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.

For the Australian television series, see Bride & Prejudice (TV series).

Bride and Prejudice
Theatrical release poster
Directed byGurinder Chadha
Produced by
  • Gurinder Chadha
  • Deepak Nayar
Written by
Based onPride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen
Starring
Music byAnu Malik
CinematographySantosh Sivan
Edited byJustin Krish
Distributed by
Release date
  • 6 October 2004 (2004-10-06) (United Kingdom)
  • 11 February 2005 (2005-02-11) (United States)
Running time
111 minutes[1]
Country
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
  • India
Language
  • English
  • Hindi
  • Punjabi
Budget$7 million[2]
Box office$24.7 million[2]

Plot

Loosely based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Lalita Bakshi (Aishwarya Rai), is a young woman living in Amritsar, India with her father (Anupam Kher), her mother (Nadira Babbar), her older sister Jaya (Namrata Shirodkar) and her two younger sisters, Lakhi (Peeya Rai Chowdhary) and Maya (Meghna Kothari). Mrs. Bakshi is determined to marry off all her daughters to respectable and wealthy men.

The family is invited to a friend's (Shivani Ghai) wedding ceremony, where Lalita meets Will Darcy (Martin Henderson), a handsome and wealthy American who is a long-time friend of the British-Indian barrister Balraj (Naveen Andrews), and Balraj's sister Kiran (Indira Varma). Balraj is instantly attracted to Jaya and likewise, Darcy is attracted to Lalita. During the reception, Lalita takes a disliking to Darcy but when Balraj invites Jaya to Goa, she agrees to accompany 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 (Daniel Gillies), Darcy's former friend, and he validates her low opinion of Darcy. 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.

At the Garba, Lakhi shows Wickham around and Lalita passes Kohli off to her friend Chandra. She is surprised to see Darcy, who attempts to warn Lalita that Wickham is not a good person. Lalita dismisses his concerns and happily accepts a dance from Wickham. At night, Lalita fantasizes about moving to England to marry Wickham. In her dream, Wickham transforms into Darcy at the altar, confusing Lalita. Kohli formally proposes to Lalita, but she rejects him, much to her mother’s displeasure. Balraj comes to the house to bid farewell to Jaya and promises to write to her from London. Wickham also announces that he is leaving and promises to write to Lalita. Neither man writes to the sisters, but Wickham is shown secretly writing to Lakhi. Chandra announces that she is marrying Kohli and invites the Bakshi 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 the Bakshi family to tea and informs the family that he is in New York with their parents to meet potential brides, devastating Jaya and Mrs. Bakshi. At Heathrow Airport, the Bakshi family runs into Darcy, who is also a guest at the 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’s opinion of Darcy improves and the two fall in love.

At the wedding, Lalita meets Darcy's condescending mother Catherine (Marsha Mason) who claims Darcy is almost engaged to a former girlfriend. Lalita also meets Georgie (Alexis Bledel), 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, blaming him for her sister’s unhappiness.

Back in London, Lakhi takes advantage of the family's layover to sneak away to meet Wickham. Lalita realizes that that Darcy was right about him and calls for his help to find Lakshi. Darcy explains that Wickham got Georgie pregnant and tried to marry her for their family's money and ran away when his plan failed. They rescue Lakshi and Darcy apologizes to Lalita, telling her that he has gotten Balraj to reconcile with Jaya. Lalita forgives him and accepts his proposal. 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.

Soundtrack
TitleSingers
Balle Balle Sonu Nigam, Gayatri Iyer
Tumse Kahen Ya, Hum Na Kahen ("Take Me to Love") Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik
No Life Without Wife Gayatri Iyer, Nisha Mascarenhas, Sowmya Raoh
Lo Shaadi Aayi Alka Yagnik, Kunal Ganjawala, Anu Malik
Tumse Kahen Ya, Hum Na Kahen (sad) ("Take Me to Love" reprise) Alka Yagnik
Dola Dola Gayatri Iyer
Payal Bajake (Goa Groove) 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."[3] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100 based on 34 critics, indicating "positive reviews".[4]

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".[5]

Professional reviews
BBC [5]
Hollywood.com [6]
USA Today[7]
Rolling Stone [8]
reelviews.net [9]
The New York Times [10]
ABC Australia [11]
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References
  1. "Bride and Prejudice (12A)". British Board of Film Classification. 24 September 2004. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  2. "Bride and Prejudice (2005)". Box Office Mojo. 26 May 2005. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
  3. "Bride and Prejudice (2005)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
  4. "Bride & Prejudice Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
  5. Papamichael, Stella (7 October 2004). "Bride & Prejudice (2004)". BBC Film. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  6. Knolle, Sharon (15 February 2005). "Bride and Prejudice Review". Hollywood.com. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  7. "Showtimes, reviews, trailers, news and more - MSN Movies". movies.msn.com. Archived from the original on 12 June 2012. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  8. "Bride and Prejudice". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  9. Berardinelli, James. "Reelviews Movie Reviews". Reelviews Movie Reviews. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  10. Dargis, Manohla (11 February 2005). "Mr. Darcy and Lalita, Singing and Dancing". NYTimes.com. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  11. "At the Movies: Bride and Prejudice". Abc.net.au. Archived from the original on 7 June 2017. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
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