When Hollywood meets Bollywood

Bollywood is India's version of Hollywood. India churns out more movies than Hollywood. After a recent interview with Bollywood's highest paid actress Aishawarya Rai on "60 Minutes", it was inevitable that Bollywood would invade the US shores. That film to introduce US filmgoers is "Bride & Prejudice". "Bride & Prejudice" is Bollywood's version of the Jane Austen classic "Pride & Prejudice". The film is directed by Gurinder Chadha whose last film was the hit "Bend It Like Beckham".

The story of "Bride & Prejudice" revolves around a well to do Indian family the Bakshi's. The mother is a very traditional Indian woman. She wants to marry off all four of her daughters. Her second eldest daughter Lalita (played by the stunning Aishawarya Rai) thinks otherwise. She wants to buck the tradition of arranged marriage and wants to marry for love. This obviously leads to conflict between mother and daughter. One fateful night at a party for a friend who just gotten married, Lalita meets a wealthy American business man named Will Darcy (played by the handsome Martin Henderson). They get off to a rocky start when both characters make assumptions of each other's culture but eventually a romance brews between the two.

Having not seen a Bollywood film, I initially wasn't used to seeing the characters break out into a huge song and dance number but I quickly grew to love the song and dance numbers. The music is a primarily traditional Indian music but there is hints of pop and dance influences, especially in the songs "My Lips Are Waiting" and "Touch My Body" sung by r&b singer Ashanti.

The funniest musical number is the "No Life Without Wife". Lalita and her three sisters are singing about what life would be like if Lalita married Mr. Kholi, a potential suitor that Lalita's mother tries to hook her up with. Mr. Knoli (Nitin Chandra Ganatra) is the comic foil in this film. He is lives in Hollywood but comes back to India to find a traditional Indian wife. He is obnoxious and crude. All the musical numbers were wonderful but "No Life Without Wife" really struck me as the funniest.

Another hilarious scene was when Darcy, Mr. Kholi, Balraj (Darcy's best friend and business partner), Balraj's sister Kiran, Lalita and her family were watching Lalita's younger sister perform her snake dance. I just loved the reaction of the characters to the not so subtle moves of Lalita's sister.

There were some twists and turns in the film that I didn't expect. I think the only minor flaw was that I thought the sub-plot of the relationship between Johnny Wickman (Daniel Gilles) and Lakhi Bakshi (Peeva Rai Chowdhari) went on a little too long but it does tie into the storyline. I would have liked to have find out why Will Darcy had fired Johnny's mother who was Will's nanny.

Overall I enjoyed this film a lot. I found it a good mix of comedy with a good dose of drama. I just loved the vibrant colors of the costumes and the catchy musical numbers. The entire cast put in excellent performances. "Gilmore Girls" Alexis Bledel and film actress Marsha Mason makes a cameo appearance as Will Darcy's family. "Bride & Prejudice" is one of the most entertaining films that I have seen in years.

Before I forget, at the end of the film there is some really hilarious bloopers from the making of the film. It is worth sitting through the rolling of the credits to see the outtakes and bloopers from the movie.