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By Brooke Holgerson
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A modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice from the director of Bend It like Beckham, Gurinder Chadha’s Bollywood musical transplants the story to India, but her heroine, Lalita, remains true to Elizabeth Bennet. Lalita is played with an easy charm by Indian superstar Aishwarya Rai, whose enormous liquid eyes radiate a spiritual well-being that suits her character’s quiet self-confidence. Chadha incorporates some classic Bollywood tropes, including lavish musical numbers that add goofy fun to an old story. Some elements don’t update as easily, however, and the Wickham subplot, in which a womanizing pretty boy with a dark past charms Lalita and her sister, makes little sense in a modern context. The complicated plot along with the musical numbers is a lot to squeeze into a two-hour film; the pacing becomes perilously rushed and confusing toward the end. Martin Henderson is a fairly boring Darcy, here an American hotel magnate, and Naveen Andrews as Bingley is wasted in the nice-guy role. Chadha’s mix of Hollywood and Bollywood may baffle some, but for neophytes, the familiarity of the story makes Bride and Prejudice a good introduction to the one of the world’s most popular film industries. In English, Hindi, and Punjabi with partial English subtitles. (111 minutes) At the Jane Pickens.
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