February 17, 2005
BRIDE AND PREJUDICE
BRIDE AND PREJUDICE is the first major attempt from Bollywood of a significant cross-over film. Filmed entirely in the English language, based on a famous English novel (quite obviously, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE), with Indian director Gurinder Chadha who had an international hit in BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM and with a big Bollywood star and some small Hollywood stars, this film had all the elements needed to fulfill it's crossover hopes.
The film stars Aishwarya Rai, aka Miss World 1994, and she is easily one of the most beautiful women in the world. Because of this, a lot of people know who she is although they haven't seen a movie with her in it (particularly in Europe). And she's unimaginably huge in India. She brings a great presence to the film -- she is very fun to watch, has a decent singing voice and is always a pleasure to look at either way.
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And representing America we have Martin Henderson, star of THE RING, TORQUE and the Britney Spears video TOXIC. And once again he's swiming upstream here. Just as in THE RING when he was reprising a role originated by one of the world's best actors, Hiroyuki Sanada, here he takes on the role most closely associated with Colin Firth in the BBC miniseries version of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. And once again it's an uphill battle he comes nowhere close to winning. In the interest of full disclosure, I am one of those fabled women who has watched the 5-6 hour BBC PRIDE AND PREJUDICE dozens of times. But anyone can see that Colin Firth's Darcy is one for the ages. Henderson is just not that caliber.
Rounding out the Hollywood contingent are native Brit Naveen Andrews (THE ENGLISH PATIENT, LOST), who singings and dances much to my delight. I could never imagine the WWII Sikh bomb disarmer in THE ENGLISH PATIENT or the former Iraqi national in the TV show LOST break out into song and dance with such gusto. He plays the Bingley character from the novel, here named Balraj. And the dashing but dastardly Wickham is here played by Canadian Daniel Gillies, best known as Mary Jane's fiance John Jameson in SPIDER-MAN 2. In this film his main duty is to walk around with no shirt or an open shirt. And lastly we have such interesting cameos as Ashanti, playing herself or someone like her and Alexis Bledel (Rory from "Gilmore Girls"), playing Darcy's sister Georgie in two very short scenes.
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So, to the actual movie. How is it? Well, as an adaptation of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE it's terrible. But as a straightforward romantic comedy, it's not so bad. Unfortunately, the musical numbers are very stale. If you've seen any Bollywood films you'll notice the songs and particularly the choreography seems very recycled and not very original. But the one thing about these numbers is they are very fun -- everyone seems to be having fun and you definitely feel the happy fun vibe. And although the filmmakers took out everything that was witty, satirical or intelligent from Austen's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE -- I'm still almost ashamed to admit that I had a good time watching this film. While not as good an adaptation or film as BRIDGET JONES' DIARY, it's more along the lines of a Sandra Bullock rom-com -- a TWO WEEKS NOTICE or MISS CONGENIALITY. I must admit I've seen both of those films more than once against my better judgement. They pull me into their sub-par romanticism and comedy and I find myself two hours later wondering what I have done. This film is like that, a good fluff romantic comedy.
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To be honest, this film was hoping to be more of a crossover hit in England than America where there is currently a greater market and appreciation of Bollywood films. So I'm sure it's meant entirely to appeal to Americans (although I'm sure they'd be happy if it did) and I don't know if it really will appeal to audiences here.
A (Very) Brief Overview of Bollywood
Bollywood is the term for the Indian film industry. And it's pretty much impossible to give you a brief overview of Bollywood. They put out many many more movies a year than Hollywood and have been doing so for at least as long as we have. They have a lot of stars, some of whom come and go, and you really have to be on top of it to keep up a lot of the time. But, what I offer you is a bit of an attempt. I will cover the parts of Bollywood that I have been exposed to and that I enjoyed the most and would most like to relate to others. At the very least, it's somewhere to get you started. Because if you haven't seen a Bollywood film, you are missing out!
The Bollywood Musical.
So, most of the films coming out of Bollywood are musicals (if this is news to you then let me note that really almost all the films out of Bollywood are musicals. Really). My International Film professor in college said that there were usually a minimum of 3 dance numbers and 5 sung songs. Obviously, this is a simplification, but is more or less true. Bollywood musicals are also notoriously long. I have never seen one under two hours and have seen many that are around 3 hours. If you have seen any Bollywood movies, you will notice than the Indians have their own particular way of dancing. As Martin Henderson's Darcy character notes in BRIDE AND PREJUDICE the main staple move looks much like screwing in a lightbulb with one hand and patting the dog with the other (if you take offense to that blame the moviemakers, not me! I didn't say it!).
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The Film Tradition in India.
The Indian films that gain the most recognition around the world are not usually the big Bollywood musicals, but the smaller art films. Their most recognized and praised director is Satyajit Ray who died in 1992 but left behind a rich and influencial filmography. His most well known film in America was PATHER PANCHALI (1995), but it was not his most acclaimed work.
The new art cinema in India is dominated by two women. First, Deepa Mehta who directed the much acclaimed FIRE(1996) and EARTH(1998). And Mira Nair, whose most well known Indian films are SALAAM BOMBAY(1988) and MONSOON WEDDING(2001) but has recently moved on to more mainstream fair with VANITY FAIR(2004). These women showed the more realistic side of Indian life, something not usually seen in the glossy fairy tale musicals the country is known for.
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Shah Rukh Khan!
But Bollywood does cover a number of genres and many of their musicals tackle serious subjects. DIL SE (1998) was about the love between a regular working man and a terrorist suicide bomber woman (and such a tearjerker!). This film starred possible Indian's biggest star, and my personal favorite, Shah Rukh Khan. But in the same year he did DUPLICATE, an utterly ridiculous (although fantastically entertaining) action comedy romp with the not entirely original plotline of Shah Rukh Khan playing two characters who look exactly alike -- one who is like a secret agent and the other like a dunce -- with mistaken identity and all the good times that go along with it.
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A look at Shah Rukh Khan's filmography really gives a good sampling of what Bollywood has to offer. Some of his more recent work include ASOKA (2001), a highly fictional historical epic about the great conquerer and DEVDAS(2002) based on a popular novel in India that has been made into a movie a number of times. DEVDAS was the first Bollywood musical invited to Cannes in a long, long time. It was a good representation of Bollywood with strong dance numbers, good songs, colorful sets and clothes. It also had a huge Bollywood cast with not only Shah Rukh Khan but big name Bollywood actresses Madhuri Dixit and Aishwarya Rai. Following LAGAAN, DEVDAS brought a lot of international attention back to the Bollywood musical.
ASOKA was nowhere near as acclaimed and certainly had a lot of problems as a film. It's melodramatic nature can distract you from the otherwise very serious mood. But I would like to offer that it is really one of Shah Rukh Khan's best performances that I've seen. He's so tortured, so intense, it really shows off everything that is so good about his acting.
The new big Indian movie I've been hearing lots of buzz about, that happens to star Shah Rukh Khan, is VEER ZAARA. A Romeo and Juliet tale between an Indian man and a Pakistan woman it's a melodramatic romance with a topical setting. It's currently one of the top ten highest grossers of all time in India. Which is a bit of an affront to GADAR (2001), currently the highest grossing film of all time in India, which has often been called racist against Pakistanis.
This Bollywood article is starting to turn into my love letter to Shah Rukh Khan. But I do believe he is one of the most emotive actors I've ever seen on screen (that and he sings and dances!). He also has been such a star in Bollywood for so many years and has had a number of hits. His films are often the easiest to find in American video stores in my experience.
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LAGAAN
In the 90s, the Khans ruled Bollywood. Shah Rukh Khan, who I've spoken about, Salman Khan, who I admit I'm not nearly as familiar with and lastly Aamir Khan, the star of LAGAAN. Aamir Khan is very different from Shah Rukh Khan. He is a perfectionist, a method actor, will not commit to a film without a finished script, will only do one film at a time and will not accept 'fluff' awards (of which he's won several). His films are usually on the line between mainstream and art films. At the height of his career he starred in the decidedly art film EARTH. His demand for quality pictures has served him well and brought us LAGAAN.
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LAGAAN is unusual because it is a Bollywood musical that was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars. Just like at Cannes, Bollywood musicals are generally overlooked as fluff pieces. But LAGAAN defied expectations and that's because it's the best four hour musical about cricket you'll ever watch. Now I didn't know a thing about the game or rules of cricket before this movie (nor did I care) and it was still wonderful. The four hour running time flies by (if you can believe it). The production value of the film is great. The singing and dancing is great. The history aspects are great and the 'sport' aspect of cricket is also not bad. The only downer to me was the English lady (who makes up our love triangle along with Aamir Khan and his Indian love played by Gracy Singh). I wasn't big on her acting or her voice. But this is the one Bollywood film I own on DVD. It's a real joy. Don't be turned off by the running time or the fact that it's a musical and try something different.
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Bollywood in America
I was very interested to look at the top Bollywood grossers and compare them to the films that I have seen. I have mostly only seen the ones named here. High profile international mini-hits like LAGAAN and DEVDAS and a whole lot of Shah Rukh Khan films which seem relatively easy to find. According to a website I found, which we'll just have to trust is correct and up to date, the highest grossing film is, as I mentioned, GADAR(2001), which I've never heard of. Next is HUM AAPKE HAI KAUN(1994) which I've never seen or heard of but does star Salman Khan of the three Khans and Madhuri Dixit -- both of whom I am at least familiar with. And third is a Shah Rukh Khan film I haven't seen -- DILWALE DULHANIYA LE JAYENGE(1995) -- in which he costars with his frequent partner Kajol.
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Bollywood Influence
The Bollywood musical and it's conventions are starting to become vernacular in the US. With less successful films like THE GURU and more successful films like MOULIN ROUGE which included a large Bollywood style dance number (full with popular Bollywood song). Also Mira Nair included a Bollywood style dance number in her imperialist epic VANITY FAIR. And now, with BRIDE AND PREJUDICE particularly, we have the Bollywood-Hollywood crossover film.
IN TWO WEEKS: A look at the highest grossing films of various countries including a look at Russia's newest hit NIGHT WATCH.
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