bride & prejudice

I have to say, as adaptations go, this one is singular in staying true the text while managing to fit in the cliches of its adapted genre so well. Cruel Intentions tried but failed, as did Great Expectations, and the Midsummer Night's Dream turned out pretty kooky to me...the only one that was ok seemed to be Baz's R+J and that's NOT adapting per se, and Clueless, which was more of a loose adaptation, kinda like Moulin Rouge and Orpheus.

Despite about 4 people bailing on me, I was determined to watch it- alone if I had to - especially since I regard Nova as my sort-of loungeroom anyway, and I rather like watching movies alone there.

SweetiePie turned up in the end, and we ended up laughing so hard both of us literally nearly fell off our chairs and might as well have, since we ended up rolling in our seats instead.

Aishwarya Rai was beautiful as ever, although Sweetie and I remarked that she was a little fat. Sleepy later told me that she purposely put on 20lbs for the role because middle-class Punjabi girls don't generally come in such small sizes.

I can hear Punjabi girls around the world screeching through their computers already. But apparently the imdb boards have been afire about her alleged double chins. Something about her 'looking skinny' in the movie, and 'anorexic' normally. Oh the joys of being in India. I'd be "skinny". WHOA.

I really liked the fact that it was a Bollywood movie making fun of itself. It was even cheesier than usual, and the songs were soooooo bad in English that I was just rolling around.

And when the dramatic "Girl and Boy Have Fight. Will The Twain Ever Meet?" breakup scene happened, and the music started up, it was soooo obviously Bollywood that Sweetie just collapsed.

I guess this would be just sadly cheesy-funny if you'd never seen a Bollywood movie before, but if you had, this would really have you rolling in the aisles.

For hopeless hilarity and crazy pop culture references while staying true to Jane Austen I'm giving this 7/10. (Pity there was no 17th century equivalent of a male wet t-shirt scene though)