Bride & Prejudice

Gurinder Chadha’s Bollywood retelling of Austen’s classic romance is an all-round joy, adding colour and song to Austen’s evergreen wit.

Gurinder Chadha’s Bollywood retelling of Austen’s classic romance is an all-round joy. With action transplanted to Amritsar, Elizabeth Bennett has become Lalita Bakshi (Aishwarya Rai) and the Mr Darcy of her affections is a wealthy American businessman (Martin Henderson). While the plot follows Austen’s template fairly reliably, a new theme around the couple’s cross-cultural differences adds a new ingredient to the mix.

The injection of song and dance alongside Austen’s timeless sense of irony and wit creates an impeccably stirring production that ranks among the most colourful British romances since the Technicolor heyday of Powell and Pressburger.