‘Bride’ grooms classic novel
Like all great novels, Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” speaks to
different cultures; and like all good movies, “Bride and Prejudice”
manages to stitch these cultures together in a colorful mosaic.
“Bride and Prejudice” is the director Gurinder Chadha’s (“Bend It
Like Beckham”) modern, cross-cultural and musical interpretation of
the ambitious Mrs. Bennet’s search for appropriate grooms for her
daughters and of Elizabeth Bennet’s and Will Darcy’s misunderstanding
and later enlightenment of each other.
Only in this movie, the Bennets are the Bakshis living in Amritsar
in Northern India. Will Darcy, played by Martin Henderson (“The
Ring”), is an American hotel magnate and Naveen Andrews (“The English
Patient”) plays Mr. Bingley, or Balraj. In this case, however, Mr.
Bingley is British of Indian descent. India’s dazzling beauty queen
Aishwarya Rai, at the brink of a Hollywood career, plays the
intelligent and headstrong Elizabeth Bennet, who is renamed as Lalita
Bakshi in the movie.
The movie begins with Rai’s character sitting on a tractor
inspecting her father’s farms. The mother (Nadira Babbar) realizes
the rich and eligible Balraj is coming to attend a friend’s wedding
and tries to nab him for her eldest daughter Jaya (played by Namrata
Shirodkar, another beauty queen). In the meantime, her sister Lalita
takes a dislike for Darcy, whom she perceives to be arrogant. The
tale develops as more characters are introduced, and the pride and
prejudice of Darcy and Lalita give way to love and respect.
The extravagance of the canvas and colors open up a sensuous,
dreamlike world for the eyes. The movie is shot beautifully in three
continents -- Asia, Europe and North America by Indian director and
cameraman Santosh Shivan.
The balls of 19th century England are replaced by the wedding
dances of modern India, and the characters break into colorful,
artfully choreographed song-and-dance sequences at regularly timed
intervals. The movie manages to be entertaining and believable --
successfully translating the feminist themes of Austen’s novels into
diverse, modern-day concerns such as perceived American haughtiness,
arranged marriage and feminism in a developed country.
The only major flaw in the movie is that some songs had outlandish
lyrics that were not enunciated clearly.
Henderson seemed to be in a daze throughout the movie, but the
rest of the cast including Rai, Shirodkar, Babbar gave convincing
performances, making the most outlandish scenes hilarious. Daniel
Gillies (“Spider-Man 2”) and Nitin Ganatra preformed well as the
smooth and unsophisticated suitors of Lalita.
The movie takes you into another world, leaving you with the
extravagance, the music and the romance found from blending the two
cultures. The film is in English and is rated PG-13.
* RIMA SHAH is the business reporter for the News-Press.
Czech film hits the spot for humor
‘Up and Down’ earns high marks for warmth and humor.
The return of capitalism to post-Soviet Prague has ushered in a
whole new set of problems, including neo-racism, xenophobia, even a
black market for stolen babies in this clever comedy by Czech
filmmaker Jan Hrebejk. This is a very engaging film, written with
warmth, wry humor and quirky characters who bumble their way through
bizarre situations.
The story centers on a few days in the lives of a loosely
connected group of people. Two gangsters deliver a truckload of
illegal immigrants to a rural outpost and accidentally overlook an
infant left behind in a crib.
The baby is taken to a pawnbroker who sells the child to a weepy,
barren woman married to a dimwitted soccer ruffian who, because of a
police record, is barred from the adoption process. This poor guy,
portrayed by popular, rubber-faced Czech actor Jiri Machacek, stole
the show. His facial contortions and shrieking tantrums conveyed a
conflicting sense of pitiful hilarity.
The social worker assigned to find the child is married to an
older college professor whose son, a ne’er-do-well surfer now living
in Australia, suddenly returns to Prague. And, to further muddy the
waters, the son, who hasn’t spoken to his father in 20 years, was
once the lover of the social worker, his father’s current wife.
All of these characters, besides the upheavals in their own lives,
are busy kvetching and moaning about the large number of immigrants
who have come to Prague for the opportunities that their newly found
capitalist society has uncovered.
Darker hued people from southern Europe and recent Asian
immigrants seem to have drawn the most wrath. “They’re all here for a
free ride, standing around with their hands out,” says one. “They’re
pushing us out of the way, taking our jobs, and the government isn’t
doing anything about it,” says another. “They keep everything for
themselves and don’t even bother to learn to speak Czech.” Sound
familiar?
Director Hrebejk never relies on the ubiquitous hand-held camera,
and for this we are forever grateful. The photography was smooth,
well-edited and never annoying.
As this film unfolded, I drew closer to the characters, not
particularly for their flaws and foibles but because they are
presented as so warmly human. I just loved this film.
Rated R for graphic language, adult situations and occasional
chaotic violence, “Up and Down” is playing in selected area theaters
and presented with English subtitles.
* JEFF KLEMZAK is a resident of La Crescenta.