Austen Goes To Amritsar

*opens book*

We all know that of Jane Austen’s six novels, Pride and Prejudice is probably the most frequently adapted (see some of the other versions here). And why not? It’s got lots of intrigue, it’s got love and the promise of love, it’s got family drama, and it’s got biting wit and intelligence. Oh, and it has Elizabeth Bennet, one of the most beloved characters ever written.

So, naturally, everyone has their own take. There’s even a parody on Instagram that stars a group of pinecones:

I defy anyone to watch that reel only once. It’s seriously addictive.

Since Mr. Mitnick’s pinecones have helpfully laid out the basic plot and characters of Pride and Prejudice for us, we’re going to jump right into what we’re really here to talk about, which is Gurinder Chadha’s 2004 film Bride and Prejudice, a fun, riotously colorful adaptation that blends all the familiar elements with a big ol’ dash of Bollywood style.

The film opens in Amritsar, India, where the whole town is getting ready for a wedding. Among the guests are the Bakshi family, middle class farmers who have done pretty well for themselves. Still, mama Manorama (Nadira Babbar) has marriage on her mind for her four daughters, Jaya (Namrata Shirodkar), Lalita (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan), Maya (Meghna Kothari), and Lakhi (Peeya Rai Chowdhary) and she’s really hoping they can land rich husbands and maybe live in England or America. Dad Chaman (Anupam Kher) does a lot of eye-rolling but goes along with most of Manorama’s schemes or at least observes them, pulling her out of the spotlight when things get embarrassing.

It just so happens the very rich and eligible Balraj (Naveen Andrews) has come to town for the wedding, with his elegant sister Kiran (Indira Varma) and equally rich (if not richer) American friend William Darcy (Martin Henderson) in tow, and they meet up with the Bakshis at the pre-wedding dance.

Balraj and Jaya are immediately smitten with each other. Kiran takes everything in with amusedly cool appraisal while an older gentleman gives her the eye. Darcy, who’s been eyeing Lalita, is somewhere between mystified and condescending, describing Indian dancing as “screwing in a lightbulb with one hand and petting the dog with the other.” Lalita is less than impressed.

Darcy invites Jaya and Lalita to join he, Balraj and Kiran at Goa, where he’s thinking of buying a five-star hotel for his parents’ hotel empire. Darcy and Lalita trade barbs and then at a beach party one night Lalita meets Johnny Wickham (Daniel Gillies). Unlike Darcy, he’s very interested in India and Amritsar and asks about the Golden Temple. Lalita is immediately taken.

Unfortunately, once Lalita and Jaya get back, they find out their parents have invited Mr. Kohli (Nitin Ganatra), a green card holder living in LA, to come stay with them while he looks for a wife, and naturally Manorama hopes it’ll be Lalita. Also unfortunately, Kohli is pretentious to a fault while being a bit of a slob and he brays when he laughs. “No life without wife,” is his mantra.

Balraj, Kiran and Darcy are still around too, and Wickham also shows up, so there’s plenty going on at the Bakshi house. One night everyone comes to dinner and Maya entertains them with her Cobra Dance. Lakhi, meanwhile, takes Wickham out on the town, so she’s not around for all the drama.

We all know where this goes. Lalita refuses Kohli’s proposal, her friend Chandra (Solani Kulkarni) accepts it, and the characters are off on a trip to London and then Los Angeles. Darcy is still around, of course, and Lalita goes between liking him and loathing him. Oh yeah, and Wickham turns out to be a scoundrel. Darcy, appropriately enough, decks Wickham in a London Bollywood theater right before Lalita and Lahki take turns slapping him.

There aren’t a ton of differences between Bride and Pride; the film follows Austen’s original plot pretty closely for the most part. The Bakshis have four daughters instead of five, and they hit most of the types in the original novel.

Well, there are a few minor differences. Lahki doesn’t marry that scoundrel Wickham, and Maya, who’s mostly modeled after shy sister Mary, is a bit more competent in the performance department than her English counterpart, although she’s still not great. I don’t know much about belly dancing so I’m probably not the best judge, but Maya, like Mary, gives it her all, and it takes a considerable amount of bravery to wear a belly dancer costume.

The romance is thick in Bride and Prejudice, but true to Bollywood style, there’s no overt sexual activity. The characters might look like they’re going to kiss, but then they hug. Even at Chandra and Kohli’s wedding ceremony they hug. Or, when Lalita is dreaming about her future wedding (yes, the movie has a dream sequence), she meets Darcy in the pouring rain, but when he moves to kiss her she does a deep backbend instead.

Other than that, we get a lot of nods, looks, and glances, not to mention some energetic hip-popping. The dynamic is almost courtly and there’s always the promise of romance.

Bride’s casting hits almost all the right notes, and there are some familiar faces for those who have seen Chadra’s other movies. The chemistry between the Bakshi family members is especially effective. I think my favorite characters were Balraj and Lalita, although Jaya’s a sweetheart as well.

Chadha and Company strike a nice balance between Bollywood and the West, showing the merits of each, and neither is considered better than the other. India is colorful and exciting, full of intelligent people and new experiences, but so are London and Los Angeles, so we see morris dancers and the London Eye, and then a Mexican guitar trio and Southern California beaches.

What ties it all together is the music style, which keeps the Indian flavor all the way through, at least rhythmically, and almost every song is an earworm. The Punjabi lyrics have a Jane Austen flavor, which, unfortunately for us English speakers in Region One, isn’t translated for some reason. It’s available in Region Two DVDs, though. Here’s a small sample:

As enjoyable as Bride and Prejudice is and as much as I like it, there are a couple of things I would say about the film. First of all, it doesn’t take enough chances with the material. The reason modern-day Austen adaptations like Clueless and Bridget Jones work is they add elements that people only associate with those films and they stick in the mind. If someone says, “As if!” or “Is skirt off sick?” we know exactly what they’re referring to. While Bride cops a clear identity on the whole, it doesn’t give us much to bring with us after the ending credits roll beyond “No life without wife.”

The other thing is that Martin Henderson is a slightly bland Darcy. Personally, I would have put Josh Lucas in the role, or maybe Steven Dorff. Nothing against Mr. Henderson, but there was a lot more that could have been done with Darcy and it doesn’t really happen. Then again, Colin Firth is kind of the gold standard of Darcys and it’s hard to get past that.

These are small beefs, though. Bride and Prejudice is a very unique film and one to put on repeat because it’s so danged cool.

For more classic literature on film, please see Paul at Silver Screen Classics. Thanks for bringing this blogathon back, Paul–I always look forward to it. Thanks for reading, all, and I hope to see you on Tuesday for a new installment of “During World War Two…”

---

Bride and Prejudice is available on DVD from Amazon.

~Purchases made via Amazon Affiliate links found on this site help support Taking Up Room at no extra cost to you.~

If you’re enjoying what you see on Taking Up Room, please look for additional content on Substack, where you’ll find both free and subscriber-only articles. I publish every Wednesday and Saturday.