Bride and Prejudice

Jane Austen meets Bollywood musical in this spicily enticing tale of classic romance transferred to present-day India. When a wedding party comes to town, Mrs Bakshi, a mother with four attractive daughters is desperate to see one of them married off, preferably the eldest even though her more laidback husband doesn’t see things in quite the same way. The path of true love is further hampered by the fact that feisty eldest Lalita is not going to be fobbed with any old husband. She wants to marry for love and has set her sights on handsome Will Darcy, although its difficult to see why, given he appears empty-headed and arrogant. Of course, they get off on the wrong foot in initial exchanges.

Jane Austen’s tale of marriage and manners transfers surprisingly smoothly to the world of Bollywood musical in modern-day India. From the first few musical numbers, you’re likely to be swept along, perhaps remembering previous faithful productions of the novel or wondering why this sort of thing hasn’t been tried before. It has its cheesier moments be warned – the odd clunky scene and certainly one or two of the musical numbers, but Aishwarya Rai is likeable as Lalita and Nitin Ganatra turns in a memorable cameo performance as a clunky Asian American whose fat wallet at least is some compensation for the goofily funny comments he comes out with.

You may well come out smiling from Bride and Prejudice. Yes its chessily bad but as a lavishmusical spectacle, it does leave you pretty well entertained for the best part of two hours and that will probably make you forgive the naff songs that make it seem longer. Director Gurinder Chadha takes on a classic and manages to bend it like Bollywood providing a unique kind of effervescence that becomes hard to ignore.

Matt Arnoldi