(2004) Here's a vibrant and vivacious entertainment from director Gurinder Chadha (co-screenwriter with Paul Mayeda Berges), adapting Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice to a Bollywood-style musical comedy.

In Amritsar, India, Mrs Bakshi (Nadira Babbar) instructs her four maidens that they should strive to attract a man to look into their eyes, not at their cleavage. Balraj Bingley (Naveen Andrews) with his sister Kiran (Indira Varma) and his American friend William Darcy (Martin Henderson) have come to "Hicksville, India," to look for a bride and to consider hotel properties.

Invited to the Bakshi home for a lavish party, Balraj enthusiastically joins in the dancing - after the men dance and sing below them, the girls in their colorful saris descend, dancing and singing: "These girls are live wires; if you get too close, you'll get an electric shock" - while shy, workaholic William hangs back.

After William turns aside from her daughters, Mrs Bakshi harrumphs: "What does he think, we are not good enough for him?" Lalita (Aishwarya Rai in her first all-English-language film) eventually engages William in conversation during which he speaks his mind that the best hotel lacks reliable electricity and arranged marriages are backward. Later, culturally obtuse, he describes the dancing as screwing in a lightbulb with one hand and petting a dog with the other.

Contravening his wife's sense of propriety, Mr Bakshi gives approval to his oldest daughter (Namrata Shirodkar) Jaya's going to spend a day and evening at a resort in Goa in the company of Balraj and his sister with Lalita as chaperon. After Lalita and Darcy get into an argument while lounging at pool side, on the beach at night Johnny Wickham (Daniel Gillies) emerges from the surf, attracting Lalita's attention. He tells her of his youthful association with the Darcy family in the UK, says William got him fired from his job, and confides that William's mother has arranged a marriage for him, making William a hypocrite - in addition to his being rude, arrogant, intolerant, vain, and insensitive - in Lalita's eyes.

Expecting Jaya will marry Balraj, Mrs Bakshi has high expectations for a match with Lalita when her wealthy cousin Mr Kholi (Nitin Ganatra) arrives from California. Asked why he has returned to India to seek a bride, the boastful relation, whom Lalita sarcastically describes as "like looking at a Jackson Pollock piece," replies that Indian girls in the US are "too outspoken" or become lesbians; he then sings "No Life No Wife." Wanting a man with "a sharp mind and a big heart," Lalita dislikes the thought of marrying Mr Kholi; in a dream of becoming "an overseas bride dressed in white," Darcy's sudden appearance transforms the idyll into nightmare.

After Johnny has hitchhiking from Goa to Amritsar, Mr Bakshi permits the young chap to stay with the family. During another extravagant entertainment, Lalita introduces Mr Kholi to her best friend, Chandra Lamba (Sonali Kulkarni) and then dances with William, whom she upbraids for speaking ill of arranged marriages when his own mother has one waiting for him.

The youngest of the Bakshi daughters, Lahki (Peeya Rai Choudhuri), who wears a t-shirt displaying "Lucky," develops a crush on Johnny; the other sister, Maya (Meghnaa Kathari), performs a vulgar snake dance in front of her family, William, the Bingleys, and Mr Kholi (who exclaims he has had business dealings with William's mother). Following Karin's cautioning Lalita about Johnny's untrustworthiness, William, whose parents live apart, compliments India for having close family ties. Embarrassing Jaya and Balraj by announcing they make an excellent match, Mrs Bakshi's behavior results in William's discouraging his friend from further pursuing Jaya because the mother appears to be a gold digger.

When Lalita next declines Mr Kholi's marriage proposal, the mother of four unmarried girls despairs: "She wants love from the beginning." In a fit of anger Mrs Bakshi threatens Lalita with never speaking to her again if she persists in refusing Mr Kholi's marriage offer, to which Mr Bakshi answers that if Lalita does marry Mr Kholi, he won't ever speak to her again.

Then follow departures: Balraj, Karin, and William leave for London; Mr Kholi wins Chandra with his request that she become his wife (a practical girl not given to romantic fantasies, later telling Lalita, "He's kind and he adores me") - inviting everyone to Los Angeles for the wedding celebration, and Johnny catches a train.

Flying first to London - hoping to see Balraj there, Jaya is disappointed when Karin says he and William have gone to New York to meet a couple of women - the Bakshis are joined on the flight to LA by William, who graciously gives up his first-class seat to Mrs Bakshi in exchange for a seat beside Lalita, to whom he speaks of Wickham as "a nasty piece of work" before confessing:"I want to marry someone I can't wait to see everyday."

At the wedding William introduces the Bakshis to his mother, Mrs Charlotte Darcy (Marsha Mason) and his teenage sister Georgie (Alexis Bledel). When Mrs Darcy says she has no need of ever visiting India since her son has gone and decided against making an investment there, Lalita speaks out: "People haven't stopped going to Italy because Pizza Hut's around the corner."

After Lalita questions William's veracity, Georgie says: "My brother never lies." Once again drawn to the man she had found so vain, she accompanies him on a romantic dinner in a Mexican restaurant, followed by a trip by helicopter to the Grand Canyon, and down to a beach serenaded by surfers and gospel singers.

But once again her heart's broken when Mrs Darcy introduces the Bakshis to Will's girlfriend Anne. Trying to undo the misunderstandings, William professes his love to Lalita, who retorts: "Only you could say you love me and insult me at the same time."

On their way back to India, on a stopover in London, Lahki takes off with Johnny; hearing the news, William arrives, apologizing for not having revealed earlier that Wickham had gotten his sister pregnant at 16. Chasing after Johnny and Lahki through an amusement park, William, with Lalita, catches up with the pair inside a movie theater where an India film is showing.

Back in Amritsar the street fills with everyone dancing and singing: "Life is great! Let's celebrate!"

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Copyright © 2008 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
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