Not even bad in a good way

Dreadfully Boring

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Do you think love can be found outside your race ? This question can depends on individuals, and in the movie Bride and Prejudice which is considers a Bollywood's movie but has some Hollywood themes in it. The film starts with Lalita and her two other sisters attending at a wedding. Balraj and his friend Darcy and Darcy's sister also attended the wedding all the way from America. In the Indian culture, it is the duty of the parents to find s good husband for their daughters and rich men are what they are aiming to get for their daughters. Balraj and and Jaya, Lalita's sister instantly fell in love. Darcy kind of have a crush on Lalita but didn't revealed his feelings until the near ending of the movie. There are some complications to Darcy and Lalita since they both are from different cultures and their ideas were very different compared to Jaya and Balraj, who have no problems since they both are Indian , it was easier to handle things. I didn't really like the film, nor I hate it , but I would I like it . But again I am not really impressed with the movie and their acting but overall, it's okay. I understand what the director was trying to do and his goals, to show the two different cultures and how sometimes how you view one particular culture is not true on most of the case. For example how Darcy thought arranged marriages were all so bad but we can disapprove clearly in the example of Lalita's parents, they seem to work out well. What I didn't really was how it was kind of too fictional , for two people to fall in love so quick and from one step to quickly jump to 100 step, such as marriage . Bride and prejudice can clearly be seen as a crossover film than the other traditional Bollywood films. First of all, the film is in English which already removes it from the category of traditional Bollywood film. Also this film takes place from different countries, not just India but also in London and USA compared to the other Bollywood movies, which is usually in India. Also various actions in this show that it is a crossover film when most of their songs are in English instead of a Hindi. Also when Darcy was looking for Lalita, Kholib offered him to get inside and have some beer, which is total opposite from what traditional Bollywood films would do. What I have learned about the cultural elements presented in the film is the difference between Indian and Western culture on the topic of love. In the West it's all about the love while in the Indian culture, that not the case for everyone. The director did a good job in showing this part when Lalita and Darcy were having casual conversations. When Darcy make a joke about the arranged marriage, Lalita got very upset and said that that was not the case and that people are very happy and she question why is the reasons why Americans has the highest percent of divorce rate in the world, if it all about the love ? The scene leaves with Lalita saying this and leaving and Darcy was speechless and it is exactly what the movie director has intended to do. I've also learned that is the the parents duty to find spouses for their kids, they belived it much better since they would what best for their kids and highly honor to marry someone who is rich, respectful and educated. And also this idea kind of also blends in the West even though it is technically called arranged marriages, the parents kind of give suggestion to their kids to marry who. For example when Whickman was telling Lalita how Darcy 's mother tried let her son marry a new yorkan girl, and it is very similar to arranged marriage in India but not extreme. The idea is still there.

"Bride and Prejudice" was a poor representation of what a Bollywood film entails, this movie is just Hollywood forcing it's formulaic idea of how a romantic movie should be onto wisps of Bollywood themes. The finished product being a very underwhelming stereotypical cheesy 2000s American film. The movie was about two characters finding each other, initially one disliking the other, an antagonist love interest then introduced to build drama between the characters, ending with the realization that the antagonist truly is as the title "antagonist" entails resulting in the two main characters being together.This film is just a pathetic attempt to bring in a new demographic, the outcome being the alienation of both genre enthusiasts. The character development was shallow failing to build a connection between the protagonists and viewer. Without this connection there is very little investment by the consumer making the experience quite boring over all. The characters also fell into many cliché roles, the imperfect, misunderstood love interest, the conniving antagonist, the female just looking for love. All these characters have very little that make up who they are and what they do have has been overused time and time again. Not only are the characters cliché but the scenes felt so too. For example the female love interest, on the brink of changing her opinion of the misunderstood lead male, would have a secondary character, in this case the antagonist and lead male's sister, divulge information casting the lead male in a poor light prolonging the movies goal to get the two leads together. A sloppy and overused trope to meet a movies time requirement in my opinion. Bollywood films are supposed to be huge productions with vast dancing arrangements and captivating musical numbers, unfortunately this fell short regarding this movie. "Bride and Prejudice" attempted these Bollywood staples but had very few lackluster outburst of song and dance. The songs were poorly written, just take the number that repeated over and over… and over again the phrase "Marriage has come to town". No real thought behind the song and much like the characters, the song felt shallow and boring. In regards to the dance pieces they were short and nowhere near the magnitude of those from real Bollywood films. The movie's dance scenes went on for maybe 3-5 minutes tops and consisted of repetitive unimaginative routines which attempted to appease the Bollywood aficionados and keep the attention of the foreign viewers spitting on what it means to be a Bollywood film. The director also attempted to bring in the suspense and tension between characters commonly seen in Bollywood films but as said earlier, this goal was not reached with such boring, two dimensional characters.All in all this is what I expected from a Hollywood 2000s cash grab of a film, overall it felt quite sub par and did not do Bollywood films justice (funny enough it accurately portrayed the poor quality of such Hollywood love stories from this time). I truly hope people do not, after viewing this movie, create their opinion on what Bollywood, as the genre, entails.

When marriage has two different meanings, Lalita and Darcy have trouble with love. Mrs. Bakshi wants nothing more for her four daughters than a rich husband of her choosing, but when her two eldest play by their own rules, trouble stirs. The oldest sister, Jaya, falls in love with an Indian man who lives in London named Balraj, who brought along a friend, Will Darcy. Lalita, the second oldest, caught Darcy's eye the moment he saw her. However, coming from two different cultures, they find themselves in multiple disagreements. With Lalita's mother trying to set her up with Mr. Kholi, Johnny Wickham showing up and charming the sisters, and Darcy trying to win her over, it is hard for Lalita to know what or who she wants. Personally, I loved the film. I'm a sucker for cheesy love stories.I thought Bride and Prejudice was a great film to introduce me to Bollywood. Aside from the love story, the song and dance numbers were my favorite part. The song "Marriage has Come to Town" had an amazing set and such intricate costumes that could draw anyone's eyes. Not to mention the incredibly quick and sharp dance moves. Watching this crossover Bollywood film actually made me want to watch more, full-on Bollywood movies. The one critique I have is that the actors need to practice their lip-syncing because that was not so great. Overall, Bride and Prejudice is a great Bollywood introductory film.Although the plot was a basic, cheesy, love story, there was a lot that could be learned from the film. Indian culture was very prominent in this film, more specifically, their values of marriage. In India, arranged marriages are very common. It is likely that the parents will find their child a suitor who the parents think they will later on (in the marriage) fall in love with. Whereas, in America, it is most common to fall in love and then get married. Mrs. Bakshi wanted Lalita to marry Mr. Kholi, a rich Indian who lives in America and could provide her with a beautiful home. Lalita, on the other hand, wanted her parents to have nothing to do with her marriage, she wanted to find love on her own like an American. Another value learned is family. Family will always come first in India, especially with the Bakshi family. When Lachi left with Wickham, Lalita did everything in her power to search for her and save her from what could have been done to her. Adding on to that, Mr. Bakshi wanted to keep his four daughters close when they married so marrying a man who didn't live in India was unsettling to him. We can also learn how important India is to its natives. Tourists tend to see the beautiful, rich, Americanized side of India, when in reality most of India is not very "upper-class", but the natives appreciate it. When Darcy claims to have seen the real India Lalita is the first to step up and prove him wrong, showing him how he's only seen what he's wanted to see, not what was truly there.

Creating a modern-day Bollywood version of "Pride and Prejudice" was a novel idea and was always going to be a challenging enterprise and director Gurinda Chandha deserves great credit for attempting to try to do so. What she produces is a worthwhile product with some great flaws The movie is to be credited for seeking to introduce western audiences to Bollywood entertainment and I like that that the film incorporates most of the traditional aspects of Bollywood productions -singing, dancing, guest appearances unrelated to the movie's plot and so on. It also provides us with an interesting and colorful, if I suspect somewhat superficial, overview of some aspects of Indian lifestyle and culture. The singing and dancing is well choreographed and fun even if the lyrics appeared slightly clichéd. I have a feeling Chandha was having a good-natured dig at Bollywood tradition at some parts The plot flows nicely with most of the similarities to the Jane Austen novel plainly evident.The casting was mostly good. Most of the Bakshi family closely matched their equivalents in the Bennett family and gave excellent performances in their respective roles. Martin Henderson was good as Will Darcy, Naveen Andrews was great as Balraj and the very talented Indira Varma was great as Kiran, the equivalent to Caroline Bingley. Daniel Gillies was good -if slightly forgettable as Johnny Wickham and Nitin Ganatra was hilarious as the irrepressible Mr Kohli.I could think of no better actress to play the Lady Catherine De Bourgh-like character Catherine Darcy than the very talented Marsha Mason.The one disappointment (other than what I'm going to get to in the next paragraph) was Alexis Bledel as Georgiana Darcy. Georgiana Darcy is one of my favorite characters in "Pride and Prejudice" but this version of Georgiana Darcy comes across as flat and unlikeable But what really spoiled the movie for me was Aishwarya Rai in the main role of Lalita Bakshi, although in all fairness she was given some very sloppy character development and dialogue to work with by Chandha. She's such an irritating, annoying actress and her performance -at least in this movie -was horrible and her being the main character definitely destroyed the charm of this movie was for me. Rai has been quoted in interviews as saying that she didn't read "Pride and Prejudice" before appearing in this movie. Well, perhaps she should have. Lizzie Bennett is definitely opinionated and headstrong but she's also a very sympathetic character and the reader can passionately identify with where she's coming from. Even when we see the flaws in Lizzie's character, they are still portrayed in a sympathetic way in relation to her overall personality. Rai and Chandha make Lalita's character arrogant, rude and pretentious to the point where I was cheering on Darcy when he was being obnoxious to her. That shouldn't be how it is in a "Pride and Prejudice" adaptation Perhaps this is a reflection of the overall script and character development in this movie, though. Many of the characters could have done with more depth, dimension and substance and there was a huge potential for greater fulfillment of the premise of this movie.The dialogue also fell flat at certain parts.I think this movie has an interesting premise and the casting, the insights into some aspects of Indian life and the singing and dancing make this worthwhile viewing. However, the sloppy script, dialogue, character development and the casting of Aishwarya Rai in the role of Lalita detract from what otherwise could have been a great movie