Bride and Prejudice is a 2004 Indian/British/American romantic musical film directed by Gurinder Chadha. The screenplay by Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges is a Bollywood-style adaptation of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It was filmed primarily in English, with some Hindi and Punjabi dialogue.

Plot

The plot closely follows the plot of Pride and Prejudice, with many elements compacted to brief references. Some character names remain the same, while others are changed slightly, using localized names with similar pronunciation (such as Lalita for Lizzy).

Lalita Bakshi is a daughter of a farmer in Amritsar. She has three sisters, Jaya, Maya, and Lahki. Lalita is introduced to William Darcy, an American businessman, but initially deems him to be self-absorbed and resists his advances.

Lalita falls in love with Johnny Wickham, whose mother was Darcy's childhood nanny. Darcy tries to warn Lalita about Johnny, without revealing he impregnated Georgie, Darcy's younger sister, when she was sixteen-years-old, but she assumes Darcy is simply jealous of his romantic rival.

Lalita, her mother, and sisters go to Los Angeles to attend the wedding of Lalita's best friend Chandra Lamba to Kholi. Lalita and Darcy begin to spend together, and she overcomes her misgivings and falls in love with him.

Darcy proposes to her, but Lalita declines because Darcy discouraged his friend Balraj from having a relationship with her sister, and she returns to India. Lakhi runs off with Johnny, and everyone is worried. Darcy flies back to London and, with Lalita's help, rescues the younger sister. They fly back to India where Lalita and Darcy and Jaya and Balraj get married in a double wedding.

Production

Ashanti sings "Take Me to Love" and "Touch My Body" in the film. Ashanti's appearance in the film is an homage to the tradition of a celebrity making a cameo appearance to sing a song that has no direct involvement in the plot in Bollywood films.

The film received funding from the UK Film Council with the stipulation that a majority of filming had to take place in the UK. Locations used include Halton House, Stoke Park, Turville, and Cobstone Windmill in Buckinghamshire, and Southall, Somerset House, Little Venice, the London Eye, and the National Film Theatre in London. Other locations used for the film include the Golden Temple of Amritsar, the beaches of Goa, the Grand Canyon, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and Santa Monica Beach.

Selected cast

Actor/Actress	Character	Pride and Prejudice counterpart
Aishwarya Rai	Lalita Bakshi	Elizabeth Bennet
Martin Henderson	William "Will" Darcy	Fitzwilliam Darcy
Daniel Gillies	Johnny Wickham	Mr. George Wickham
Naveen Andrews	Mr. Balraj	Mr. Bingley
Anupam Kher	Mr. Bakshi	Mr. Bennet
Nadira Babbar	Mrs. Bakshi	Mrs. Bennet
Namrata Shirodkar	Jaya Bakshi	Jane Bennet
Indira Varma	Kiran Balraj	Caroline Bingley
Sonali Kulkarni	Chandra Lamba	Charlotte Lucas
Nitin Ganatra	Mr. Kholi	Mr. Collins
Meghna Kothari	Maya Bakshi	Mary Bennet
Peeya Rai Chowdhary	Lakhi Bakshi	Lydia Bennet
Alexis Bledel	Georgina "Georgie" Darcy	Georgiana Darcy
Marsha Mason	Catherine Darcy	Lady Catherine de Bourgh
Harvey Virdi	Mrs. Lamba	Lady Lucas
Georgina Chapman	Anne	Anne de Bourgh

Soundtrack

• "Deh Shiva Bar Mohe"
• "Punjabi Wedding Song"
• "A Marriage Has Come to Town"
• "My Lips Are Waiting" - Ashanti
• "Superstylin'"
• "Dola Dola"
• "Take Me to Love"
• "No Life Without Wife"
• "El Tilingo Lingo"
• "Nagin"
• "Take Me to Love (Part Two) - P J Lequerica
• "Ride with Me" - Nelly
• "Touch My Body" - Ashanti
• "My Lips Are Waiting" (Reprise) -Ashanti and Aishwarya Rai

External links

• Official site