Bride and Prejudice Tuesday, Dec 16 2008

Lalita Bakshi is a strong, independent and fiery Indian woman who meets and instantly dislikes Will Darcy, an American accompanying his friend Balraj to a wedding in India. But Balraj falls in love with Lalita’s sister, Jaya which puts Lalita and Will in close proximity. Johnny Wickham sweeps Lalita off her feet but he hides a dark secret that Will tries to warn Lalita about, but which she finds out when its far too late.

Based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” this is an updated and very modern take on cross cultural romance, misunderstandings and prejudice that was as evident in Austen’s day as it is now. Filled with songs, dance and the beauty of India, you can’t help but be pulled along into the story.

Martin Henderson is searingly handsome as the arrogant Will Darcy, and Aishwarya Rai Bachan is OK as Lalita, but doesn’t contain as much fire as I see Lizzie Bennet as having. Anupam Kher is hilarious as the sarcastic but funny father and Nitin Ganatra is hilarious as the accountant, Kholi after Lalita’s hand in marriage.

I love Gurinder Chada because she makes films I can relate to, but not her most recent one. This is a funny, feel good film that leaves a smile on your face by the end of it.

Random fact: The phrase “no life without wife” is and old saying by Gurinder Chadha’s father.

4 out of 5 stars.

Bride And Prejudice [2004]

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Jodhaa Akbar Sunday, Nov 2 2008

Jodhaa Akbar is based on the life of the muslim King, Jalaluddin Muhammad Akbar who became King at 13 and fought to unite Hindustan (As India was known then) as it was separate Kingdoms. He forms an alliance with the Rajput people, and marries the King’s daughter, Princess Jodhaa. Jodhaa puts two conditions on the marriage, she must be allowed to keep her religion and ways and to have a temple built into the Palace so she can practice her religion.

Jodhaa doesn’t want to marry Akbar, but eventually they learn to live together and fall in love, despite the interferences of Akbar’s nanny and political enemies who are against the match.

This is a film I wanted to see for ages, and I’m glad I finally got to watch it! It was beautifully crafted, and really gave you a sense of the time period that it was set in.

Aishwarya Rai Bachan and Hrithik Roshan have fantastic chemistry as seen in Dhoom 2, so it was nice to see them in this film. The battle scenes were too long for my tastes, and I feel the film could have been shorter if they didn’t focus so much on the political enemies.

The dialogue of the film was hard to understand as it was in very formal Hindi, so I was glad of the English subtitles and why I waited so long to watch this film on DVD. The music was beautiful and really appropriate for the time period. The cinematography was excellent and really showed the scale of the Indian empire.

Overall, a fantastic story and a great addition to any DVD collection.

Random fact: Hrithik Roshan (Akbar) had a very “filmy” horse. The horse used to know what words like action meant and so when she heard action, she would take off, even if the scene required her to be stationary. Hence the crew would use other words instead of action to avoid the horse taking off. The names of his horses were Chandni and Superman.

5 out of 5 stars!

Jodhaa Akbar

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