‘Bride & Prejudice’ and East vs. West
Gurinder Chadha’s Bollywood spin on the Jane Austen classic brought fun silliness to the clash between Indian and American values.
In the vein of the opening line to Jane Austen’s classic novel, Pride and Prejudice, it is a truth universally acknowledged that every Indian movie is a movie about marriage, even when it’s not. But Pride and Prejudice isn’t simply a novel about marriage, but a story about two stubborn, proud people who judge freely; the very adult maturity in changing one’s mind; and, of course, a heroine who earns love on her terms.
No wonder it has spun multiple adaptations, the most among Austen’s rich oeuvre. Gurinder Chadha — behind the generation-defining Bend it Like Beckham (2002) — takes Austen’s treatise, infuses it with the smell of mustard fields, a great deal of levity, and Aishwarya Rai. The result is a ridiculously silly film that revisits the classic clash between Eastern and Western values with breeziness and iconic dialogue.