The Jane Austen novel
Pride and Prejudice is updated and reset in modern day India and given the full
Bollywood treatment. Directed by
Gurinder Chadha (who also directed
Bend It Like Beckham).
Provides examples of:
- Adaptation Name Change: Everyone
- All Musicals Are Adaptations: Pride and Prejudice with a Bollywood twist. What's not to like?
- Arch-Enemy: Darcy and Wickham with a modern vengeance.
- Arranged Marriage: We see the wedding of such a couple early in the movie. Also, Catherine has hopes of arranging her son's marriage to American businesswoman Anne.
- Beta Couple: Jaya and Balraj.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Kiran is not a nice person. Darcy's mom is also not nice.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Lalita's younger sisters Maya and Lakhi.
- But Not Too Foreign: The character based on Mr. Bingley, Balraj, grew up in England.
- The Cameo: Ashanti appearing as herself, singing one of the songs.
- The Casanova: Wickham.
- Composite Character:
- The younger sisters Maya and Lakhi replace the three younger sisters of the original.
- Kiran Balraj here stands in for both of Bingley's sisters from the original.
- Crowd Song: More than one, but When Marriage Comes To Town is amazing.
- Culture Clash: Hmmm an American and a girl from India, what could possibly go wrong?
- Daddy's Girl: Lalita and her father are the best of friends.
- Distant Duet: Lalita and William Darcy have one that was cut from the movie.
- Fairytale Wedding Dress: The wedding outfits at the end are pretty grand, and Lalita wears a western style one in an Imagine Spot.
- Falling in Love Montage: All of that happened in one night?
- Fate Drives Us Together
- Foregone Conclusion: Anyone who's read or seen Pride and Prejudice probably has a pretty good guess who Lalita's going to end up with.
- Giftedly Bad: The Cobra Dance is kind of astonishing in a not good way.
- Grand Romantic Gesture: At the end of the film, with drums.
- I Want Grandkids: This is the concern of the girls' mother Manorama Bakshi.
- Karma Houdini: An aversion compared to what happened in the book. Wickham gets slapped hard by both Lalita and Lakhi.
- My Name Is Not Durwood: Darcy's mother thinks that Lalita's name is Lolita.
- Marry for Love: Lalita wishes this over an arranged marriage.
- Relationship Sabotage:
- Balraj's sister Kiran doesn't really like Jaya or Lalita.
- Darcy also does this, as per the book.
- Rule of Funny: Darcy and Wickham have a fight in front of an old kung fu movie, that, despite them not even paying attention to the movie, matches the fight scene shot for shot.
- Setting Update: The movie takes place in India, England and California.
- Smitten Teenage Girl: Running off with an older man may sound romantic...
- Spontaneous Choreography: Especially "When Marriage Comes To Town".