P&P 200: Bride & Prejudice (2004) Film Review

Bride & Prejudice (2004)
starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Martin Henderson

Continuing the 200th anniversary celebration today of Jane Austen's classic Pride and Prejudice novel, with my thoughts, opinions, and review of Bride & Prejudice (2004)  starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Martin Henderson

Here's my Bride & Prejudice film review...

Watch the trailer for Bride & Prejudice film

(source: LionsgateVOD)

Bride & Prejudice (2004) Synopsis

A clash of cultures in the spirit of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, this modern musical retelling of Jane Austen's classic Pride and Prejudice is a hilariously entertaining tale of one girl's unlikely search for love! Sparks immediately fly as a love/hate relationship ignites between a small-town beauty (International star Aishwarya Rai) and a wealthy American (Martin Henderson - The Ring, Torque) who's visiting her modest Indian village! In a swirl of music, dance and comic misunderstandings, these opposites continue to attract and repel one another in a riotous romance that spans three continents! Featuring Naveen Andrews (TV's Lost, The English Patient) and a memorable performance from top recording artist Ashanti - love will eventually conquer all in this acclaimed treat from the director of Bend It Like Beckham!

I thought Bride & Prejudice starring Aishwarya Rai as Lalita Bakshi (aka Lizzie Bennet) and Martin Henderson as the wealthy American Will Darcy (Mr. Darcy) Indian/Bollywood version of Pride & Prejudice was brilliant, fun, funny, and entertaining to watch. Can never get enough of P&P in different versions including this one, which was not only fun, funny, entertaining to watch. I love the costumes and how colorful and vibrant they were, the beautiful music (the songs were very catchy and makes you want to sing along with them), and all the dancing (makes you wanna dance with the characters while you watch).

What I really loved and enjoyed about this movie was the music, costume, and dancing...not too mention, the comedy in this movie were fun and enjoyable to watch. When I first discovered this movie, I was shopping at Target some years ago and saw the DVD on the shelf and randomly bought this film as it looked interesting to me (which I don't usually buy a random DVD based on its disc cover, but this one just grabbed my attention and was one of the few exceptions), which I'm very glad I did 'cause I didn't expect to have loved and enjoyed watching this film. It was just a fun movie and I loved the catchy song and dance numbers (this was one of the first Bollywood films I discovered too and enjoyed watching...now, I must confess...I have seen lots of Bollywood films now...after seeing this one... that I've enjoyed watching since then) and funny dialogues and learned a lot about Indian culture.

Anyway...

Here are my favorite scenes from the movie...
(There are so many...these are some of them)

• The first dancing scene at the beginning when Will Darcy and Balraj (Bingley) first arrived to India and Balraj started dancing and his sister Kiran had these funny one-liners to Darcy: "Watch yourself, Darcy, he's about to transform into the Indian MC Hammer! " and "These girls are like naked live wires. If you get too close, you'll get an electric shock of love."
• The "Marriage Into Town" ("Life is great. Lets celebrate. A marriage into town" ) song and dance montage
• Mr. Kholi's (aka Mr. Collins) arrival into the Bakshi residence esp. when he was introduced to the Bakshi girls. I thought it was funny when Mr. Kholi said: "Such a small caterpillars that turned into beautiful butterflies! And so like you... Madame butterfly." lol...
  
• The entire "No Life Without Wife" scene (from the dinner table to the dream sequence). Mr. Kholi made me laughed out loud! when he said, "You know what they say. No life without wife"  and the "No Life Without Wife" sing and dance montage. Can't help, but sing along to this part: "No life without wife, oh yeah, yeah..."  The dream sequence to end this funny scene was clever. Very nice. Love Lalita in a bridal gown. It was funny when she thought it was Wickham she was marrying, only when he was about to kiss her, it was Will Darcy that she ended up seeing.
• - Maya's (aka a combination of both Kitty and Mary?) "Cobra" dance scene was so hilarious. When everyone thought Maya's dancing was over, she surprised them with another round of dancing. Hahahaha!!!! :D OMG! Can't stop laughing (every time I watch the scene)! The most hilarious scene in the entire movie!

You have to watch Maya's "Cobra" dance scene for yourself...to see what I meant...LOL!

(source: nasfan786nasar) 

• The plane scene on the way to Los Angeles, CA was funny when Will Darcy traded his first class seat to Mrs. Bakshi and she and Lalita had this nice conversation and he was trying to get the seat to go down, but couldn't.
• The Lalita & Will Darcy's first date scene in a Mexican restaurant and the "Show Me The Way (Bring Me To Love)" montage was nice and romantic scene to see between the two. 
• When Lalita & Will Darcy finally got together 
• The ending with the double wedding scene (too bad no kiss scene at the end between Lalita & Darcy, but since this was an Indian/Bollywood film...I forgive them ), of course.

My favorite character(s) from this movie...
Lalita, Will Darcy, Jaya, Maya, Balraj, Mr. Bakshi, Georgiana Darcy (though she only appeared briefly on this one...and she was like Colonel Fitzwilliam that this version didn't have in the scene she briefly had with Lalita...)

My least favorite character...
Johnny Wickham (what a jerk!), Mr. Kholi (so annoying, but yet so funny ), Lakhi (she was annoying much like Lydia Bennet ), Kiran (of course, the Indian version of Caroline Bingley...she's not too bad in this version, but still one of my least favorite characters ), Will Darcy's mother, Mrs. Darcy (she reminded me of Lady Catherine in P&P movie version)

My least favorite scenes...
All the sad Lalita scenes (I didn't like seeing her sad), All the scenes involving Johnny Wickham esp. when he fooled Lakhi, Mr. Kholi & Chandra's wedding scene in L.A. esp. when Lalita & Will Darcy were fighting. The scene where Lalita, her mother, and sister were in the hotel with Will and Mrs. Darcy. Didn't like how Mrs. Darcy POV of India and her disapproval of Lalita. The scene where Will Darcy confronted Johnny Wickham towards the end, but it was nice to see Darcy punched him in the face, not too mention Lalita and Lakhi both slapped his jerk face.

Overall, while not following closely to the P&P novel, in my opinion, I thought it was still a great movie on its own. Great casting, beautiful colorful costumes, great music, and a lot of fun and entertaining to watch. I loved and enjoyed it from beginning to end. Very funny too! I recommend you see this movie, if you haven't already...you'll love and enjoy watching it as much as I did!