Bride and Prejudice, an entertaining Bollywood movie, produced by Miramax in 2004, takes Jane Austen’s classic literature, Pride and Prejudice and parodies it in a musical rendition of a classic story. Starring Aishwarya Rai, Martin Henderson, Naveen Andrews and Namrata Shirodkar, Bride and Prejudice presents the sentiment of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in a light and amusing modern musical.
Bride and Prejudice Parodies Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
Lalita Bakshi (Aishwarya Rai) and her sisters have a mother who has one thing on her mind: marrying her daughters to successful Indian men. When Balraj (Naveen Andrews) comes to town and shows interest in Jaya (Namrata Shirodkar), all are happy, until Balraj’s friend Will Darcy (Martin Henderson) comes on the scene with his fortune and his odious attitude. The story follows Lalita and Will as they become friends in spite of their initial contempt for each other.
Bride and Prejudice retains the elements of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice that make it such a charming classic. As a parody, each character in Bride and Prejudice represents a character from Pride and Prejudice. Lalita corresponds with Elizabeth Bennet, and Will Darcy, of course, represents Pride and Prejudice’s infamous Mr. Darcy. Lalita’s mother is a perfect modern, Indian version of Austen’s Mrs. Bennet. Likewise, characters like Austen’s Mr. Collins and Mr. Wickham are parodied in Bride and Prejudice as Mr. Kohli (Nitin Ganatra) and Johnny Wickham (Daniel Gillies) respectively.
Bride and Prejudice A Bollywood Musical Film
While the storyline is similar to Jane Austen’s novel, it is made modern and animated by Indian culture rather than the very English classic story. And as the story is more modern, so are the characters, especially Lalita and Will Darcy. Aishwarya Rai presents a loving, but slightly feisty Lalita, while her counterpart, Martin Henderson, portrays an outwardly nice, but slightly self-absorbed Will Darcy. Together, they bring new dimensions to Austen’s characters.
Bride and Prejudice also brings Jane Austen’s story to life with its infusion of music. The musical quality of this film is mainly what separates it from Pride and Prejudice film adaptions. The music is catchy and ingeniously intertwined with the scenes of the story. Upon meeting Mr. Kohli, for example, and learning of his wife hunting, the four sisters burst into song over what kind of man they would rather have.
And so, expanding on Jane Austen’s wit in a modern sort of way, with the addition of delightful music, Bride and Prejudice is a fun Bollywood movie style comedy and parody of Jane Austen’s most popular, well-loved classic novel.
Michelle Wright - Michelle is an avid reader and writer, with a focus on book, film and music reviews, gluten free recipes, and fiction writing "how-tos."
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