Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (1813) tells a story about how classism interferes with the possibility of wholesome relationships. The novel was first adapted for television in 1938, followed by five more productions, with another screen version to come later this year or possibly in 2006. Austen's novel has also been transported to different times and places in Clueless (1995) and Bridget Jones's Diary (2001). In Bride and Prejudice, directed by Gurinder Chadha, the same theme is applied to four sisters in an upper class family living in Amritsr, India, and their suitors. Once again, Bollywood provides superior entertainment, including enjoyable choreography, breathtaking cinematography, raucous comedy, lavish costuming, melodious music, and a serious story in a production spoken almost entirely in English. Second-born blue-eyed Lalita (played by former Miss World, Aishwarya Rai), doubtless because of her beauty and intelligence, is rather stuck up. No man appears to be good enough for her, and there is a distinct possibility that she will become a spinster, though she makes no effort to work for a living. Although custom dictates arranged marriages, the parents (played by Anupam Kher and Nadira Babbar) allow their daughters a veto in their selection of possible husbands. When the film begins, Balraj Bingley (played by Naveen Andrews), a London millionaire, arrives in Amritsr along with an American, William Darcy (played by Martin Henderson), the son of Catherine Darcy (played by Marsha Mason). The Darcys are a New York family that owns luxury hotels around the world, though Darcy's father died when he was young. Whereas Balraj is to be best man at a wedding in town, Darcy goes along because has heard of the possibility of buying the top hotel in Amritsr. Accordingly, Balraj and Darcy run into the Bakshi family, who are friendly with the bride who is to be married. While Balraj is taken by the oldest sister, Jaya (played by Namrata Shirodkar), Darcy is immediately attracted to Lalita, but the latter responds to his cultural awkwardness and disparaging remarks about arranged marriage by twisting his words into insults of India, Indian culture, and Indian women. Notwithstanding Lalita's pride, Darcy inexplicably continues to pursue Lalita throughout the rest of the film despite repeated rebuffs; only when filmviewers meet his mother later in the film does the possible explanation emerge that he has Oedipal problems and is attracted to a woman with strong opinions. In any case, Darcy is only one of several possible suitors. One day, a gauche Mr. Kohli (played by Nitin Ganatra) arrives in Amritsr in pursuit of a bride. Boasting of his greencard and a $800,000 house in the San Fernando Valley, complete with an indoor Jacuzzi bathtub, he asks for the hand of the oldest, not realizing that she has been spoken for; her mother instead offers Lalita, but luckily even her father disapproves, whereupon Kohli hastily departs, though not without attracting the attention of Maya (played by Meghna Kothari), the third sister. Then one night a charming Brit, Johnny Wickham (played by Daniel Gillies), emerges along the beach during a party. Wickham, the son of a former Darcy servant, quickly bonds with Lalita and supplies some malicious gossip to discredit Darcy. Lalita responds with some reserve, but her youngest sister, Lakhi (played by Peeya Rai Choduri), is attracted to Wickham, especially when the family is in London, where Wickham owns a houseboat and shows her around town. Eventually, amid apology after apology for statements that Lalita twists to his disadvantage, Darcy discloses to her that Wickham raped his younger sister, Georgie (played by Alexis Bledel), at the age of sixteen. Clearly, marriage is inevitable for all the sisters, but Bride and Prejudice first exposes the idiocies of prejudice based on class, race, and sex while displaying the elegant house of the Bakshi family and the gorgeous sights of Hollywood, London, and the Golden Temple of Amritsr. Attending a screening in Sherman Oaks one rainy evening, I heard more joyful laughter during the film than I have encountered in quite some time, perhaps since the director's delightful What's Cooking? (2000). MH
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