contemporary movies. Very highly recommended!
