36 thoughts on “Gurinder Chadha on Her “Bride and Prejudice””

1. Bless you. That’s exactly the kind of article I need for my in-the-works paper.

2. Here is another review of Bride and Prejudice: http://www.barficulture.com/reality/news.php/328/index.html

3. I do not like Gurinder Chadha to promote immorality among the Indian women to run after the English men.

   What she is doing is, she is spoiling our younger women to get into mixed marraiges as if english men are better than our own home breed. I think that she is irresponsible person who wants to make fast buck for herself in doing so.

   Will she like to make a film on my book that i want to be filmed too?

   Savinder

4. Hmm, calling her a sellout, then hitting her up for business — I haven’t seen that particular approach work before.

5. Oeth…it does…it’s called religion….:-)

6. The only redemption I’m needing is my 5 cent aluminum can deposit from the state of California 🙂

7. there’s a point to be made that leading white men are considered the standard in movies and Chadha isn’t working outside of that

   I can’t say I’m not a little happy to see Naveen Andrews accepted on screen as a potential leading man. The fact he got relatively little screen time as a romantic character in Bride and Prejudice, despite being argueably a more charismatic actor than Will Darcy…..does bother just a bit

8. Yes, and the fact that she makes Indian caricatures and not characters, that’s a concern also.

   I’ve seen all her films, I liked “Bend it Like Beckham,” thought it was best executed in terms of story (except for that lesbian bit at the end). However, as with all her movies, there are always back-characters that seem more interesting and I wish she’d make a movie about them, (such as Parminder Nagra’s desi-cum-soccer bud in “Beckham”).

   Savinder does have a point about the “English man” (from the movie, not Gilbert & Sullivan)…

9. Savinder, With all due respect, please give Indian Women a little credit for having brains. This may be a challenge and go against everything you’ve been told, but can you honestly believe that one weak-ass crappy 90 minute movie, based on a dry book, which flopped at the box office and had no redeeming qualities other than Naveen Andrews and Namrata Shirodkar is enough to be the undoing of the cultural system as we know it??

   I’m far too busy being spoon-fed manners and makeup lessons from Kkusum and other brilliant Ekta Kapoor programming to go thinking for myself and running after white guys.

10. Well, about this movie,she tried her best! but its not like that in Amritsar or in Punjab.The music is very mesmerising. But the movie really puts me off.Tumse kahen yaa hum naa kahen is really is a very good effort.No hard feelings Ms Chaaddha, regards

    T.S.Boparai

    P.S- Comment on tsb_76@hotmail.com

11. Savinder,

    Interesting comments you make there, being a while male, if I had said that it would be considered racist, but as you are, from your name obviously non-white, I guess it is okay…

12. my problem with Gurinder Chadha’s films, are she seems to be trying to break racial barriers, but always restricts herself to indian women desiring the english man…all i know is that the english man caused alot of problems in india…so what is so special about the english man? The other thing about english men is that they have no culture…so why isnt she more imaginitive and mix the indian culture with west indian or chinese or jewish?..something different than what she is producing…where i come from i see many relationships between blacks and asians..but Gurinder Chadha doesnt seem to want to address these issues

13. in bhaji on the beach the leading indian female was romantically involved with a west indian man, so she has done it

14. and in Chadha’s “What’s Cooking?” movie, set during the holidays, it focused on the intersecting relationships of four families, none of whom were South Asian.

    Sorry Jimmy, looks like this Myth is Busted.

15. ok..i havent seen bhaji on the beach..but can I ask you one question..does he and the girl get together in the end, and live happily ever after? do you have scenes where the father or the mother says, “as long as my daughter is happy, I dont mind who she is with”? Answer that

16. do you have scenes where the father or the mother says, “as long as my daughter is happy, I dont mind who she is with”?

    Desi parents? Would that even be realistic?

17. if that was =in a movie it would be really funny, i think the whole theater would crack up

18. Bride and Prejudice is another caricature of Indians or south asians for the many who live outside india. Why are white men always superior well because that is the dream of the film maker I suppose . Maybe it’s a flaw in the mindset of Chada who needs to visit other parts of the globe where south asians laugh at Indian films. We are not your buffoons as her films suggest.

19. I think its unfair too criticise gurinder chadha on her work, the point is, she is the first asian female leading director to make a mark for herself! if she made films totally based on what some would call “white stereotypical lifestyles” she would get slated for not trying to bring the asian culture into the limelight. i respect her for her work, their are millions of people who do not understand the asian culture and she has brought it to the limelight. however exagerated bride prejudice was, there are still many aspects of our culture presented on screen. cut her some slack guys.

20. Dear Gurider Chadha please can you help me with my film

21. Speaking as a whiet English man I must say that a lot of your replies sound like a lot of grumpy old men ! Apologies to any women out there. Yeah the music wasn’t that great in fact the number ‘No life without wife’ was boring. The ending was rushed and as someone who has read Austen’s work at University I can say a lot of the harshness of the interaction between the characters was left out. A lot of the attitudes to white guys that I have read on this site are quite racist towards white guys. I recently saw a bollywood movie called ‘Murde which wasn’t that great but if I looked like the actor Ashmit Patel any trouble I might have in my love life would melt away pretty fast. The film was supposed to be fun and light not a doctoral thesis on interracial relations between the first and developing World for heavens sake. Yes Aishwaraya Rai isn’t in the Vanessa Redgrave or Glenda Jackson school of acting but so what. If you want to see some good female performances of strong women see the film that they were in called ‘Mary Queeen of Scots.’ Very passionate and the dialogue is crisp. S

22. Don’t be so ridiculous and pompous shaun

23. Her scope is narower than our Hindi film makers. Here’s why : She claims that she wants to initiate a change in the unidimensional Hindi film narratives but all her are unidimensional ie an Indian girl and an emasculated/jerk Indian guy. She is surely out there to sell. Pimps make the most money, if you know what I say.

24. Shaun The question is will she be willing to make a movie on Arun Nair and Liz Hurley. If she cant then she may soon become obsolete.

25. I don’t see anything wrong in having a western female lead falling in love with a male Indian lead that is portrayed in a relatively honest way. The only example I can think of is Lagaan which has the English actress Rachel Shelley who falls in love with Aamir Khan although it is unrequited ! And to dear ‘Silver Bullet’ it may have escaped your notice that all film making is a business and that there in the it partly to make money along with expressing themslves through their art. All film makers and artists if they are inquisitive about the World evolve and grow. To a certain extent Hindi fim makers are broad but you only have to look at Deepa Mehta’s ‘Fire’ to see how controversal topics are not necessarily well received in India. She has also had problems making ‘Water’ her new film. Life is not all glitz and glamour and there should be a place for telling stories which focus on the more controversal and darker aspects of human life. If you look at the BBC version of Pride and prejudice they had 6 hours with which to tell the story whre as Chadha had a lot less time to cram in the narrative. I agree that the Bhakshi family were caricatures but so are Jane Austen’s Bennett family. The eighteenth century and early nineteenth century novels and plays of the period was often given to satire. Austen herself in a few letters had a cruel sense of humour. She writes in one letter that which I can only quoute from memory so it might not be word perfect. ‘Mary was brought to bed of a dead baby. Owing to her having caught sight of her husband. Oh and Charlie elaborate a bit because if you want to have a proper conversation. Its always best to try and say a bit more.

26. I don’t see anything wrong in having a western female lead falling in love with a male Indian lead that is portrayed in a relatively honest way.

    I wouldnt compare Chadha to Deepa Mehta or Mira Nair coz the latter two are geniuses and have proved their mettle in handling diverse subjects. Mira Nair for example has made Mississippi Masala (with the emasculated jerky Indian males) but at the same time she has done Salaam Bombay, Monsoon wedding. I dont see Gurinder Chadha’s depiction of male female relationship as honest especially the exclusion of the Indian male in all her films. It is kind of predictive in every movie. The story of Bride and … could have operated without the white element, dont you think so like the Jane Austens novel operates without for example bringing in a brown man as a prospective groom for the Bennet sisters.

27. Hi Santos I can’t comment on Gurinder Chadha’s other work as I have’t seen her other films. Austen’s novel was published in 1813 so given the race relations of the period it would be surprising for a relatively isolated daughter of a country clergyman to produce a narrative involving intermarriage between different races. Chadha has said that she has taken the original narrative and reworked which is her own choice. You might be interested to know that there is an American version produced and called Pride and Prejudice starring Orlando Seale and which is set in the Mormon commmunity. Having not seen it I can’t say whether that particular Darcy has to marry all of the sisters! There is also a Tamil version of Austen’s Sense and Sensibility called Kandukondain Kandukondain (2000) which interestingly also stars Aishwarya Rai as one of the sisters. There was also a feminist rewriting of Austen’s Mansfield Park (1999) wthe a screenplay by Harold Pinter and starring Fances O’Connor. The film was controversial because it involved the portrayl of drugs, nudity and even a hint of lesbianisn. There were also added whispers of child abuse, rape and alcoholism. The film underlined that the Bertram family’s priveleged position at Mansfield Park is based on its ownership of a sugar plantation in Antigua and of the slaves which it exploits in various nightmarish flashbacks involving Sir Thomas Bertram who is played by Harold Pinter. The screenplay makes the connection between Fanny Prices’ role as servant, subordinate and sexually vulnerable role in the family. These themes of Fanny’s exploitation are within Austen’s text. Austen’s makes use of family names from the great aristocracy for the characters in her novels and perhaps she alludes to a person who went against the social grain in England at that time. I have found an interesting allusion in Austen’s choice of Mansfield for the country house. William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield (1705-1793) was a conservative Atorney General of England whose role in the famous James Somerset case which was brought by his master, a Mr Stewart of Virginia in 17772. Mansfield concluded that there was no legal backing for slavery in England. The ruling applied only in England and not the empire and applied until 1807 when parliament formally abolished the slave trade. Mansfield’s nephew had a daughter, Dido Elisabeth Belle whose mother was a slave, and Dido lived at the family seat of Kenwood house. He was careful to confirm her freedom from slavery in his will in which he left her £100 a year. Perhaps Austen’s portrayl of Fanny Price and her eventual marriage into the family at Mansfield Park is a challenge to its exclusivity. There has always been debate about Austen’s use of the fable of the imprisoned starling which she derives from Laurence Sterne’s Sentemental Journey. The play upon this use of a bird perhaps alludes to the fact that William Murray was married o Lady Elizabeth Finch, daughter of Daniel Finch, 7th Earl of Winchelsea. I’m having a think about the film and novel at the moment and so I might have something interest to say.

28. Shaun Your last comment is quite elaborate. I havent seen many of the movies you have described here. Gurinder Chadha, I would say is not an Indian filmmaker but attempts to make films on Indian people. When somebody is unsure about what the reality is like, she tends to assume certain things much like the hollywood filmmakers did a few years back in movies like Indiana Jones-The Temple of Doom where we were shown eating monkey brains or Mars attacks where we were portrayed as close to the Sahara Bushmen as possible. Chadha was successful in dispelling the temple of doom type of myths but through her predictive story elements like Ghagra-choli, wedding, Indian girl, The perfect white man she has instilled another stereotype. I was not surprised when some friends came over and said why dont you make movies other than weddings? I said, these so called crossover movies are being made not by Indians but by foreigners who have their own vision about what reality is. Chadha did a good job with Bend it like Bekham becoz of her familiarity to the NRIs of UK and the reality that happens there but she has no idea what happens in India and has ended up fitting in characters that perpetuate her narrow vision about India and the Indian people. I can understand a Briton(of Indian origin) falling for a Briton(of Irish origin) but planting a white man in India to create circumstances for him to woo an Indian girl is as unlikely as a brown man featuring in the jane austens novel in 1813. She is trying too hard, dont u think so?

29. Hi Santos if you want a few examples of intermarriage in the Indian subcontinant hat about Imran Khan and Jemima Goldsmith or Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi although they don’t seem to have much luck. Besides Westerners do travel to India and people fall in love with those who their parents may not approve of or like. The in the Chadha film all he bridegrooms are from the West and there is a comment earlier in the film that Lalita wiil find it difficult to find a husband because they are only looking for rich girls so maybe she is making a comment on the financial aspect of the marriage market. I’m curious do you live in India ?

30. Hi Santos. I think films like Indiana Jones and Mars attacks are like cartoons and comics and seem to have more in common with Hollywood films from the1930’s like Tarzan or Flash Gordon. The characters whether they are Indian or any other nationality are quite preposterous. They are about as realistic as the Star Wars films. There has been some debate recently in the British newspapers about how British people are portrayed in films because they always seem to play the villain against an American hero. Films like Braveheart or a film which I can’t remember the title off hande suggested that it was the Americans who broke the German code system in the second world war when in fact in was some British academics often rewrite history because they have to have Americans in the heroic role. So please don’t feel that it has just been Indians who have been turned into stereotypes. There was a comedy spoof last year which poked fun at the the American view of history called ‘Churchill; The war years’ with Churchill played by Christian Slater ( bit of an age difference there!) who is more like Rambo who almost singlehandedly wins the war and has a torrid affair with Princess Elizabeth. I really don’t se anything wrong with an Indian film maker having the Darcy character played by Arun Nair although I think Keira Knightley would make a better Elizabeth than Liz Hurley. Knightley has recently been in a Hollywood version of Pride and Prejudice. The thing is would you be willing to accept having to see Darcy’s mother with all her prejudices an arrogance played by an Indian woman or the Wickham character played by an Indian male lead ? I think that film makers like novelist are influenced by other writers from other nationalities, Goethe was influenced by Pershian poetry while Vikram Seth by Austen. Some of the most vibrant writing in Britain has come from writers who have immigrant backgrounds from Monica Ali to Kazuo Ishiguro. A lot of writing by white authors has from the postwar period been very unadventurous perhpas because their thinking and experience has been very narrow. Writers and film makers should be able to take what they like to produce new work. Maybe Western film makers should have more open minds so they can learn from Bollywood? I am quite interested in what aspects you feel that Gurinder Chadha got wrong in the film so if you could elaborate and explain. Chadha obviously seems interested in portraying cross cultural relationships. If you had been Chadha’s researcher for the film what would you have suggested. If she insisted that Henderson stiil be the Darcy character how would you have made a better film?

31. Santos, Why are you upset about Gurinder Chadha when all the indian crews (actors/actresses) were the one who agreed to play in the movie. What is saying to you? By the way the movie “Indiana Jones-The Temple of Doom where we were shown eating monkey brains” is true if you know your history.

32. truly the film wasnt upto the mark as expected but then it wasnt a bad effort

33. Dear Reader, Some one told me that my anti mixed sex and anti mixed marriage policy is racist. Perhaps you did not have to work under the same roof where I had worked where Indian women trapper, Indian women basher, Indian women brainwasher and , extortionist, manipulating english man tyrant was working who made my life a hell oth at my work place as well as out side my work place for the next 33 years.

    You simply do not get such men in our Indian race.

    But you see such men in the body of school children killer MR Huntley who got cought due to the fact that he killed children of english men and women. But killer of me is never to be caught as I am a child of an Indian father. Racish is reeking in UK’s systems. We have got bent coppers in UK.e,g school children killer’s dirty record was “ipped off” was not just,”one off ” mistake by coppers in 2002 or so. They never list sexual crimes of english men when the victims are Indian women as that is below their dignity:To chase jet black women or jet black fat Indian women and be english men at the same time. English women will rip such men apart using an invisible weapon called as,”nagging”

    We have got bent doctors in UK e.g I had flat T waves in my ECG taken in Hammersmith Hospital by a doctor who is professor too and is Prof Peter Bourdillion who told my Jewish GP, “Mrs Dadhlai’s ECG was abnormal and showed flat T waves. But I had told her and her that her ECG was normal. Are the english men in the form of Professors in the hospitals allowed to lie when I thought that they are little Gods and my life was safe in their white hands? However Gurider Chadda’s english doctors will not do that to her as she got an english man to protect her.

    If an english woman had fancied my hubby the doctres would had killed me off with an overdose of this or that to get my hubby for that english women as spouse snatching is very rich industry in UK. We have got bent solicitors too in UK and thus when I had appointed Dr Ashley Croft who is army colonle in may be NATO forces and his duty was to expose Dr professor Peter Bourdillion’s lies about my ECG, he did a cover up on his own race man an got paid by me and stated that Savinder Dhadli’s ECG did not show flat T waves although flat T waves is a prominent symptom of an illness called as beriberri.

    Mr You can thus form your openion what kind of Indian woman will fall for english men?

    I am the type who like honset stuff only.

    Gurinder Chada and me are two diffrent things. I am a farm fed capon chicken who love only the clean and the top best , most honourable men that u can find only in Indian race in India and the best are SINGHS only.

    Trust me not even Bill gate can take me away from my hubby although I love American film stars and American accent to a pont that my brain cells start growing at a faster rate while my brain cells strat dying when I see English men as they all remind me of that Indian basher who will beg for my good morning and then punish me for answering his good morning and if I did not reply his good morning, he would punish me still. That man would tell Indian women how lucky they are to have a GORA in their vagina as if his sex is a gold mine and his white skin is a treasure.

    He got his match in me when I told him I am snow white woman myself and told him that my mother’s mother was an irish woman.(I bluffed)

    only worthless Indian women marry english men who are around many times. I hate second hand men.

    I bet Indian women stay at home and english men go to their older flames and then make a fool of Indain wife.

    I will say that Gora’s are after cash only.

    Easy come and easy go cases. have you ever known a Gora commting a suicide in my memory?

    I feel soory for mixed children too and soorry for loss of race too. Anglos were hated in India for what they then did. They are stail the same. Just immagine my mixed sex product be hated upon by other Indians?

    I make sure I do not do blunders of that type to strat manufactring one blue eyed and ione black eyed moster.

    Sex do no bind people. But love binds people. True love is that that do nto ask for sex.

    Unconditional love is the one that is true love and not a gora ion jet black Indian vagina. If sex was true love then why is that marriages break with in day or months and we all saw what took place to Imran Khan and Jamema Khan. Love camme to an end.

    My love for my hubby is growing and growing and growing.

    Why people resolev to sexual love when brotherly and siterly and motherly loev is of never ending measurements.

    MANY TIMES IT IS BETTER TO BE RACIST WHEN IT COMES TO A POINT TO STOP YOU RUIING YOURSELF, YOUR FAMILY AND YOUR RACE. I HATE MIXED SEX AND MIXED MARRAGES BASED AND WHAT THEY DO.

    ONCE A SAW A JET BLACK INDIAN WOMAN AND HER ARM ON AN ENGLISH MAN’S ARM AND SHE LOOKED AT ME WITH GREAT PRIDE AS IF HER CATCH WAS A CROWN PRINCE.

    THAT WAS HER MEAL TICKET MAY BE.

    I SPEAK THE TRUTH BUT TRUTH IS BITTER IS AN ENGLISH PHRASE ONLY SAVINDER

34. Dear Readers, I am very very very sorry for posting my comment today on 21-7-2007 without checkig my typing mistakes and I ended up clicking the “post” button in stead of the “oreview” button.

    But now I do not know how to re-open the page to correct those typing mistakes

    I am just thankful to be alive in UK —a country that lead me to my death two times: I was dying with tuberculosis from 1951 to mid 1980( out of that 14 years in the hands of english doctors in UK and who gave me no TB drugs) and from 5th July 1984 I was lead to my death and I was an ending story by end of 1999 and that was not an Act of God.Hitler hit me.

    But can you believe that I used to wine and dine english people in my home and jewish people in my home? I gave them the best representaion of me and of my race to impress them.

    In those days I was preaching social integration and dinners in each other’s homes. But look what Jewish surgeon in 1971 did to my elbow joint ? : He did Hitler style experiment on my wrist that was supposed to be a simple carple tunnel operation. He probably said, “Whome do you think you are kidding Mr Hitler. You are not the only one who can do experiments on live humans as soon as they landed in your hands” But my life was never the same again.I was uable to bed my arm since then and my wrist was swollen like a drum.

    I wonder what else these dodgy surgeons such as Mr howse of St Vincent hospital and that Jewish surgeon do to Indian women patients other than dodgy operations on patients ?I wonder if they had raped me or mollested me too when I was out of my senses? Now I keep my brain’s eyes wide open.I have got fish eye lense behind my head too.

    Look what racism can do to people: I wouold strongly belive that such surgeons who can do experiments are capable of raping too and capable of killing too. Next time I need an operation I will ask my family men to be with me during operations too.

    Dr Ashley Croft disappinted me as an expert and as an army colonel who are not supposed to lie or cover up on lies. I have got proof that I had abnormal ECG at Hammersmith Hospital.Peter Bourdillion wrote that proof himself.

    he did not have mercy on me when I paid him his  1000 or near enough fees even. He forgot to give me my money’s worth. The English loot and are after cash only. Dr Croft was appointed to win my case that is a winner case only. But he tried to foil that case by doing a cover up on lies of Professor Peter Bourdillon of Hammersmith hospital.He wanted to foil my case and its time limits too. But God saved me. English solicitors will win my case only of I had sex with a GORA and that will never take place as long as I am alive. Thus there is no law and order in UK and Indian women are forced to have sex with GORAS or loose their medical damages cases.

    But our God gives me free food in our Gurdwaras. I think that the above description of some englishmen will make Gorinder Chadda very proud of english men or feel very proud of the race she is married into.

    but there are very few english men and women with strong principles these days unlike in the past when mixed sex and mixed marriage were not common.

    e.g One cabinet minister had divorced her hubby when he used her name and her post to gain cash in Europe.

    I wonder if wives of Dr Ashley Croft and of Dr Profesor Peter Bourdillon will divorse them for doing what they both did to me?

    A doctor must also never do a cover up.But birds of the same feather normally flock together.

    e.g if I wan an english woman I would had divorced Dr Peter Bourdillon for spoiling things for a liitle Indian thingy at his mercy.

    It is alike raping a woman who had entred your house to take a shelter from a huge dust storm.

    Am I correct? e.g I am very fond of pigeon meat and told my army colonel brother to shoot a pigeon for me when I land on them in my holidays and that was in 2005.

    By a mere chance a baby pigeion got trapped in the net of the window and my brother caught him.

    He said, “This will be enough for you and the curry will be tasty too”

    I told him, “Listen. If you touch that pigeon I will never be your sister ever. Make sure you do not touch the bird. The bird had come to greet me and to say, “Wellcome home savinder Aunti. Dump bloody UK that is Hitler’s country and not of Queen of UK’s lands.

    Savinder

35. Unconditional love is the one that is true love and not a gora ion jet black Indian vagina.

    Auntie-ji, you are a true poet. You managed to combine references to ion jets, goras, and shame shame, into one glorious sentence ensconced seamlessly in a breathtaking, Joycean phrase.

    Rumi ain’t got sh*t on you.

36. e.g I am very fond of pigeon meat and told my army colonel brother to shoot a pigeon for me when I land on them in my holidays and that was in 2005.

    Guilty as charged! Your army colonel brother, henceforth known as “kabooter shooter”, is hereby sentenced to 10 months in confinement with gora womens and other dodgy species where kabooter shooter will be subject to Gurinder Chadha movies on loop.

    Shanti.