Recently watched Gurinder Chadha's 'Bride and Prejudice'. It was quite a disappointment. Probably because of my (too much) expectation from the director, with a previous hit, 'Bend it like Beckham' and this, based on Jane Austen's classic novel, 'Pride and Prejudice'.
The movie seemed too rushed. To give 'the Bollywood' feel, every now and then, people were bursting into song/dance sequence(with Indian style music and lyrics in English) that the story has been squeezed and hurried through. IMO, some of the events does not suit(or is it now?) the Indian culture(mother sending her marriageable daughter(s) to Goa with eligible bachelor guys)!!!
Anyway, the only good point(for me) in the movie was Martin Henderson. For once in movies, it was the hero who was the 'doll'! Any girl who has read Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, cannot but love William Darcy. I have watched almost every visual version of the novel,
Hollywood P & P (Laurence Olivier, Greer Garson),
BBC's miniseries (Colin Firth, Jennifer Ehle)
and even a hindi serial(cannot remember its name). Somehow Martin seemed a better looking Darcy than the other three(In my younger days, I thought 'Thalapathi' Arvindsamy was the perfect Darcy!!).
Even though the parents characterisation is strong in the novel, the actors(Anupam Kher and Nadeera Babbar as the Bakshis) had no scope. I felt it especially since the characterisation(Anupam Kher and Shaheen Khan) in Bend it.. was so impacting. The only character worth mentioning is Nitin Ganatra as Kohli. He was hilarious! Surprisingly most review sites have positive comments about this movie. I guess, Aishwarya Rai is the reason!!
12 comments:
U are spot on about this movie.. Whether you have expectations about the director or actress or whatever, it was a huge disappointment.. I had watched the BBC mini-series (in VHS) and I liked it.. B&P - I couldn't sit through.. I started browsing on my laptop mid-way.. So boring...
One of my French friends who watched the movie said she too didnt like it and found nothing in it.. Before she could go like "you are proud of this kinda movies?" I said we didnt like it and it was already a flop in India..
BTW, what a title !?!? (I donno whether I am spoilt but when I saw that something else came to my mind).
no...i aven't seen the movie...but thought the blog was very thought provoking...
hmmm...hunger strikes et again...
sandwich
Havent seen the movie. But will keep away from it as per your advice.
GP - enna, what is there in B&P?
Deepak, appuram solrenn..
GP: oh.. i get it now.. worst-u!!
Ash is worsht.. so me BP pakkala :)))
gp and gangadhar,
glad that you concur with my views.
goofsta,
my blog, thought provoking? ok!!
gp and deepak,
hey, I don't get you. But it was just my laziness to type out the full title.
vijay,
good for you!
The unforgatable scene in the movie was the climax where the hero comes with a Dol.. i was ROTFL.
Sen, ya, the critic in me went ROTFL but I have to admit that the romantic in me went "aaww.."!!
chennai pages, exactly! And ya, 'Trishna' it was! Thanks for coming up with that.
gp and deepak, ada enakkum sollungappa !!
aparna, did you see raincoat ?
Keerthi, haven't seen raincoat yet. are you recommending it?
Raincoat is better than Bride and Prejudice... Terrificperformances by the lead pair. I would surely recommend (indha padathai paartha paavathai pokkina madhiri irukkum).. :-)
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