Bride and Prejudice


Bride and Prejudice is a 2004 romantic drama film directed by Gurinder Chadha. The screenplay by Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges is a Bollywood-style adaptation of Jane Austen's 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice. It was filmed primarily in English, with some Hindi and Punjabi dialogue. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 6 October 2004 and in the United States on 11 February 2005. It has received mostly positive reviews from critics.

Plot

Based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, the film revolves around Lalita Bakshi, a young woman living in Amritsar, India with her father, her mother, her older sister Jaya and her two younger sisters, Lakhi and Maya. Mrs. Bakshi is determined to marry off all her daughters to respectable and wealthy men.
The family is invited to a friend's wedding ceremony, where Lalita meets Will Darcy, a handsome and wealthy American who is a long-time friend of the British-Indian barrister Balraj, and Balraj's sister Kiran.
Balraj is instantly attracted to Jaya and likewise, Darcy is attracted to Lalita. During the reception, Balraj coaxes Darcy to dance with Lalita while Balraj dances with Jaya. Lalita mistakes Darcy's discomfort and awkward jokes as a sign of his intolerance towards Indian culture so she quickly takes a dislike to him. After the wedding reception, Balraj invites Jaya to Goa with him, Darcy and Kiran. The Bakshi parents agree so long as Lalita accompanies her sister.
In Goa, Lalita and Darcy clash over their ideas on men and women and India's economic future. On the beach, Lalita meets Johnny Wickham, Darcy's former friend, and he validates her low opinion of Darcy. He and Lailta become friends and she invites him to stay with her family during his travels.
When the sisters return from Goa, Mrs. Bakshi announces that they will be hosting Kohli Saab, an obnoxious distant cousin living in the U.S who has come to India to find a "traditional woman" to marry. Mrs. Bakshi steers Kohli towards Lalita, much to her displeasure. Wickham also arrives and is invited to join the family at the Garba.
While Lakhi shows Wickham around, Lalita is stuck entertaining Kohli. She passes him off to her friend Chandra, but then is surprised to see Darcy. He asks her to dance and Lalita reluctantly agrees. As they dance, Darcy attempts to warn Lalita that Wickham is not a good person. Lalita dismisses his concerns and happily accepts a dance from Wickham. Later at night, the two almost kiss and Lalita fantasizes about moving to England to marry Wickham. However, when she goes to kiss the groom in her dream, he changes into Darcy.
Kohli formally proposes to Lalita, but she rejects him because she could never see herself falling in love with him. Mrs. Baksji angrily orders Lalita to accept the proposal but Mr. Bakshi supports his daughter's decision. Kohli leaves the family home disappointed. Meanwhile, Balraj comes to the house to bid farewell to Jaya and promises to write to her from London. Wickham also announces that it is time for him to move on with his travels.
Jaya and Lalita check their emails for news from Balraj and Wickham but neither man writes to the sisters. However, it is shown that Wickham is secretly writing to Lakhi. The only person that Lalita hears from is her friend Chandra, who announces that she is marrying Kohli and invites the family to her wedding ceremony in California. The family accepts and Jaya is excited to use a stopover in London as an excuse to see Balraj.
In London, Kiran invites Jaya, Lalita, and Mrs. Bakshi to tea but Jaya is disappointed to find that Balraj isn'tt home. Kiran informs the family that he is in New York with their parents to meet potential brides, devastating Jaya and Mrs. Bakshi with the news. At Heathrow Airport on their way to the wedding, the Bakshi family runs into Darcy, who is also a guest at Chandra and Kohli's wedding. He offers his first-class seat to Mrs. Bakshi so he can sit next to Lalita for the remainder of the flight. During their stay in California, Lalita gets to know Darcy better and the two fall in love as her opinion of him improves.
At the wedding, Lalita meets Darcy's condescending mother Catherine, who introduces her to one of Darcy's ex-girlfriends and declares that the two are practically engaged. Lalita also meets Georgie, Darcy's younger sister, who tells Lalita that Balraj and Darcy are not on speaking terms because Darcy convinced Balraj not to marry an Indian girl with a "gold-digger" mother. Lalita realizes that Darcy is the reason why Jaya never heard from Balraj. She runs into Darcy who confesses his feelings for her and asks her to marry him. Lalita refuses and tells him that he is the last person on Earth she would ever want to marry because he ruined her sister's life.
Back in London on their way back home, Mrs. Bakshi is devastated that they ended their travels without a single marriage proposal. Lakhi takes advantage of the family's despair to sneak away to meet Wickham. Lalita realizes that Wickham never cared for her at all and that Darcy was right about him. Darcy explains that Wickham got Georgie pregnant and tried to marry her for their family's money and ran away when his plan failed. With the help of Darcy, Lalita finds the pair and takes Lakhi back. Both sisters slap Wickham for playing with their affections. Darcy apologizes to Lalita and tells her that he has spoken with Balraj, who will come back to marry Jaya. Darcy finally wins Lalita's heart when he shows his respect for Indian culture by partaking in traditional dances and drumming. The film ends with a double wedding of Jaya to Balraj and Lalita to Darcy.

Cast

Names in parentheses are the characters in the original Austen novel.
TitleSingers
Balle BalleSonu Nigam, Gayatri Iyer
Tumse Kahen Ya, Hum Na Kahen Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik
No Life Without WifeGayatri Iyer, Nisha Mascarenhas, Sowmya Raoh
Lo Shaadi AayiAlka Yagnik, Kunal Ganjawala, Anu Malik
Tumse Kahen Ya, Hum Na Kahen Alka Yagnik
Dola DolaGayatri Iyer
Payal Bajake Gayatri Iyer, Ashanti

Production

Bride and Prejudice received funding from the UK Film Council with the stipulation that a majority of filming had to take place in the UK. Locations used include Halton House, Stoke Park Club, Turville, and Cobstone Windmill in Buckinghamshire, and Southall, Somerset House, Little Venice, the London Eye, and the National Film Theatre in London. Other locations include the Golden Temple of Amritsar, the beaches of Goa, the Grand Canyon, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and Santa Monica Beach.
Ashanti sings "Take Me to Love" and "Touch My Body" in the film. According to director Gurinder Chadha in "making-of" extras on the DVD release, Ashanti's appearance is an homage to the tradition of a celebrity making a cameo appearance to sing an "item number", a song that has no direct involvement in the plot in Bollywood films.

Critical reception

The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 64% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 134 reviews, with an average rating of 6.09/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "A colorful and energetic adaptation of Austen's classic." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100 based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian reviewed, "Bride and Prejudice could be any unremarkable Bollywood picture". Stella Papamichael at the BBC noted that "swapping corsets for saris, and polite pianoforte for the bhangra beat, director Gurinder Chadha reinvigorates Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice with fun and flamboyance".