Jul 25, 2005 12:15 PM
2957 Views
(Updated Jan 31, 2007 08:55 PM)
Once, a fat lady was crossing a bridge which connected two banks called Indian cinema and English cinema. She walked ‘successfully’ a little while, looked back and beamed at her success. She jumped. The whole bridge vibrated (remember the famous high school physics problem where the bridge vibrates with resonance when the soldiers march on it?) She got petrified, terrified and a little horrified and in haste she jumped off into the stream flowing underneath.
And Then Ladies and Gentlemen !!! was born a film called ‘Pride…er…sorry Bride and Prejudice.’ Clap..clap..clap
Like how Ekta Kapoor has a special affection for ‘Ks’ I think , Gurinder Chadha too has a soft corner for ‘Bs’. After her hits ‘Bhaji on the Beach’ and ‘Bend it like Beckham’ which were acclaimed critically and commercially she made this ‘Bride….’ thing with the same expectations and the same starting letter ‘B’. God knows why she had this ‘B’ instead of ‘P’ but it made sure them movie is ‘b’ad and not the ones delivered with ‘p’anache.
But one thing I’m happy, the Jane Austen fans didn’t feel all that bad because the change in the initial letter meantit was not a direct adaptation of the classic but, some misrepresentation of it. They could proudly say,” it was ‘Bride!! for chrissakes not Pride. OUR Austen isn’t so bad at writing.” So they could tell the world bravely this is not ‘our Austen’s story’.
I hate to divide this review into parts as the movie isn’t so good but still….
Synopsis Cast andeverything else:
The movie released last year and I had the ‘privilege’ to watch only this year thanks to Star Movies. The movie caused ripples in the industry even before its release thanks to Aishwarya Rai.
The ever beautiful woman with her plastic smile ,her graceful body language with her unnatural actingonce again proved that she is ‘still trying’ to do her best. She plays a role where she is ‘supposed’ to be proud and haughty and show expressions concerning all such adjectives. As usual she tried her best. Could she perform her best is a totally different question but she ‘tried’.
She plays Lalita (pronounced Lay-leeeeta) who is very proud of her Indian culture and roots but makes sure she speaks in clear American accent. She says, ”I’m Lay-leeeeta. I love India.” I know Amritsar had a lot of tourists but I didn’t know it had their affect this much.
Ash’ father is Anupam Kher and her mother is . She has three other sisters played by Namrata Shirodkar, Piya Rai Chaudary and a Cobra Girl (we’ll talk about her later).
The story shown here is simple you needn’t go all the way adopt a classic’s story
Naveen Andrews and this Henderson guy (remember the movie ‘Torque’) come all the way from UK and America to Amritsar. Naveen falls in love with Namrata Shirodkar. And the so called flames of Austen’s pride burn between Henderson and Ash. This Henderson heads a 5star chain in America and so is rich. He falls in love with Ash because she is beautiful (the only believable part of the story). The fires of pride separate them Ash falls in love with another guy who actually is a cheat and the story goes on and on at last as all Bollywood movies it ends up with Ash marrying Henderson.
------->Analysis:There are many of these crossover movies, which if not like Hum Dil De chuke Sanam show India with all grandeur and richness, show India as it is. But this movie brought all sorts of weird Cobra dances scaring Americans and the guys with turbans dancing Balle balle right in the middle of Amritsars streets which were so unnatural.
This movie’s major drawback is it failed to convey through who’s eyes the movie should be seen. The movie is seen through Ash’s – an Indian’s eyes and even through Henderson’s – an American’s eyes, leaving us all confused in the end.
Ok we know in Indian movies people jump into songs every 20mins. But there is always a reason why they jump into songs. I don’t know, if the producer felt the songs are being wasted or something like that, this movie has songs sung by protagonists at all odd places and situations.
This movie is more like a mockery of Indian cinema than any crossover thing between Indian and English cinema. There was a joke – a father asked god for a daughter and the mother asked for a son and god got confused and gave them a being exactly in the middle of boy and girl. Maybe this movie was also like that.
I saw Topol’s ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ where too the protagonists burst into songs every now and then but the songs sung are so apt fit like a jigsaw puzzle at the right situation. Though the songs here are sung in some confused American – British English accent maybe to give some Hollywood Musical look, but is just diametrically opposite any musical too.
The ending is so abrupt that no Indian movie or British movie ever had. It’s like…when the camera moves down from a fully covered Bond Girl’s body to her miniskirt and then suddenly you ask “oops!! What happened to the cloth its all skin.” May be the ending again is so abrupt because she didn’t want the movie to be 3 hours like Bollywood and one and half hour like Hollywood so she ended up the movie in two hour 10 or 15mins.
::So who benefited by this movie??:::
Hm…..hm……hm….Oh my god I have to think so much nothing strikes at all. Hmm..hm..
OK Firstly our Anu Sahib.
Anu Malik, known for his tunes which are derived more from inspiration and less from his perspiration, has finally got a chance to show the world some of ‘his’ tunes. He was elevated to standards A.R.Rahman is at present.
Secondly Ash,
From Oprah in America to getting ‘propah’ roles in Britain this movie helped Ash a lot and showed the world a new face of India. Now people round the world think Bollywood is Ash and Ash is Bollywood. (Well!! what was her last hit in India? .never mind all those she is the face of bollywood) Now what will happen to poor Rani and Preity. Are they not bollywood? Are their careers in all Black? Will their positons be Kal ho na ho? Well, that’s a Paheli.
Thirdly me,
Though I wanted to switch off the tv and sleep, I watched this movie only to write this review. “These days I’m not getting any ideas yaar.” (heard this somewhere???)
::Justice Denied
Gurinder Chadha has done a very commendable job in her previous movies. But this time she failed to impress both the audience and critcs. But people who watched her this one movie only, might think she is got no talent. But this is wrong we can expect more from her.
Santosh Sivan has done wonderful cinematography for this movie. But I don’t think justice is denied as he anyway is world famous. But I think his work has been wasted and so is Farhan and Zoya Akthar’s https://lyrics.
