Keira Knightley, whose breakout role came in Gurinder Chadha’s Bend It Like Beckham, is going head-to-head with her former mentor as they both film Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It’s a Brit vs. British Asian showdown separated only by angle and time.
As Sajit has posted, Chadha’s version, Bride and Prejudice, is an unapologetically Bollywood interpretation starring Aishwarya Rai that debuts this year. Knightley’s version comes out in ’05, a traditional version with mostly British actors set in yesteryear London.
Chadha recently released the full trailer for her version, a light-hearted romantic comedy co-starring Martin Henderson, Namrata Shirodkar, Anupam Kher, Naveen Andrews, Indira Varma and Ashanti. Check out the bit where Henderson describes bhangra (‘screw in a lightbulb with one hand and pet the dog with the other.’)
Throw in the Mr. D’Arcy character from Bridget Jones’ Diary, he of the ugly jumper, and never-married miss Jane is gettin’ some lowe. And she’s not the only one. Considering all the desi shout-outs scampering through Vanity Fair, and the desi re-imaginings of Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the English are in for some hot, back-door reverse colonialism action.
I can’t say I liked the trailer, or the non-desi music they played …
Just saw the trailer – ouch! Sometimes directors do not have a saw in the editing of a trailer – which I hope was the case here. And it adds more fodder for the conspiracy I’ve discussed over on Manish’s blog, of the attempt to portray Indian men in an unflattering light. The trailer makes a refence to Rai’s “first choice”, a white guy coming out of the ocean, showing off a six-pack, her “last choice”, the young dashing white guy who engages in some verbal sparring, and her “mother’s choice” – the Indian geek. If the movie is like that, I’ll just watch my tape of The Simpsons’ The Jolly Bengali, with small-screen legend Apu Nahasapenapetalan.
the trailer makes a refence to Rai’s “first choice”, a white guy coming out of the ocean, showing off a six-pack, her “last choice”, the young dashing white guy who engages in some verbal sparring, and her “mother’s choice” – the Indian geek.
Dude, just saw it. BRUTAL. I mean, I expect that kind of shiznit from Hollywood & the Simpsons, but from Bollywood? From a desi guy? Whassup with this Chadha fella? The Indian guys in Bend it Like Beckham were similarly emasculated, so I don’t think it’s someone overruling the director on the trailer. (Not least b/c the Indian loser/white winner theme obviously extends through the whole film.)
Ah well. In real life things are different… Liz Hurley, Sarah Mclachlan, and – of course – Edwina Mountbatten are all notches on the collective desi belt! 🙂
Gurinder Chadha is a woman.
Don’t forget Gwen Stefani.
The biggest problem with this film is that Rai should be playing the older sister, not the Elizabeth Bennett character. There is no way she can pull off the necessary verbal sparring, or convey the intelligence that Elizabeth has in the book.
On the other hand, I’m hoping they won’t paint all the Indian men in a bad light- Anupam Kher was positively portrayed in Bend it like Beckham. Looks like Naveen Andrews could come off in a positive light.
Btw, Manish, my 14-year old cousin was drooling over Stefani once on the television, and I said “don’t you think she’s a bit old for you?” To which he replied, “As long as she likes Indian stuff, I still have a chance.”
True, Gwen Stefani did date band-member Tony Kanal for awhile, but he dumped her, saying it was interfering with the band’s internal workings. Initially, Stefani did not take too kindly, and penned their hit “Don’t Speak.” But hey, the band is still together, and still doing well, so Kanal probably had the right idea (although I’m not really into No Doubt).
As for Liz Hurley, Sarah McLachlan, etc – they’re not notches on my belt – just the dudes in question. Although ethnic groups do demonstrate possessiveness over their member’s spouse choice, I don’t want to keep score over the number of whie women versus white men.
Just to briefly touch upon Apu – he started out as a stereotype, but in the end the writers made him the smartest man in Springfield. He was the most sought after bachelor in the charity auction, yet was a “good son” and got married to a woman his parents selected for him. If anything, the writers seem to poke fun at middle America’s reactions to anything different.
I haven’t read any Jane Austen novels. Can someone briefly explain why Hollywood is fascinated by her books?
Just speculating:
they’re not notches on my belt – just the dudes in question
I know, it was a joke. The point (such as it was) was that in real life the dating asymmetry actually points (slightly) in the other way, w/ more IM/WF couples than vice versa.
I haven’t read any Jane Austen novels. Can someone briefly explain why Hollywood is fascinated by her books? KXB – I read some of Jane austen’s novels some twelve or ten years back..reasons I think why people/chadda make movies out of her novels could be… 1. Jane austens novels have just right stories for chick flicks. 2. periodic novels- BBC runs her novels as serials…life in early 1800 and late 1700 which fascinates many people who like history. 3. Deals with human emotions of love, longing, social jealousies and people caught in bourgeois social system. Her hero’s and herione’s can be identified with even today’s high society women and men. So you can easily modernise the characters keeping the story the same giving a director more freedom to adopt the novels as screenplays. 4. And all the women in austen’s novel have charm, spice and sophistication.. 5. Her irony, humor and projection of contemporary english life and their idiosyncracies in 1790-1815 or so is sometimes interesting. 6. Fun to make films like that with those old british unique costumes and with those funny english accents and sophisticated verbal play between lovers in her novels. 7. Gurvinder chadda is british if I am right and is a woman, british have a fascination/affinity for shakespeare and austen, so no wonder she choose the topic.Paul Mayeda Berges, the screenplay writer-husband of British Indian director Gurinder Chadha could be the reason too. 8. Could also be following the trend of shekhar kapoor ( elizabeth) and mira nair (vanity fair)(as Manish puts it Bridget jones effect).. going back to classics . 9. Just for monetary reasons, she could reach both indian and british audience easily and cross cuture mixup is always interesting. 10. And she choose pride and prejudice probably bec. thats the best/well known jane austens novel.
on this gwen stefani thing, she and tony were going out for about 7 years, but tony dumped her because he was feeling claustraphobic. gwen has always wanted to get married and have kids but he didn’t
Dude, just saw it. BRUTAL. I mean, I expect that kind of shiznit from Hollywood & the Simpsons, but from Bollywood? From a desi guy? Whassup with this Chadha fella? The Indian guys in Bend it Like Beckham were similarly emasculated, so I don’t think it’s someone overruling the director on the trailer. (Not least b/c the Indian loser/white winner theme obviously extends through the whole film.) Well summed up Films tend to reflect the society but at the same time influence it too. Recently an Indian friend of mine dumped a beautiful filmy Indian girl for more than getting carried away with her looks. Some Indian women definitely seem to be losing their head. I wonder if films like these have anything to do with this phenomena.
It’s really good. I enjoyed it a lot. I had Pride & prejudice as my non-detail in 9TH std. So it was my teacher’s request to watch this film. I congratulate all the people in this film.