Transcript
Speaker: Hey all, before we start this episode of Jane Austen Remixed, a content warning for this week's film, Bride and Prejudice, directed by Gurinder Chadha. Our discussion of this adaptation contains brief references to racism.
Speaker: These mentions are very brief and they will only be referenced as they relate to the film's plot and themes. If this topic might be uncomfortable for you, please feel free to give this episode a skip. We'll be back again in two weeks. Otherwise, let's begin.
Speaker: Hey Melinda. Hey Stephanie. What if I told you pride and Prejudice was actually a Bollywood masterpiece that tackles the Indian diaspora and the cultural and romantic challenges faced by Lalita, our Elizabeth, all set to incredible song and dance numbers that are honestly straight bangers.
Speaker: So I've only just found out this was a musical and how I managed to miss this film with the fact it's a musical is blowing my mind and I cannot wait to get into it.
Speaker: Bye.
Speaker: Welcome to Jane Austen Remixed, where we investigate the sari-wearing and spontaneous whole community song and dance performing world of Pride and Prejudice adaptations.
Speaker: I'm Stephanie. And I'm Melinda. And today we'll be examining the 2004 movie masterpiece, Bride and Prejudice, directed by Gurinder Chadha, who also brought us 2002's masterpiece, Bend It Like Beckham.
Speaker: the global phenomenon that also examined Indian diaspora communities and launched the career of another Austin alumni, one Keira Knightley.
Speaker: So Stephanie asked me to watch the trailer before we discuss this episode, which I'm sure she'll say in a second, and I had no idea this was by the director who made Bend It Like Beckham. What I find interesting is that without Bend It Like Beckham rocketing nightly to international stardom, she probably would never have been cast as the one and only Elizabeth Bennet in the much-loved 2005 Pride and Prejudice film adaptation directed by Joe Wright.
Speaker: So it's a very small world. Very small world. That's wild. But back to our episode. As I mentioned back in the mists of time, i.e. our introduction episode, I love this movie and I inadvertently paid homage to it by writing my own version of an Indian diaspora adaptation of Pride and Prejudice for an extension English class in year 10. That's age 16-ish for our non-Australian listeners.
Speaker: Albeit this was a few years before the film came out, aging myself yet again there. So as soon as we started planning this podcast, I absolutely added this film to my must-do list.
Speaker: The film blends Pride and Prejudice with the traditions of Bollywood musicals and indeed Western musical films as well, with an array of song and dance numbers that are both Indian and Western in style. It's not intended to be a full Bollywood production, according to the director herself, but rather a love letter to both traditions.
Speaker: It was a huge success at the time, and Wikipedia informs me that it was actually the first film to ever open at number one in the UK and India on the same day. Oh, that's cool.
Speaker: Yeah, it's really cool. It was really well received critically at the time, except for poor Martin Henderson, who played Mr Darcy.
Speaker: But we'll get into that. And now, because we don't have a blurb to read, what we'll do is we'll listen to the audio of some of the trailer. The voiceover is something else.
Speaker: This year, the acclaimed director of Bend It Like Beckham invites you to discover a new twist on a classic tale. The story of one girl's search for love.
Speaker: Don't say anything too intelligent. You! Between her first choice... Do you think he could stabilize, Papa? Yes, of course. Is this really a madhouse? Her last choice... I've heard so many things about you, Darcy. I really can't seem to figure you out. Maybe you shouldn't listen to everything you hear.
Speaker: And... Hey! Her mother's choice... You remember my daughters? Oh, who? From small grey caterpillars to such beautiful butterflies. And so like you, Madam Butterfly.
Speaker: It's time to discover the magic. There must be something in the water in Amritsar. I'd happily get drunk on it. Feel the rhythm. I'm a hopeless dancer, but this looks like you just screw in a light bulb with one hand, you pet the dog with the other. And fall in love.
Speaker: Melinda, do you have any thoughts? So I watched two trailers because I wasn't sure which one you'd pick. And it was very 2000s movie trailer with that voiceover.
Speaker: Yes. So my first impression was, so this is a musical.
Speaker: So I had an inkling it might be a musical because I recorded a clip from Bride and Prejudice to put in our podcast trailer. Yeah. And it was musical, but I was like, surely that doesn't mean it's a musical.
Speaker: Oh my God, that's incredible. And somehow I've just absolutely missed that this was a musical adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Wow.
Speaker: Okay. So after this, you immediately have to go and watch. going send you a list of the songs from this that you have to watch immediately, including No Life Without Wife.
Speaker: Oh no. I actually thought I saw that title when I Googled the trailer and was like, what? Okay. So good. And then my second thought was, oh Darcy's interesting, which it sounds like you'll get into that. But other than that, it was very 2000.
Speaker: Mrs. Bennett seemed amazing. Mr. Collins seemed accurately creepy. So I'm kind of sad I didn't see it at the time because I remember seeing it advertised with posters, but I never saw it So somehow it just completely passed me by, which given I like Pride and Prejudice adaptations is truly shocking.
Speaker: It's truly shocking. It is one of my favourite adaptations. i was I will, if you guys couldn't tell by the introduction, I think it is so well done. You can, and I'll get into this a bit more, but you can really tell the director is a massive fan of the original.
Speaker: I did see it at the cinema at the time and I absolutely loved it. I am obviously now kicking myself that I never bought it on DVD or anything because listeners, when I tell you the ordeal I went through to watch this film, it is not available.
Speaker: anywhere in Australia and I wasn't paying like close to $30 to have it shipped from the UK on DVD for which I would then have to go and find someone that has a DVD player for me to borrow to watch it anyway We did manage to find it finally streaming with a VPN. So that was good. You can all thank my husband for that one. But yes, I remember seeing the ads for this film coming out and I was like, I have to go and watch this immediately. I loved at the time. I've loved rewatching it.
Speaker: I think it's such a great film. On that note, jump out here if you want to watch the film. If you're in Australia, might not be able to find it. Good luck. Everywhere else, go for it. I promise that it is better than the weird framing of the voiceover that you have just listened to. Otherwise, let's get into the spoilers.
Speaker: So the story focuses on the Bakshi family who live in Amritsar in India. The family is moderately well off and has four daughters, Jaya, Lolita, Maya and Leggy. For those playing along at home, Kitty yet again gets shafted here. i know. There is no daughter named Kalyani here.
Speaker: She's not even a cat. Oh. Mrs. Bakshi is unwaveringly focused on getting her girls married in the tradition of all Mrs. Bennetts. while Mr Bakshi just seems very tired and a little bit henpecked.
Speaker: We open the film at the tiny local airport where Indian British barrister Balraj and his sister Kiran are arriving back into the motherland for Balraj's friends' arranged marriage celebrations.
Speaker: They are, of course, our Charles and Caroline Bingley. Travelling with them is their wealthy white American friend, William Darcy, on his first trip to India. While Balraj and Kieran are well-dressed and chic, Balraj is in head-to-toe white linen, they are dressed for the climate.
Speaker: Will's fish-out-of-waterness is telegraphed by his appearance in a black, pinstriped business suit and matching white business shirt. He looks not only out of place, but very stuck up as he gawps out of the taxi window at the crash of other cars, the locals, and indeed the cows wandering all over the road.
Speaker: Big tick to the costuming department here. Also, low-key, I thought he called Balraj Balrog. in this scene and I was really confused. Upon re-watching it however I think it's just the sound mixing and his accent are slightly off and he does actually say barrage.
Speaker: I dare tell you really threw me for a loop. We then cut to the Bakshi home. It's clearly a nice house with a well-kept garden that is being tended by a gardener and they do have several servants but the home itself looks like it's seen better days.
Speaker: Inside, the sisters are getting ready for the night's wedding festivities, while their mother gives them a very strict talking to about Jaya needing to be introduced to this rich Belrage fellow who has flown in from London.
Speaker: Lolita gives us an excellent rendition of the line as she remarks quietly to Jaya, All mothers think that any single guy with big bucks must be shopping for a wife.
Speaker: Nice. Nice, nice. It's good. Jaya's response sets the tone for the film, though, as she quips back, I'm embarrassed to say, but I hope he is. This version of Jane is just as aware of her role in the family as the original character. She knows she has to marry and she has to marry well.
Speaker: Huh, okay. Yeah, nice. It's where we start to get like the cultural stuff coming in. It comes in really early and it's so well knitted into all of the characters, which you'll see as we go through.
Speaker: Lucky here, our Lydia, is wearing the most painfully 2004 outfit of incredibly low-cut pants and a teeny tiny crop top in the most fabulous shade of red. This Mrs. Bennett adaptation, though, is not indulging our Lydia. Mrs. Bakshi tells her to change because they need Balraj to fall in love with Jaya's face and not be staring at Lucky's breasts instead.
Speaker: Oh, okay. She's not wrong. She's not wrong. Because her reasoning is if the older girls are not married soon, none of them will be able to marry for the shame. I would, however, suggest to Mama Bakshi that she need not be so worried. If Bauraj was indeed living in London in 2004, he would absolutely have been surrounded by young women wearing far, far less on a night out, even in the dead of winter.
Speaker: Yeah, those low-rise pants and crop tops were everywhere. oh my god god. The nightmare flashbacks from the fashion in this movie. Hashtag millennial trauma. Anyway, the family heads to the first wedding party and it was here that I realised that Mr Bennett slash Mr Bakshi is actually played by the same actor who played the father in Bendit like Beckham as well.
Speaker: Oh, fun. Yeah. We head into the party, which is our stand-in for the Meritan Assembly, and as Lalita and Jaya find Chandra, our Charlotte, and head off into the celebration, Mrs Bakshi sits down to gossip with Chandra's mother as Balraj, Darcy and Kiran enter the party.
Speaker: They gossip about how Balraj's family is part of a rich family from Delhi, and not only is he a barrister in England, the family lives in Windsor, near the Queen, you know.
Speaker: ah So fancy. There is a very funny scene later on where they go to the house and you can see where they've like, like digitally put in the river and bit of the castle. They're like, oh, the flag's up, the queen's home.
Speaker: Great. The women also notice his friend who's from America and discuss how his family owns hotels all over the world. Though the women follow up their positive comments about Darcy's wealth with, it's a shame he's not Indian though, as they cackle in the way that only mothers can.
Speaker: Oh yeah. As the visiting threesome move through the party, Darcy notices that all the older women in the room are staring at Balraj like he's a particularly juicy bit of meat, and he rather densely comments on it before Kieran jumps in with a classic bout of Caroline-style snark and snobbery, remarking that all of the women are wetting their knickers at the thought of Balraj marrying one of their daughters. whoa okay. Okay.
Speaker: Side note here for the other Bennet sister stans in the audience, Kieran is played by the same actress who plays pod fave character Aunt Gardner in the show. She's fabulously snooty here and honestly gives us an iconic iteration of the much reviled Caroline. Her ability to communicate so much through a single sardonic raised eyebrow is on a par with Anna Chancellor from the 1995 adaptations.
Speaker: Amazing. That's great. Gotta love a good Caroline. And here is also where we get our first real glimpse of what this Darcy is like. He's been politely smiling at everyone and shaking hands, so we don't get rudeness or brooding.
Speaker: What we do get is singularly focused, stick-in-the-mud Darcy. He tells Balraj that it's 10am in New York and he'd really like to get back to the hotel to go over the finances of a new hotel that he's looking at buying, They have been at the party for approximately 10 minutes. Oh dear.
Speaker: Yeah, right. The man screams, my job is my personality. And in light of what romance movies and leading men were like in the early 2000s, I'm actually just glad they went for workaholic Darcy as opposed to the human embodiment of a red flag Darcy.
Speaker: That's very true. The workaholic Darcy does make sense though. does. Focus on something else. Snooty thinks he's self-important because of his job. That works. It does work.
Speaker: It's just, and we'll get into this a bit little bit later. There's no brooding. He just kind of, he's a bit wimpy. Oh, okay. You do need a little bit of a brood.
Speaker: And I feel like there was a really good portrayal of Darcy in here, but they've gone for that early 2000s kind of almost like wounded animal leading man. right Can you explain more what you mean by that? Because I'm not sure I understand. I think I do, but.
Speaker: So Lolita is really, really feisty. In this one, our Elizabeth is really strong. She's intelligent. She's out there. And she, without the sort of the strictures of Regency, this Elizabeth is much more, no, I'm going to fight you.
Speaker: Like verbally. And his reaction much of the time is just to look like he's a puppy that's been kicked. Yeah. Okay. Right. Deering headlights. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Right. which That makes sense.
Speaker: In the broader context of the film and his attitudes to Indian culture, it does fit, but I just feel like there's the occasional flash where he pushes back and he's a bit more like OG Darcy, but we just don't get enough of that.
Speaker: So, at this point, Kieran's continued complaining about the party is interrupted by the arrival of musicians and drummers, and she warns a clueless yet startled Darcy that he is about to experience a whole new side of his mate Balraj as he transforms into the, quote, Indian MC Hammer.
Speaker: What? Okay, that's a reference. Wow. Balraj is very out there for a Bingley. He is not shy.
Speaker: He loves to dance and he immediately gets right to the front of the little dance pack of men that has formed to sing to all the single ladies at the party.
Speaker: For what it's worth, He has also just locked eyes with Jaya, who is leaning over the balcony to see the musicians and we instantly see the sparks fly between them. no Now, as mentioned, this is a musical and there are plenty of incredible song and dance numbers scattered throughout the film.
Speaker: I will briefly summarize them, but so many of these scenes are ah straight bangers and I need you all to either watch the movie or just look up all the dance numbers on YouTube so you can experience the joy and the vibrancy that they bring to this adaptation.
Speaker: I will absolutely be doing that and I can't wait. In this dance number, the men are singing about the girls being beautiful but sharp as knives. The girls reply that the men are all talk and after a bit more playful banter via singing, the bride-to-be arrives to greet the groom and they become the centre of the dance. Throughout all of this, Balraj is making eyes at Jaya and Will is standing to the side, staring literally open-mouthed at Lolita.
Speaker: Not subtle. This guy's about as subtle as a brick. She, of course, notices and checks him out as well as she weaves through the dancing. Unfortunately, the Bakshi family, and indeed the entire party, is thrown into horrified silence as Mrs. Bakshi steps up to sing an uninvited solo about how the prime of her life has passed her by.
Speaker: okay. Her husband and her daughters are all mortified, and it's a super fun translation of the Mrs. Bennet character being loud and vulgar at, well, every assembly and ball.
Speaker: And we also get the added joy of Mr. Bakshi desperately trying to stop her singing, much like Mr. Bennett does with Mary at the ball. That's great. I love that as a musical adaptation of that character trait. That's great. It's really, really good.
Speaker: Cutting away from this cringe-inducing scene, Balrash does some expert wingmanning, grabbing Darcy and forcing him to take Lolita's hands for the next part of the dance. He is horrifyingly awkward and stiff as a board before dropping her hands and literally running away as soon as the song ends.
Speaker: You know, Darcy's got his strengths. Dancing is not normally one of them. It's definitely not in this one. While Balraj himself boldly grabs Jaya and the two of them proceed to stare longingly at each other while twirling around.
Speaker: The other fun part here is that when Balraj introduces himself to the Bakshi family and asks Jaya to dance again, he tells Darcy to ask one of her sisters as well, dropping a very non-subtle wink.
Speaker: Darcy says no and then rushes off, even when Lolita offers to teach him how to dance. Now from their point of view, he's being rude and quite weird.
Speaker: But we, the audience, have just seen Darcy futilely battling with the drawstring on the pants of his curter, so we know that he is actually behaving like this because he is envisaging the pants fully falling down around his ankles where he attempt to dance with his new crush.
Speaker: Oh, right. Okay, cool. You see it pass across his face. Like you can see him having this vision of his pants. like And as he rushes off, he's like gripping them.
Speaker: Love it. The wedding ceremony is the next day. And this is basically akin to the party of the Lucases. We get quite a fun version of the scene of Lizzie and Charlotte gossiping, with Chandra and Lolita standing watching over the festivities.
Speaker: As Chandra gives Lolita her traditional pep talk that Jaya really needs to be showing more affection to lock in Balraj, she also throws out that if Darcy was looking at her the way that he was looking at Lolita, she wouldn't be wasting any time. As the two of them giggle, Chandra follows Zeus up by saying, please marry him and divorce him right away and give me half.
Speaker: ah It's an interesting alternative way to introduce this version of Charlotte's feelings about the business of marriage, because for her, clearly that's what it is.
Speaker: Instead of a speech about not being romantic, we get an illustrative look at how she sees marriage as a transactional arrangement. This isn't a criticism, I know that she's joking about the Darcy divorce thing, but establishes her character in the modern context very neatly. Yeah, that's perfect because Charlotte in the OG version saw it as a business transaction. It is purely practical and about ensuring her future. So that is a fantastic way of showing that there is a difference in opinion.
Speaker: Yes, absolutely. And I think it's just another really good example of the director's grasp, not only of the original, but how it meshes so neatly into more traditional views that exist within it Indian society.
Speaker: Yeah, totally. They are, of course, interrupted by Will, coming to speak to them in all of his awkward glory. Chandra makes an excuse to leave and Darcy starts to whinge about the quality of the hotel he's staying in compared to his own, and Lolita neatly puts him in his place by telling him that the price of one night in one of his hotels is more than what most people in Amritsar would make in a year.
Speaker: oof And this is where we get to the heart of Darcy's pride. It's not so much that he views the people of Amritsar as beneath him, he's actually just completely oblivious. His attitude is damaging and elitist, but in a totally different way to original Darcy.
Speaker: Which brings us neatly to him then positing that, apropos of nothing, that arranged marriages are, in his view, outdated and backward. Lolita, despite having already asked her friend at the start of the film if she was really sure she wanted to marry a man she'd only met twice, defends the traditional practice.
Speaker: And let's be honest here, critiques from within a system from people who live it are very different from those offered from the outside that come with a large dose of superiority complex and condescension.
Speaker: Darcy, not to be put off, then gamely asks her to dance. And that's the scene you see in the the turning in the light bulb from the trailer. Oh, yes. i was going to bring that up, but i I figured you would discuss that. Yeah, that's this scene. And Lolita tells him, why doesn't he go and find a more traditional woman to teach him to dance like a native before storming off? It's brilliant. And Darcy is utterly baffled.
Speaker: by this woman. It's such a neat inversion of the any savage can dance. Yes, that's true. The el elitism coming from his cluelessness, that doesn't excuse the fact that it's elitist and just call it what it is, but it does it's not an excuse, but it is a different take, particularly when you've got the cross-cultural element.
Speaker: and Exactly. I love that Lolita is standing up for herself. Oh, yeah. She absolutely goes in in the course of this film and I love it. So the wedding ends with Balraj inviting Jaya to go to Goa with him and his friends.
Speaker: And Lolita is roped in to going as her chaperone. And here we have our Netherfield arc. Right. The hotel in Goa is very fancy.
Speaker: And I have to shout out here, Kieran in the first scene is wearing a Burberry checked bikini and matching visor combo. It's hideously tacky and I adore it.
Speaker: She is unsuccessfully trying to drag Darcy away from emailing his sister Georgie and instead to get his attention turns to having a go at Lolita because Lolita is reading what is, to be fair, a comically large book.
Speaker: That's right. This is becoming a trend in the movies that I watch and I will definitely be looking for a future adaptation. Lolita, unperturbed, fires back that if Kieran didn't bring so much makeup, she would have had more space for books as well. oh Okay. Which leads us neatly into our accomplished woman conversation. Except this time, the list is Darcy's ideal woman, which Kieran brings up and ribs him about. The list is frankly insane.
Speaker: as we expect it to be. And then in a way that I truly appreciate, the two women join forces to point out that he's an arrogant, prideful man with too high expectations. Oh, okay.
Speaker: Wow, a Caroline-Elizabeth takedown combo. That's powerful. It was powerful. It hits particularly hard because they're lounging poolside and he's wearing what appears to be a pair of buttoned-up chinos.
Speaker: Oh. Oh, hello, 2004. Again, chef kiss to the costuming department. And this section in Goa is also where we meet Wickham.
Speaker: He literally walks out of the surf up to the bonfire where Lolita is playing the guitar. It's incredible. He just appears like he's cast away. Or James Bond in Casino Royale walks out of the ocean.
Speaker: I accept it's weird because it's dark. And I'm like, why are you swimming in the surf in the pitch black dark? That's the most Australian thing I've ever said. I know. You can't swim in the dark. That's dangerous. That's where the sharks come out.
Speaker: Later at a dance party in the hotel, he comes to speak to Lolita and we find out his name is Johnny, which is just the most F boy name. Johnny Wickham. Johnny Wickham. Yeah.
Speaker: I will accept this name change because it's so perfect. Lolita gets right to the point and straight up asks him how he knows Darcy because she noticed at the bonfire that they totally blanked each other.
Speaker: It turns out Johnny's mother worked for the Darcy family as a nanny in the UK and old Mr Darcy liked him so much he gave him a job straight out of school.
Speaker: Unfortunately, Will never liked him, so as soon as the old man died, Wickham was fired. so sad. We also learn that Mama Darcy is still alive and currently trying to force her son into a marriage with a wealthy New York socialite as a way to expand her business empire.
Speaker: oh Oh, Mama Darcy's business empire? Dare I ask what her business empire is Is it still the hotel's? Yes. Okay, right. She is the big boss of the hotel empire. Lolita is both shocked and amused that Darcy himself seems to be having his own arranged marriage, as it were, yet he's so down on anyone else doing it.
Speaker: Back home in Amritsa, Koli Saab is arriving. He's the son of someone's cousin's brother's wife or something or other. He's an accountant in California and Mama Bakshi is busily planning for marriage number two now that daughter number one is quote-unquote taken care of.
Speaker: awful This is, of course, our Mr. Collins. He immediately begins to complain about how the women of the US Indian diaspora community are too outspoken and career-orientated.
Speaker: Also, some of them have turned to, quote, The lesbian. What? That's what he calls it. The lesbian. Okay. The reaction from the sisters at the table is much the same as yours. Okay, great. He is just awful in his ill-fitting suit as he stuffs his face at dinner and utters the immortal line, there's no life without wife.
Speaker: Okay. He's the perfect simulacrum of a modernised 1995 Mr Collins and he absolutely earns his place in the pantheon of perfectly cast, awful Mr Collinses. Great, we've got another one. That's great.
Speaker: We cut to the sisters dancing around the house singing no Life Without Wife. Go and look it up. It's spectacular. As well as being an absolute banger, it also really illustrates the close relationship between all four sisters, despite the differences.
Speaker: Unfortunately, it also then cuts to Lolita fantasizing about marrying Wickham. Straight up, she's in a big white meringue dress, she's in a chapel in England, and then it abruptly cuts to him morphing into Darcy and it turns into a nightmare that she wakes up from in shock. Hilarious.
Speaker: Great. Next thing you know, the slimy Johnny Wickham turns up on the Bakshi's doorstep and asks to stay. He goes with the family and Kohli to the Garba celebration that they are attending as part of a Hindu festival.
Speaker: This is the first half of our ball. Kohli completely embarrasses himself on the dance floor before Lolita abandons him to go and find Chandra. Darcy interrupts Lolita while she's telling Chandra what an ass he is to ask her to dance. She really wants to say no, but she relents and agrees. Only this time, on the dance floor, while they're fighting over Wickham, the man himself cuts in and finishes the dance with Lolita because ah he can dance very well.
Speaker: oh Oh, okay. Have we got another dance-off coming? After the cuffing game? Oh my god, if I forgot about the dance-off of the cuffing game. was so good. Dance-off, bro. All right. The next day, as an extension of our ball scene, Balraj and co. come for dinner and we get the iconic cobra dance from Maya.
Speaker: You would have seen a little bit of this in the trailer if you've watched it. oh It looks like she was fainting. That's what that was. And if you, like me, are not a fan of scenes that make you want to crawl out of your own skin and die, i recommend skipping it.
Speaker: It makes Slumber Deer Maid look like Beethoven. Great. I was about to say, is this our Mary at the piano? A lot happens at the dinner. Coley, whose accounting firm works for Catherine Darcy, is disparaging of Indian culture. And Darcy boldly steps up to defend it.
Speaker: To the surprise of Lolita and the other members of the Bakshi family. And, of course... Mrs. Bakshi acts like Mrs. Bennett on steroids and straight up talks about Jaya and Balraj getting married right in front of the poor man.
Speaker: Oh. And if I was Jaya, I think I would have simply expired on the spot. Okay. Can I go on a little tangent here? Why is Now, apologies, everyone. I can't remember the character's name. The Mr. Collins character, why is he disparaging of Indian culture? It is really interesting and I'll get into it a little bit later. It's an interesting facet of the director's discussion of the Indian diaspora and their attitudes.
Speaker: Okay. The next day, so many things happen. Coley proposes to Lolita. She of course says no. Mrs Barkshi tries to get Mr Barkshi on board, but he pulls the immortal line that he will never speak to Lolita again if she marries Mr Coley. Mr Coley leaves, and in the midst of the chaos, Balraj comes to tell Jaya that he needs to leave for London on urgent business.
Speaker: He promises to email. So do 2004. I'll email you, baby. Then Lucky comes home and tells everyone that Kohli has proposed to Chandra and they're already planning to have a giant wedding in America.
Speaker: The final blow for Lolita is Wickham telling her that he also has to leave to meet a friend somewhere else in India and he promises to email her too. oh Oh, wow. That is a big day for everyone.
Speaker: And the Chandra proposal happening on the same day. acted it all prior that? A little bit, yes. Okay. so when when Darcy comes to get Lalita at the dance, Coley has gone to get them drinks and when he comes back, it's just Chandra standing there and they start to talk.
Speaker: Right. Okay. So same vibe as the original. We then get a very dated scene that's kind of like shot in a bluish tone, sad music in the background of Jaya and Lolita checking their emails on the massive communal family computer.
Speaker: Yes. They don't receive anything, but Lucky gets an email from Wickham.
Speaker: So they know that they're in contact? No, they don't see. She hides it. Oh, okay. Right, right, right. The family is subsequently invited to Chandra and Coley's wedding in l LA, and they fly there via the yeah UK to visit family. Jaya goes to see Kieran, and she callously tells her that Balraj is actually not home. This is where we get the scene where you can see the castle. He is, in fact, in New York City with their parents meeting some potential brides.
Speaker: Oof. Okay. And Lucky sneaks off to meet Wickham. On their connecting flight to LA, the family runs into Darcy at the airport. He's on the same flight.
Speaker: Gallantly, he offers his first class seat to Mrs Bakshi so that he can sit next to Lolita for the whole time. She says, you didn't need to do that. And he says, it's a small price to pay for 10 hours and 53 minutes sitting next to you.
Speaker: Oh, okay. Props, Darcy, that's a good line. Mm-hmm. They chat and Lolita begins to thaw as she sees a different side of him as he talks about not wanting a marriage like his parents, loveless and draining for everyone who is around them.
Speaker: Okay. So this Thor is happening a bit early. yeah Well, it's only a movie, so it does happen on a much shorter timeframe. Much shorter timeframe, and they are also modernising it as well. In LA, we get our Rosings storyline with Mrs Darcy as our Lady Catherine, of course. She is stunningly awful and quite racist.
Speaker: And we also meet Georgie, Darcy's beloved little sister, who is played by Alexis Bledel and I completely forgot she was in it. Wow. She's in it for like two scenes.
Speaker: Wow. That's another 2004 flashback. Hello, Gilmore Girls. It's very jarring. Georgie is, of course, lovely. She immediately outstarts he as having talked nonstop about how great his holiday in India was and how amazing Lolita is. Ooh.
Speaker: Mrs. Darcy is quite obviously put out and we can sense trouble brewing. The next day, Darcy calls to take Lolita on a date and commends her for standing toe-to-toe with his mother. They begin to re-evaluate each other over margaritas and we start to see some of the romance in this storyline really getting earned in a modern sense.
Speaker: We then cut to an incredible Bollywood-style dance scene in a fountain that morphs into a montage of all of their L.A. dates, including him flying her in a private helicopter, which I can only assume is his helicopter, over the Grand Canyon.
Speaker: It's wow glorious. Okay. Yes, rom-com relationship montage. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Very important. We've got to establish that they are falling in love.
Speaker: And then we get to the wedding and Mrs Darcy pulls the ultimate trump card. She's brought Will's girlfriend Anne to the wedding with her from New York City.
Speaker: Anne! Love it. Anne is a perfectly all-American blonde, and she pronounces Lolita's name Lolita. Like the movie! Oh boy.
Speaker: Lolita is obviously devastated, and Darcy looks deeply uncomfortable. To make matters worse, after the ceremony, Georgie comes to speak to Lolita and does a full Colonel Fitzwilliam, telling Lolita that Darcy had to save Balraj from a gold digger in India.
Speaker: Darcy comes to find Lolita, tells her that he didn't know Anne was going to be there and that he doesn't love her because he loves Lolita. Ooh, first proposal. And this is where we get our first proposal.
Speaker: Yes. He actually does propose. Whoa, okay, I want to marry you. Lolita calls him out for the horribly insulting way in which he does it. He says, I'm just trying to be honest, and she says, like the way you were honest about breaking up Balraj and Jaya.
Speaker: Mm-hmm. Yes. And then, of course, she drops the clangor about him being the source of all of Wickham's problems, and then she just straight up walks out of the wedding. Great. Mic drop. Walk away. That's how you do it.
Speaker: The next day, Darcy heads to Coley's house to talk to Lolita and clear the air, but he's too late. They've already left for London. Back at their relative's house in the yeah UK, Mrs. Bakshi is lamenting the lack of proposals, and Lucky asks to go shopping.
Speaker: Except she doesn't. and we barrel headfirst into the wicker mark. She has run off and she's left a note. We're about 15 minutes from the end here, so this is going to be quick hits. Oh, we're clipping through. we are clipping through the end of the story. Okay.
Speaker: Rock and roll. Darcy arrives in London. He turns up to the house and he asks Lolita if he can apologise. It's obviously terrible timing, but he is determined to get out what he has to say. He apologises for breaking up Balraj and Jaya. And while he is explaining how Wickham got Georgie pregnant at 16,
Speaker: oh He finally stops talking for long enough to hear that Lucky has run off with Wickham. Oh. He knows where Wickham lives. So they go there.
Speaker: One of the neighbours says, i don't know, he was with some girl who was talking about the London Eye. So off they go. And then we are in a chase montage as they try to catch up with the errant lovebirds.
Speaker: Interestingly, throughout all of this, every time Wickham tries to kiss Lucky, she turns away. She moves away from him. She's keen on him, but she's still sticking to the rules.
Speaker: Oh, interesting. Okay. I love that the rom-com now has a chase montage. Lucky doesn't realise they're being followed. Wickham does, and he tries to hide the two of them away in a Bollywood theatre,
Speaker: And this is where we get the second best ever fight scene in adaptation history as the two men start duking it out in the theatre. They stumble up onto the stage in front of a full crowd of moviegoers who start cheering and the screen is showing an evil character chasing a young woman.
Speaker: Oh. Chef kiss. Melodrama. Great. The people in the theatre are loving it. Gets even better. Wickham calls out to Lolita saying it was only ever her for him.
Speaker: She slaps him and then Lucky slaps him too. Excellent. Good riddance. Yep. Love it. When they get back to the house, Balraj is there and he has prepared to Jaya.
Speaker: Cut to their engagement party back in Amritsa. The groom has arrived and Lolita is looking everywhere for Darcy and finally finds him playing the drums with the band, which I guess is like shorthand for him fully embracing her culture to prove his love to her. Okay. And then we cut again to the double wedding as the happy couples ride off into their future on elephants that have signs saying, just married, hanging on their butts.
Speaker: That sounds fun. I'm kind of sad I missed it. i will have to amend that. Yes, it's just, it's so joyful. So on to the analysis.
Speaker: The film attempts to blend Indian culture and the experiences of diaspora communities with that of the Regency period. And we can see how Chadha is drawing on her personal experience of being pulled between two worlds and the inherent duality at the heart of her own identity.
Speaker: Like with the unmarriageable adaptation in season one, which is set in Pakistan, there are strong cultural similarities between the Society of Regency England and the Society of modern-day India. Here we see how young women are stuck between a rapidly modernizing world and a society that still punishes them for perceived transgressions against the traditions it still clings to I, of course, want to offer a similar caveat to what you did, Melinda, in season one.
Speaker: I am a white woman living in Australia. My understanding of this cultural melee and how it feels to exist within it comes very much from reading about it and listening to those who have first-hand experience of this cultural upbringing. It is not something that I will pretend to personally understand.
Speaker: The director, Chadha, has a long history of using her films to explore the cultural divide that women of the Indian diaspora face, both her own experiences as a member of that diaspora and the experiences of those around her.
Speaker: The starkest examinations here actually kept for the men who travel back to India from their lives in the yeah UK and the US to find themselves a quote-unquote traditional wife.
Speaker: a Okay. What is really interesting to me is that all the central marriages of the young women in the film involve men who do not live in India. The initial couple being married are an arranged marriage. They've met twice and the wife will join her husband in the US after the marriage is complete.
Speaker: Balraj lives in London, Coley lives in Los Angeles, and Will Darcy is from New York. While these men, obviously not talking about Will, are from the diaspora, they all go back to the motherland to find a wife. It's an interesting layer of cultural commentary that Chadha weaves throughout the storyline.
Speaker: Darcy and Balraj actually talk about it really early on. The former is confused as to why the latter has come to, quote, Hicksville, India, to find a wife. That's what Balraj calls it. That's slightly better. I thought you meant Darcy. Sorry, the way I frame, I realized as I said it, I framed that like Darcy had said that. He is quoting Balraj back to himself.
Speaker: Okay. Right. So to Hicksville, India, to find a wife rather than hooking up with some Indian girl from the UK or the US so that they will at least have, quote, something in common.
Speaker: Wow. Okay. Yeah. Interestingly, Balraj does. doesn't answer other than to defend Jaya as intelligent and beautiful, and he instead deflects that question back onto Darcy, saying that he saw him eyeing off Lolita, even though she is not his mother's quote, vision of the mother of her heirs.
Speaker: Oh, okay. Which, aside from being a particularly savage version of the not handsome enough to tempt me line, exposes the hypocrisy of the white Western point of view here.
Speaker: While Darcy might think of himself as above his friend's cultural traditions, he just exposed himself as very much being under the swathe of his own mother's opinions on who is and who isn't the right type of woman to carry on the family tree.
Speaker: Coley is altogether less coy about his reasons. He wants a traditional wife because the American Indian girls he has met are too loud, too opinionated, and have become too American.
Speaker: This from a man who brags about all the gifts that American capitalism and his green card have afforded him. He is allowed to be American and call himself American, but his wife is allowed no such quarter to leave her heritage behind. She is Indian and she must be traditional.
Speaker: Huh. Okay. It's a really interesting framing of the relationships and what is driving these men. And it's very on brand for Mr. Collins, if you think about it. i mean, not that he's claiming to be American, but that he wants a wife who will please Lady Catherine and...
Speaker: Yeah. Wow. Love it. The insightfulness with which Chad Ha has translated the story of the original is fantastic.
Speaker: She has one of the strongest understandings of this novel that I've seen from ah either a director or a writer. Yeah, it sounds great.
Speaker: Touching now on the Wickham arc, Lucky running off has real life consequences for her family. The shame and social exclusion that will come from her being perceived as damaged goods is as real in the 2004 setting of Bride and Prejudice as it was in the 1813 setting of Pride and Prejudice. Her behaviour will ruin her sister's chance at good marriages.
Speaker: or indeed any marriages whatsoever. Interestingly, this is something that we also saw Chad Harre explore through her more famous work, Bandit Like Beckham. Jasminder's sister is all set to have a love match with a man from a much more wealthy upper-class Indian family in London, until Jess is seen embracing a boy on the side of the road by the groom-to-be's mother.
Speaker: Yes. Without a second thought or a moment's hesitation, the mother cancels the wedding and cuts off contact between her son and his now ex-fiancé. Spoiler alert for the I assume very few of you who haven't seen this film, it's not actually a boy, but it is in fact Keira Knightley rocking her iconic sporty pixie slash shag slash bob haircut thing. Yes, that's right.
Speaker: Which, while she is doubled over laughing on Jess's shoulder, does indeed make her look like a teenage boy. These are the consequences in the diaspora communities for women who are perceived as transgressing.
Speaker: The penalties within the Bakshi's family social circles are even higher. The whole family is at risk. Yeah, they absolutely are. It's really interesting because the young women in this story, they might have good educations, bright futures, and dream of a different path to that envisaged for them by their mothers, but they're still living within the structures of a society that, to some extent, still views them as property or an object to be made use of by a man within a marriage. And that is by no means a situation that is unique to Indian culture.
Speaker: Darcy, as mentioned, is a stick in the mud who is obsessed with work and who is really flexing his ill-informed American credentials right from the start. He anxiously asks if he's going to get deli belly while eating at an extremely fancy wedding party, which is just frankly quite rude. He also seems... surprised that there is dancing and a band.
Speaker: What? Like the band comes in and he's like, oh, oh, what's happening? It's a party. It's a wedding, mate. What did you think was happening? I can absolutely see what Chadha is doing here with the character. Instead of brooding snobbish Darcy, we get clueless and culturally snobby Darcy. The man is convinced that India is a backwater with outdated customs and uneducated people.
Speaker: Yeah, okay. It's an interesting and relevant take on Darcy's attitude and it really sets the scene for the cultural clash that becomes the basis of Lolita's dislike for him.
Speaker: While she may feel restricted by the rules of her culture, she'll be damned before she lets some snobbish yank trash talk about her country, its traditions and the rich history from which she comes. especially one as clueless as William Darcy.
Speaker: I won't go so far as calling him him out-and-out racist though, we'll reserve that for his mother, though he certainly gets in his fair share of microaggressions throughout the course of the movie. He's possessed more of that passive feeling of cultural superiority that is common in white people from Western countries.
Speaker: so assured of the hierarchy of the world and his place in it, he has never thought to question his own fundamentally racially motivated scepticism of the value of any traditions that come from countries that he views as inferior to his own.
Speaker: That is, of course, usually countries from the global south. Whether they're Asian, Latino, subcontinental or African doesn't matter. In this light, it's more like he's willfully obtuse. which is no excuse. And to be honest, I actually wonder how much of that attitude is reinforced not only by his awful mother, but also how much time he spends with Balraj and Kieran.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, okay. While Balraj is less vocal about it, Kiran carries a lot of internalised racism. An upper-class member of the Indian diaspora, she declares early on that the only thing India is good for is losing weight.
Speaker: Whoa. And while I can understand why she has stronger opinions than Balraj, scroll back a few minutes to our previous discussion on woman as object and compare what Kiran's experience must be compared to that of Balraj, the golden child's son who everyone adores and either wants to marry or to have marry their daughter.
Speaker: Yeah. We can also see Chadha, as a member of the same diaspora community, relating a type of person she must have met many times in real life, and I think it shows a unique and very incisive grasp of Caroline as a character.
Speaker: What is so often left out of Caroline as a stereotypical society mean girl? is the fact that she is desperately trying to forget, and make everyone else forget, that her family's wealth is made in trade.
Speaker: Yes. While she makes snarky remarks about Jane having an uncle who works in trade and lives in Cheapside, all her finery cannot hide that she is actually from a lower social class than Jane, who is the daughter of landed gentry.
Speaker: It's an interesting tension in the character that is really hard to translate into a modern context, and I think that Chadha has nailed it. Kieran is completely dismissive of India and Indian culture, living as she does in the rich and rarefied air of an upper-class social tier in the UK.
Speaker: However, she is Indian, and no matter how hard she tries to distance herself via snarky remarks and disdainful commentary, she's never not going to be of Indian heritage. It will always be a part of her identity.
Speaker: Again, a caveat here, I am a white woman from Australia and I have absolutely no way to fully understand this character's lived experience as a first generation woman of colour in a predominantly white and, to be fair, pretty racist country.
Speaker: All I can speak to is what Chad Hur is communicating about her own experiences through her interpretations of these classic characters and I think that her version of Caroline, even though she's not on screen very much, is so insightful.
Speaker: yeah That brings up a whole different level. I don't think I'd ever connected before that chain, like the Bennetts being landed gentry, are of a higher class than Caroline's ancestors.
Speaker: yeah And yes, translating that to a cultural reimagining where her heritage is that identity marker. That is so insightful. I agree. It sounds fantastic.
Speaker: Every aspect of this film is so incredibly well thought out. Can't wait to watch it. And just back to Darcy for a second. I know we come back to this a lot, but he really feels like an outdated and very noughties version of the character.
Speaker: He has the same awkward fish-out-of-water vibe as McFadden, and there is no brooding. It's more of a pining notebook-style leading man, which was very in vogue around this time. Yes.
Speaker: The actor Martin Henderson does stiff and awkward well, but there's no brooding which does annoy me somewhat. Honestly, he was clearly not chosen for his brooding skills in this version of the role, and he does the rest of the aspects of Darcy really well. He is a great actor, he's 2004 leading man long bob shag haircut is just amazing and I am glad that while his character is a twat who gets over himself and grows to become worthy of Lalita and in return we see her thawing out and actually falling in love with him while they're in LA because he makes an effort which is nice right I'm still glad that we do get to see that
Speaker: mutual growth in the two of them yeah that's so key to the storyline actually working yeah perfect benefits of a rom-com montage yes yes the use of montage in this movie is almost as good as the use of musical there's so many of them It's great.
Speaker: Touching on the female relationships quickly, in this adaptation, they are very strong. Not only are Jaya and Lolita very close, but Lolita does a whole song and dance number with her two best friends about how they'll be friends forever, no matter the distance between them.
Speaker: Because both of those girls do end up moving to the US for their marriages. One of them, Charlotte. Chad Hur as a director has a keen focus on the power of female relationships, so it's no wonder that that all shines through here and we love to see it.
Speaker: As for Lolita, she is our perfect Elizabeth. Modern, opinionated, unafraid to stand up for the culture that she herself continually questions because she understands the inherent colonial racist attitudes that the white characters bring to their perception of her world. She gets to avoid the Mary Sue tag here because she fell hook, line and sinker for Wickham. And Chadha's choice to really spell out her fantasy of marrying him shows again that really strong grasp she has of the original character.
Speaker: Ashwira Rai, the actress, is perfectly cast here. I love her in general and in this role she really shines. She's an amazing Elizabeth. Overall, the side characters are all adapted here really well and we can definitely see the influence of the 1995 BBC adaptation as well as the original book on the director, not only in the structure of the film but also the characterisations. Mr Bakshi is a pretty decent father, Chandra slash Charlotte is sympathetically dealt with and Coley slash Collins is a bumbling nightmare with incredibly poor table manners.
Speaker: That's great. I always love it when the character adaptations are done well. And as you've said with the rest of this episode, when the writer or director really understands the characters, I think it makes the adaptation sing, which is great.
Speaker: Yes, absolutely. The other thing I will say for the movie is, as well as nailing the characters, I didn't get the same sense that I do in the 2005 version, you know, where it really feels like it's galloping.
Speaker: As much as my description of how things all happen at once, it actually flows quite naturally in the film. Okay, that's good. It doesn't feel like we're really galloping towards the end.
Speaker: So yeah the timeline... makes a lot more sense when you watch it. But on to the rating. This whole movie is such a vibrant celebration of Indian culture and the way the director has enmeshed it with her own experiences as an Indian woman in the diaspora, tackling big questions and questionable Western attitudes with humour and incisive commentary is a masterclass.
Speaker: I give this film an Austin approved because as hot as this Darcy is, he's just not broody enough for my taste. And while his mopeyness is very nearly offset by Indian MC Hammer Balraj, who is honestly a delight, it's just not quite enough.
Speaker: That's fair. You've got to get the Darcy 100% right for a Fine Eyes, I reckon. Absolutely. Even if he is 90% there. He's 90% there. Just some small tweaks.
Speaker: It's a very 2004 interpretation. I think if it was made now, the Darcy character would be very different, but the rest of the film would be almost identical. Right. Okay. That's how good it is. It's pretty timeless.
Speaker: We hope you enjoyed this episode of Jane Austen Remixed. We love exploring this corner of the literary world with you. Please share the podcast with your friends, family, literary fans, and other J-knights.
Speaker: And we would love it if you could leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you are listening. This helps us to reach other fans of Pride and Prejudice and build our community. You can also follow us on Instagram at janeaustenremixed.
Speaker: And if you have a question or a suggestion for a book, movie, or something you'd like us to review, drop us a line. You can email us at janeaustenremixed at gmail.com.
Speaker: And join us in two weeks when we examine The Bennett Women by Eden Appiah-Kubi. And now, Stephanie, for the most important question of this podcast, which might have been briefly spoiled by the trailer, but I'm not convinced.
Speaker: Does this Darcy dive into a lake? No. But. I knew there was a but. We get Wickham emerging shirtless from the surf. We get Darcy shirtless and inexplicably wearing chinos lounging beside the pool.
Speaker: We do get him dancing through the fountain in a white shirt. That was what was in the trailer. But you don't get any closer than what you see in the trailer. So you don't actually get like a full frontal wet shirt scene.
Speaker: But you just get him fully shirtless. So, you know, and he's got a rig. So on that note, see you next episode.
Speaker: you
