Bride and Prejudice by Gurinder Chadha - a review
22nd July, 2004
by Sunny Hundal
Editor
Just before Gurinder Chadha launched the preview for her new movie Bride and Prejudice, she told the audience not to take into account her previous hit Bend It Like Beckham. She might have wanted to start with a clean slate, but it's impossible to deny that expectations were high following the huge and unexpected success of the latter, which has now earned over $60million in the US alone through word of mouth.
After months of hype which is befits one of UK's most successful (Asian) directors, Bride and Prejudice was finally on the big screen in Odeon Leicester Square on Monday. My job was of course to go there and review, so here it is.
The movie
Shot at location in Amritsar, London and Los Angeles, the movie opens with an opening shot of the Golden Temple in Amritsar with a traditional morning call of 'Bole Sohne haal…' which the director could have chosen simply because it's a beautiful opening shot, or she wants to assert that she is quite proud of emphasising her cultural roots in a movie squarely aimed at everyone in Britain.
The latter impression becomes more obvious as the movie goes on. Bride and Prejudice is essentially a musical, based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Chadha has given the story a modern Indian twist, transporting the Victorian age families into a globalised India.
In the story, a determined Mrs. Bakshi is out to find marriage matches for her four beautiful daughters while there's a lavish wedding party in town. Arriving from London is Mr. Balraj (Naveen Andrews, Buddha of Suburbia) with his cousin Miss Bingley (Indira Varma, Canterbury Tales and Jinnah) and friend Mr Darcy (Martin Henderson, The Ring). The two men catch the eye of two of the daughters Jaya (Namrata Shirodkar) and Lalitha (Aishwarya Rai) respectively and the intrigue begins.
Things get complicated as Darcy comes off to Lalita as an arrogant Californian snob. Lalita looks to Darcy like a small-town Indian beauty who knows nothing of the world. Alternately enchanted by and suspicious of one another, Lalita and Darcy nearly fall prey to assumptions, gossip and a comedy of errors... but how will it pan out in the end? You'll have to watch the movie to find out.
The film is loud, stereotypical, and surprisingly, quite funny. That is of course what stereotypes are for. But the fact that Chadha manages to pull of the humour safely negates some of the bizarre sights, such as Indians singing out loud in English and Baywatch style bodyguards doing Indian dancing.
Acting and music
The songs in the movie, this is after all a musical, are very much based on theatre. A leaf from Bombay Dreams' book perhaps? Certainly, without the success of the west-end production, there would be a lot more uncertainty on whether the formula will work in British cinema. That said, none of the songs actually made any impression on me. It's not that they were awful, they just were not good enough to make you sit up and take notice.
The principal strength of the movie is Aishwarya Rai's great acting and the fact that she looks…well… really hot. Martin Henderson is as wooden as a plank. British actor Nitin Ganatra is another excellent character, playing a bumbling and naïve Indian-American looking for a desi bride from India. Indira Varma as usual excelled in the short scenes she had (the woman is seriously under-rated). Anupam Kher played his role with professionalism as always.
The Verdict
I don't claim to be an experienced movie commentator or a pundit on what will succeed in the box office, however I do have a make-shift crystal ball. I enjoyed the movie quite a lot and do think it will do well. It moves with good pace; is quite funny with Gurinder Chadha showing some predictable and some unexpected humour; the production quality is of a higher standard than Bollywood despite the limited budget.
Most responses I got after were quite positive. A good analogy I heard was: 'she has a knack of mixing up cocktails which are easy to drink'. I'm not really a fan of romantic comedies and I don't watch Bollywood often, so for me to come out pleased must be a positive sign.
The film also needs to do well just so the Film Council and other funding bodies can be persuaded that Asian film makers can also produce worthwhile projects. Gurinder obviously has a long standing relationship with them and joined the board recently, but there is a distinct feeling with many that many bodies still have a problem funding projects which are by ethnic minority film makers. The more success stories we have the better it is for the whole industry.
The bigger question is will it please the British white audiences? And what about the Americans? Asian audiences alone could push Bride and Prejudice into the top 10, as they have been doing with recent Bollywood films, but as Chadha said to me, it was most definitely a British movie with a nod to Bollywood and Hollywood. She clearly doesn't intend for it to be watched just by Asians.
If we are to judge it on the basis of the last Bollywood musical in English, Bollywood Queen, then it doesn't look good. Fortunately Bride and Prejudice is nowhere near as tacky and cringingly bad. With the marketing and distribution might of Pathe and Miramax behind her, the scales are no longer tipped against the director as they once were.
Lastly, while Gurinder Chadha cares how well the movie will do, I doubt that limited success will be a big setback as it once could have been. She has signed up for no less than 5 more movies by major Hollywood studios and will start work on her next production, I Dream of Jeannie (Columbia pictures), next year. Like it or not, this lady doesn't plan to fall off the radar anytime soon.
Bride and Prejudice opens on 8th October.
Editor
 Chadha, Henderson & Rai  mother and 4 daughters  Henderson, Varma & Andrews 
|
After months of hype which is befits one of UK's most successful (Asian) directors, Bride and Prejudice was finally on the big screen in Odeon Leicester Square on Monday. My job was of course to go there and review, so here it is.
The movie
Shot at location in Amritsar, London and Los Angeles, the movie opens with an opening shot of the Golden Temple in Amritsar with a traditional morning call of 'Bole Sohne haal…' which the director could have chosen simply because it's a beautiful opening shot, or she wants to assert that she is quite proud of emphasising her cultural roots in a movie squarely aimed at everyone in Britain.
The latter impression becomes more obvious as the movie goes on. Bride and Prejudice is essentially a musical, based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Chadha has given the story a modern Indian twist, transporting the Victorian age families into a globalised India.
In the story, a determined Mrs. Bakshi is out to find marriage matches for her four beautiful daughters while there's a lavish wedding party in town. Arriving from London is Mr. Balraj (Naveen Andrews, Buddha of Suburbia) with his cousin Miss Bingley (Indira Varma, Canterbury Tales and Jinnah) and friend Mr Darcy (Martin Henderson, The Ring). The two men catch the eye of two of the daughters Jaya (Namrata Shirodkar) and Lalitha (Aishwarya Rai) respectively and the intrigue begins.
Things get complicated as Darcy comes off to Lalita as an arrogant Californian snob. Lalita looks to Darcy like a small-town Indian beauty who knows nothing of the world. Alternately enchanted by and suspicious of one another, Lalita and Darcy nearly fall prey to assumptions, gossip and a comedy of errors... but how will it pan out in the end? You'll have to watch the movie to find out.
The film is loud, stereotypical, and surprisingly, quite funny. That is of course what stereotypes are for. But the fact that Chadha manages to pull of the humour safely negates some of the bizarre sights, such as Indians singing out loud in English and Baywatch style bodyguards doing Indian dancing.
Acting and music
The songs in the movie, this is after all a musical, are very much based on theatre. A leaf from Bombay Dreams' book perhaps? Certainly, without the success of the west-end production, there would be a lot more uncertainty on whether the formula will work in British cinema. That said, none of the songs actually made any impression on me. It's not that they were awful, they just were not good enough to make you sit up and take notice.
The principal strength of the movie is Aishwarya Rai's great acting and the fact that she looks…well… really hot. Martin Henderson is as wooden as a plank. British actor Nitin Ganatra is another excellent character, playing a bumbling and naïve Indian-American looking for a desi bride from India. Indira Varma as usual excelled in the short scenes she had (the woman is seriously under-rated). Anupam Kher played his role with professionalism as always.
The Verdict
I don't claim to be an experienced movie commentator or a pundit on what will succeed in the box office, however I do have a make-shift crystal ball. I enjoyed the movie quite a lot and do think it will do well. It moves with good pace; is quite funny with Gurinder Chadha showing some predictable and some unexpected humour; the production quality is of a higher standard than Bollywood despite the limited budget.
Most responses I got after were quite positive. A good analogy I heard was: 'she has a knack of mixing up cocktails which are easy to drink'. I'm not really a fan of romantic comedies and I don't watch Bollywood often, so for me to come out pleased must be a positive sign.
The film also needs to do well just so the Film Council and other funding bodies can be persuaded that Asian film makers can also produce worthwhile projects. Gurinder obviously has a long standing relationship with them and joined the board recently, but there is a distinct feeling with many that many bodies still have a problem funding projects which are by ethnic minority film makers. The more success stories we have the better it is for the whole industry.
The bigger question is will it please the British white audiences? And what about the Americans? Asian audiences alone could push Bride and Prejudice into the top 10, as they have been doing with recent Bollywood films, but as Chadha said to me, it was most definitely a British movie with a nod to Bollywood and Hollywood. She clearly doesn't intend for it to be watched just by Asians.
If we are to judge it on the basis of the last Bollywood musical in English, Bollywood Queen, then it doesn't look good. Fortunately Bride and Prejudice is nowhere near as tacky and cringingly bad. With the marketing and distribution might of Pathe and Miramax behind her, the scales are no longer tipped against the director as they once were.
Lastly, while Gurinder Chadha cares how well the movie will do, I doubt that limited success will be a big setback as it once could have been. She has signed up for no less than 5 more movies by major Hollywood studios and will start work on her next production, I Dream of Jeannie (Columbia pictures), next year. Like it or not, this lady doesn't plan to fall off the radar anytime soon.
Bride and Prejudice opens on 8th October.
