Pride and Prejudice happens to be one of my favourite books - and I just could not wait to see a screen adaptation of the novel. But alas....

The heroine Elizabeth Bennet with whom I had secretly identified myself with was actually murdered by Gurinder and Aish. How could they?!?!

But before I begin my review of this stupendously silly movie which no doubt is an insult to Jane Austen - I must make a comment on another review I had read here. Aish plays Elizabeth Bennet not ’Lolita’. Lolita is Vladimir Nobokov’s controversial creation.

How could Gurinder imagine that Aishwarya in any mode would sell. First Aish was never ever a great actor. I still cannot imagine how a movie like ’Hum Dil...’ sold at all. In Devdas she was just a part of the props.

Now about this movie..

I had to see the movie twice to actually enjoy hating it. My daughter and I had the book Pride and Prejudice by our side to heighten our enjoyment.

Martin Henderson too I am sorry to say was a wood face - don’t blame - with Aish hamming away - I bet he could never achieve an iota of emotion on screen.

The subtleties of falling in love were never portrayed. Aish was so conscious about the use of an affected accent that what she said did not matter to her anymore. She perhaps was trying to invite a Hollywood market? Anyway - Darcy - the most romantic hero of my teens seemed a pale shadow of Austen’s Darcy.

Namrata was the only actor who achieved some kind of resemblance to Jane Bennet. And the snake dance sister did somehow manage to copy Mary Bennet in an Indian way. This was supposed to be ridiculous and embarassing even according to Jane Austen - so let’s not take that away from them.

Mrs Bennet was also fairly ably portrayed by Nadira Babbar.

Even Gurinder got Darcy’s sister’s name wrong. She was Georgiana and not Georgina as she calls her. This girl was supposed to be a gentle, shy and adoring young thing. She actually likes Elizabeth a lot. Gurinder managed to create quite the opposite effect by not giving the sister any character at all.

The Wickham episode was also a hotch potch. Wish Gurinder had stuck to the book rather Indianising or Americanising the entire novel.

All in all - if you want to witness a murder of a beautiful novel - you may watch this movie.

PS: What exactly was Gurinder trying to convey when Mr Kohli (Mr Collins of Austen) was ’entertaining’ the girls and the audience with his atrocious table manners. Does she want to convey to the audience in general that Indians eat with their hands and slurp food in such an undignified manner?? That was unwarranted, unacceptable and thoroughly disgusting. It was also not in tandem with the character of Kohli she had created. Mr Collins in Austen’s novel was a fool not a buffoon.

Plot Revealed In The Review:	Somewhat revealed
Best to watch with:	No Comment
Movie Genre:	No Comment
Best part in the movie:	No Comment