As a child, I watched Gurinder Chadha’s film ‘Bride and Prejudice’ religiously. It was my all time favourite movie – mostly because of the singing and dancing and beautiful vibrant colours that I never really saw in standard Western films. However, watching the film again at an older age, I have realised that there is so much more to this film than I initially thought. The film is for all ages, where it can be enjoyed and understood by everyone. The deeper underlying meaning of the film is perhaps aimed more at an older audience, however as a child I still enjoyed watching the film and I could still understand what the director was trying to communicate.
The director, Gurinder Chadna, is known for making films that focus on Indian women reconciling their culture and traditions with the modern day lifestyle. The film mostly takes place in Amritsar, India, and there are parts where the family travel to LA, London, Windsor and Goa throughout the film – enhancing the mix of Bollywood and British cinema (Bitch Flicks 2016).
Bride and Prejudice articulates Jane Austen’s classic novel ‘Pride and Prejudice’ in contemporary Indian Diaspora (Griffin 2014). The film has predominantly English dialogue, with some Hindi and Punjabi spoken as well. The film includes elements of Hollywood, Bollywood and British cinematic conventions, forming a hybrid transnational film – raising awareness of past prejudices arising between Eastern and Western cultures (Aldea 2012). As culturally hybrid products, transnational films don’t just surpass the limits of cinema genres, but also the cultural boundaries based on prejudice and “uneven power relations” (Aldea 2012).
Through cultural hybridisation there is a de-Westernisation of Western ideas to create something for the local market and this reduces issues relating to cultural proximity
Ruo Soh 2019
Bride and Prejudice (2004) is a romantic drama film – about Lalita, an Indian girl, who’s family wants her to marry someone of their choice, however Lalita wants to find true love herself. The film’s main message is communicated through Lalita and white American Mark Darcy’s romantic, interracial, cross-classed relationship – which raises discussions of race differences, tradition, cultural imperialism and high and low culture. The story line shows the ups and downs of Lalita and Mark Darcy’s relationship – where they end up married at the end of the film. Whilst it is obvious from the beginning of the film that Lalita and Darcy will end up together (as we know from Pride and Prejudice), it is almost fascinating how Chadna has formed this dynamic relationship, a relationship that shows the imperialist relationship between India and Europe – really exploring how the West treats Indian culture (Bitch Flicks 2016). This is something we don’t see in standard films.
The film also explores the idea of “global fear” and “othering”. This is shown through Mark Darcy’s and Lalita’s families – and the underlying unapproval of their relationship because of their different races and traditions. This fuels people in globalised societies – who take defence and thus re creates prejudices and boundaries that protect themselves from the “others” (Aldea 2012). The mixture of cultures (Eastern and Western) in some scenes of this film also links to cultural prejudices – as some moments in the film confront viewers with something new and unknown (Aldea 2012), and something certain viewers find hard to relate to – perfectly portraying the division between high and low culture.
I personally love the way this film has been made to communicate a consequential message. I admire Chadna’s skill of creating a film that has so many different film conventions, while also being fun. I enjoyed watching the classic Bollywood musical scenes – something I don’t see much so I thoroughly enjoyed this film style. The film touched on issues that I knew existed, however seeing it through Lalita and Darcy’s relationship added to my knowledge of hybridisation and Global divides. I would recommend this film to anyone who wants to get lost in a colourful, vibrant film that uses humour and Bollywood style adaptations of a classical British novel to create something seriously wonderful!
References:
Aldea, E.O. 2012, “Gurinder Chadha’s Bride and Prejudice: A Transnational Journey Through Time and Space”, International Journal of English Studies, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 167-182.
Griffin, H. 2014, “Songs from Nowhere: Integrating Music, Disapora, and gender in Gurinder Chadha’s Bride & Prejudice”, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, vol. 31:6, pp. 531-541.
Ruo Soh, K 2019, Lecture 3: Global Film, lecture notes, Global Media and Culture BCM111, University of Wollongong, delivered 14 August 2019.
2016, “We’re Not So Different: Tradition, Culture, and Falling in Love in ‘Bride and Prejudice'”, Bitch Flicks, weblog post, viewed 1 September 2019, <http://www.btchflcks.com/2016/02/bride-and-prejudice-tradition-culture-and-falling-in-love.html#.XWdxD5MzbpA>
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