accessAtlanta

Cultures mix as Jane Austen gets a Bollywood makeover

By STEVE MURRAY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

How's this for a crazy idea: Take "Pride and Prejudice," Jane Austen's very British 19th-century comedy of manners, and set it in the present. Turn heroine Elizabeth Bennet into a young Indian woman named Lalita Bakshi (Aishwarya Rai), and transform her contentious love interest Mr. Darcy (Martin Henderson) into a Los Angeles hotel heir.

Miramax Films 'Bride and Prejudice' B- The verdict: A giddily fun Bollywood take on Jane Austen's classic. Director: Gurinder Chadha Starring: Aishwarya Rai, Martin Henderson, Daniel Gillies Run time: 120 minutes Release date: Feb. 25, 2005 Rating: PG-13 for some sexual references See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer   -- Trailers require Quicktime Rate "Bride & Prejudice":   Go see it   Make it a matinee   Wait to rent   Don't bother Voter Limit: Once per Hour View Poll Results

Craziest of all, make it a Bollywood musical, complete with characters bursting into song, villagers dancing in the streets and lovers frolicking in fountains.

The surprise about "Bride & Prejudice," from director Gurinder Chadha ("Bend It Like Beckham"), is that this loony-Juney-moony hybrid works as goofily well as it does ... for the most part.

Lalita is the second of four sisters living in a crumbling old manse in Amritsar whose conniving mother (Nadira Babbar) is determined to marry them off, starting with the eldest, Jaya (Namrata Shirodkar).

Her plan kicks off with the arrival of Balraj Bingley (Naveen Andrews), visiting for a wedding. He and Jaya start eyeing each other, while Darcy captures Lalita's attention — but not in a good way.

He's baffled by Indian culture, anxious to get back to the big city. She interprets this as snobbery. Accompanying him to an exclusive resort hotel he's thinking of buying, she snipes, "You want people to come to India without having to deal with Indians."

In fact, Darcy increasingly wants to deal with one smart, gorgeous Indian, but Lalita can't see his attraction. Instead she gets entangled with two amusing reinterpretations of Austen's suitors. The money-obsessed clergyman Mr. Collins becomes nouveau riche Los Angeles businessman Kholi (Nitin Chandra Ganatra), who has lousy table manners and the smarm of an Indian Austin Powers. The roguish Wickham (Daniel Gillies) becomes a British beach bum who struts around shirtless.

These changes make witty sense, but some of the updates don't quite click. The modern setting lowers the stakes of Austen's original. Sure, as women, the sisters are second-class citizens in sexist India. But whether or not they find husbands isn't quite as essential as it was to the original Bennet sisters in 1813.

There's a bigger problem, but it's a casting choice. Henderson makes a colorless Ken doll of a Darcy, lacking the arrogant sexiness the best actors bring to the role. He doesn't seem to deserve Lalita — especially since she's played by an actress often referred to as one of the most beautiful in the world. Rightly. One last thing: Some of the movie's energy starts to leak away in the last half-hour.

Still, there's a lot here to like. "Bride" taps into the giddiness of Bollywood movies, but it's much shorter than the average example of the genre, and it has an actual, coherent script. And it nails the sensation of new love, when you feel that everyone around you should be singing. Director Chadha harnesses Austen's narrative as a framework to celebrate multiculturalism. Her movie travels from India to London to Los Angeles, popping into a Mexican restaurant for some mariachi music, or having an African-American gospel choir serenade lovebirds on the Santa Monica beach.

Sober, it isn't. But by the time two newlywed couples lumber toward their honeymoons atop bejeweled elephants, the movie's frothy excess and good humor can make you say "I do," too.