Who Knew Elizabeth Bennet Could Sing and Dance Like This?

Everyone who loves Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice knows the importance of that first moment, the moment when Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet first eye each other across a crowded dance floor. Just picture it with me: he's from out of town, aloof and out of his element, more curious than he's willing to admit about these country girls he's never met, though ready in a heartbeat to declare them all as far beneath him. She's quite comfortably in her element, amused to see the look of disdain on the stranger's face, and trying hard not to appear too interested in him despite the somewhat feverish whispers spreading like wildfire among her neighbors about his fortune and his good looks.

They see each other. And then of course, Eliza and all the other girls at the ball...

begin to giggle and burst into an exuberant song and dance number, their flourescent colored Indian saris billowing as they whirl down an elaborate staircase, teasingly challenging all the men in the room to dance with them.

Ha! Woke you up, didn't it?!

That's precisely what the scene did for me in director Gurinder Chadha's 2004 film Bride and Prejudice. Up until that moment, I was still able to retain some vestige of dignity as I valiantly tried to assess, in pure literary wonk fashion, what Chadha was doing in the opening scenes with her rewrite of the Bennet sisters (here renamed the Bakshi sisters). I was interested in how one might adapt Jane Austen's story into an Indian setting; I was fascinated to hear this was also a musical, in the tradition of "Bollywood musicals." I had no idea, however, just how sheerly exuberant, bizarre, over the top and frankly FUN this film was going to be.

When the dance scene erupted in a wild swirl of colors and a highly interesting mix of Eastern and Western music, I think my jaw dropped. Then I started laughing. And then I threw aside all of my purist Austen tendencies (OK...most of them anyway) sat back, and enjoyed the elephant ride.

And what a ride it was. This film delivered 112 minutes of fast-paced, romantic story, with humorous homages to just about everything. Austen, yes, but also Bollywood and Hollywood films. Having never watched any other Bollywood films, I can't say precisely how true this one is to that tradition of Indian cinema, but I can say that Bollywood must be at least kissing cousins with the old Hollywood musical tradition -- I kept having major MGM flashbacks. The way the characters would suddenly break into song in the middle of the street, the bold, bright colors that they wore, the over the top acting...I wouldn't have been at all surprised if Gene Kelly had suddenly swung from the chandelier singing "Oh Eliza!" and flashing his trademark Irish grin.

Elements of this film will remind you, more than once, of many other musicals you've seen. West Side Story (especially in the aforementioned scene where the guys and gals dance toward each other from opposite sides of the room...I think I shouted "Mambo!" at one point). You'll also probably think of Grease, especially in the number "No Life Without Wife" sung by the Bashki sisters in their pajamas. One of the special features on the DVD includes an interview with the director where she makes that connection with complete candor. That musical number also reminded me a lot of "Matchmaker, Matchmaker" from Fiddler on the Roof.

Bride and Prejudice is a loose-as-a-sari adaptation of the Austen story, although I almost hesitate to use the word adaptation. It's really a retelling. Chadha does a wholesale air-lifting of the characters from the pages of 18th century England, plunking them down with zest into the middle of...well, one could say 21st century India, but of course it's a highly stylized and surreal version of that culture. It's a tremendous tribute to the strength and power of Austen's original writing that her characters and plotlines actually withstand the elastic stretch without breaking into totally unrecognizable bits.

Our Eliza Bennet has been renamed Lalita Bakshi. Lalita, played by the extremely beautiful and well-known Indian actress Aishwarya Rai, is the second of four sisters in a middle-class Indian home. Mr. Bakshi, the girls' long suffering father, played excellently by Anupam Kher, lovingly tolerates the frustrating antics of his wife. Mrs. Bakshi is played with delicious over the top exaggeration by Nadira Babbar. She worries constantly and is desperate to get all her girls married well. Tradition dictates that the oldest should get married first, so she's especially invested in matching up Jaya, played by quiet and lovely Namrata Shirodkar. (I'll just save myself the trouble of repeating adjectives here...every young woman in this film is gorgeous.)

As luck would have it, the girls have all been invited to a friend's wedding where some out of town guests are expected, namely Balraj Bingley, played by none other than Naveen Andrews (star of the hit American television show Lost) and his rich American friend William Darcy, played by Martin Henderson. Balraj is a dashing Indian man who resides in the UK with his sister Kiran (played by Indira Varma with her nose in the air much of the time) a woman who has become westernized enough to feel superior to the hometown girls and to smirk her way through Darcy's obvious cross-cultural discomfort in this setting. Balraj, on the other hand, despite his years of living in the west, is still at home here. He is comfortably multi-cultural and doesn't mind jumping into the wildly energetic and romantic dance, especially once he and Jaya have made heavy-duty eye contact.

The rest of the story pretty much follows the Austen plotline, at least in terms of the basics, but with major cross-cultural overtones. Where the original story mostly unfolds in a small, closeknit community and finds its tensions in wealth and social differences within one culture, this remake plays on a global stage and highlights the chasm between characters from completely different worlds. It's a bold update and for the most part it works. Darcy finds himself falling for Lalita against his better judgement; she finds him handsome enough to trouble her dreams, but also stiff, arrogant and imperialistic (in a brilliant move, they made him a hotel owner considering buying and "upgrading" a property in Lalita's hometown).

Besides the tensions between Lalita and Darcy, the film sets up the other men in the plot mix. First there's Mr. Kohli (the renamed version of Austen's "Mr. Collins") a distant relative who's come to town to woo and win one of the lucky Bakshi girls. I say the last with sarcasm as Mr. Kohli, played brilliantly by Nitin Ganatra in the film's funniest role, is a ridiculous figure, silly, posing and none too bright. Interestingly, the film plays up his worst fault as his total immersion in vacuous American culture and his loss of connection with the Indian culture from which he comes. He's a laughable character but also, at least as played by Ganatra, somewhat pitiable. He's definitely the most creatively updated character, though I find it interesting that even in as bold a movie as this, the writers painted him with more sympathy than Austen painted her original Collins. (Though often characterized as demure and domestic, Austen was in fact a ruthless satirist -- not even a funny, bold 21st century film can best her in her ability to puncture pretensions and ridicule ridiculousness.)

Then there's Wickham, played by Daniel Gillies, handsome on the outside but devilish on the inside. Another westerner (this time English) he plays on Lalita's affections and lies about past dealings with Darcy, to the detriment of Darcy's character. I wasn't overly impressed with Gillies in this role, but then they cut the Wickham subplot badly, either afraid to make him look too "wicked," or else convinced that there wasn't anything they could make him do that would actually shock a contemporary audience. Austen's original Wickham, of course, was a fortune hunter and a womanizer who "eloped" with young Lydia Bennet without any intention of actually ever marrying her. The updated plotline here, with younger sister Lucky chasing him around London and then running off with him (for a day? forever? the film isn't clear) really fizzles. And because Wickham's not allowed to be a real baddie, then it's harder for Mr. Darcy's real goodness and strength to shine forth the way it does in the original story, when he tracks that bad man down and makes him do his duty.

And poor Mr. Darcy needed all the help he could get in this film. Martin Henderson was fine in the first half of the movie, when he got to play ill-at-ease in a culture he can't fathom. His stiffness is palpable, hinging on rudeness, and his fish out water scenes (especially the one where sister Maya does a gyrating snake dance in full belly-dancing regalia) have some good humour. Unfortunately, Henderson didn't seem capable of moving from the stiff comic to the forceful and passionate man Darcy should finally turn out to be, once we see him on his "own turf" and his true colors are allowed to shine. How much of this is a failure on the actor's part, and how much should be attributed to the badly written Wickham plot, I'm not sure. Had that part of the story been fully fleshed out, it would have, of necessity, called forth more strength and passion from the character. As it is, I had a hard time believing in his integrity or in his powers to persuade Bingley not to marry Jaya (Naveen Andrews seemed far more passionate and persuasive, even with less screen time). Most of all, I had a hard time believing that feisty Lalita would have really fallen for such a milquetoast personality. They just didn't have enough chemistry.

In spite of my struggles with Darcy's character and the truncated plot, I still think this movie succeeded on so many levels. It was mostly well-cast, the retelling was creative, the musical numbers entertaining, and it looked as though everyone involved had tremendous fun making it! The joy and almost silly energy that pulsated behind each scene made it tremendous fun to watch.

In fact, I plan to watch it again!

~© 2006, befus~

If you love Jane Austen films, you'll love Sense and Sensibility