Bride and Prejudice (PG-13) ★★½

An interesting experiment in blending Hollywood and Bollywood styles, this Indian update on Pride and Prejudice is mostly fun, if you don't mind people constantly breaking into song.

Story

Lalita Bakshi (Aishwarya Rai) is the eldest of four unwed daughters who live in a small town in India where their frustrated parents desperately try to land them all husbands. Enter Will Darcy (Martin Henderson), an arrogant New Yorker visiting with his rich English friend Balraj Bingley (Naveen Andrews). Darcy likes what he sees in Lalita but manages to offend her immediately. While Balraj falls for Lalita's sister Jaya (Namrata Shirodkar), Lalita resists Darcy's efforts to get to know her better. Enter Mr. Wickham (Daniel Gillies), an old acquaintance of Darcy's, who starts wooing Lalita for himself. Meanwhile, Lalita's parents are intent on marrying her off to an obnoxious cousin who has made good in America.

Acting

Realism goes out the window when the leads and passersby--and even whole crowds--suddenly burst into song at a moment's notice. Lovely Aishwarya Rai is a superstar in India and while she makes good eye candy, she is better in the second half of the film when she stops insulting Darcy and starts warming up to him. Henderson, best known for his role as the doomed ex-husband in The Ring, acquits himself well as the physically handsome but spiritually ugly American who has a lot to learn about women and India. If you like your comedy broad, then you'll love Nitin Chanda Ganatra as the insufferably dorky cousin, Mr. Kholi. If not, you'll be glad that his screen time is brief. And it's a pleasure to see Naveen Andrews, so serious and menacing on ABC's Lost, here dancing up a storm and acting the gentlemanly suitor in a small but memorable role.

Direction

Bride and Prejudice is a real hodge podge of styles. Director Gurinder Chadha, who gave us the huge hit Bend It Like Beckham, never quite blends the east and west as smoothly as one would hope. Nowhere near as coherent as Beckham, it bounces madly from typical Hollywood romance to over-the-top Bollywood production numbers. When it works, it's a lot of fun, but you may get whiplash from the sudden switch between styles.

Bottom Line

Bride and Prejudice is for the adventurous at heart who don't mind a large dose of goofiness in their romantic comedies.