Songs of India II
Austen meets Bollywood in frothy "Bride & Prejudice"

Jane Austen goes Bollywood in Bride & Prejudice, a hybrid romantic comedy from Indian-born filmmaker Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham). Chadha puts a cross-cultural spin on Austen's classic plot about courtship rituals, mistaken impressions, and true love, setting the story largely among the comfortable upper classes in suburban New Delhi.

Chadha's attempts to adapt and update are often clever, but not always inspired. For instance, in place of the ironic asperity of Austen's famous opening sentence ("It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife"), Chadha has her heroine fret about her mother's assumption that "any single guy with big bucks must be shopping for a wife." This sets up the same general premise, but without the depth of Austen's social observation. Chadha is content to hijack Austen's plot and dude it up in saris and marigolds without bothering to scratch beneath her characters' pretty surfaces.

Still, as a jumping-off point for romantic complications, Austen is a great place to start. Mrs. Bakshi (operatically comic Nadira Babbar), a matchmaking mother of four daughters, is always on the lookout for rich prospective mates. At a neighborhood wedding, Mom sets her sights on handsome, charming Indian-born barrister Baraj Bingley (Naveen Andrews, of Lost), visiting from London, for her eldest daughter. Meanwhile, her second daughter, smart, peppery Lalita (Aishwarya Rai) clashes with Baraj's wealthy American friend, William Darcy (Martin Henderson). She finds him proud; he finds her prejudiced. Sparks fly, and some ignite, as the action moves from India to London to California.

Those unfamiliar with lavish all-singing, all-dancing "Bollywood" style extravaganzas may feel overwhelmed by Chadha's gigantic musical numbers bursting with color, noise, and exotica. Some dance numbers take up entire streets; others are romantic duets. There are choruses of sari-clad men in drag, and singing surfers, and a syncopated Indian hip-hop song by Lalita and her sisters. Chadha even inserts a gratuitous Ashanti number performed onstage at the beach resort of Goa. And a comic subplot about a gauche, flashy Indian suitor from California (he shows off his assets on a Palm Pilot), played by a preening, pratfalling Nitin Chandra Ganatra, is so overripe, the character becomes a grotesque.

Stunning former Miss World Rai, a huge star in Asia, gives Lalita intelligence and spirit. But Darcy doesn't quite measure up. Henderson is good-looking in a bland, hunky way, but the part is written on a single note of apology; his Darcy has none of the sly wit or dangerous charisma that would make Lalita fall for him in spite of herself.

Yet for all its drawbacks, the movie is disarmingly good-natured. And Chadha scores points for the simple and brilliant chutzpah of adapting Austen's durable 200-year-old plot from one ritualistic and traditional culture (England in the Age of Empire) to the equally complex and constrained culture of its former colony. Grafting on Austen's plot confines the focus to the idle upper classes, but on its own sunny terms, Chadha's film is both a love letter and gentle satire of Indian culture in transition.

BRIDE & PREJUDICE With Aishwarya Rai and Martin Henderson. Written by Paul Mayeda Berges and Gurinder Chadha. Directed by Gurinder Chadha. A Miramax release. (PG-13) 111 minutes. (**1/2)
Review published in Good Times, February 24, 2005