Bride & Prejudice, 2004

I had asked my husband to buy heaps of Bollywood movies for my sister, who is truly a fan. I myself, never really understood all the dancings, singings, and drama behind these lengthy movies.

I was curious about the movie "Bride and Prejudice" however, for it reminded me of a great novel of Jane Austen, "Pride and Prejudice".

Imagine my surprise, for the movie was quite good. Even the singings, dancings in it, were great! Lots of songs sung by the main character, Aishwarya Rai, vaguely reflect songs in western theaters, beautiful, haunting and sweet (which you could sing along, at the same time, strumming your guitar...).

I had thought this Bollywood movie was by coincidently, had the name that so vaguely resemble the great movie/novel "Pride & Prejudice". Turned out, that this Indian version had a plot, that very similar to our western "Pride & Prejudice": a mother who tried her best (even in a vulgar manner) to find worthy husbands for all of her daughters; a Mr Darcy who was good looking, aloof, coming from a wealthy background, happened to get on a wrong foot with the most intelligent daughter of the house (Lalita, played by the beautiful Aishwarya Rai); a far-away and very silly cousin who came to ask for Lalita's hand, got rejected, and promptly married Lalita's best friend; a handsome but of doubtful character who was an acquaintance of Lalita, trying to seduce her younger sister (the only difference here was: this scoundrel was not successful, he was stopped by our Mr Darcy just in time!); Mr Darcy tried to stop his best friend from marrying Lalita's other sister, regardless of their true love; etc...

A mixture of Hollywood and Bollywood, but the outcome was real wonderful, a true master piece, a great and beautiful musical movie.

One could see that while the movie was made, the cast was having a wonderful time with each other, real jolly, happy, with lots of group dancing.

Watching this movie, the viewers are sure to have a chance to learn a lot about Indian culture, their values, their beautiful costumes, etc.

(The actress Aishwarya Rai was Miss International 1994. To play the role Lalita, she had to put on 20 pounds, for she wanted to look real authentic for the part).