Bride & Prejudice (2004)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Musical	Main Menu Audio & Animation Menu Audio Audio Commentary-Gurinder Chadha (Writer/Director) And Paul Mayeda Berges Deleted Scenes Featurette-Making Of Featurette-Aishwarya Rai, Martin Henderson, Production Design, Make-Up Featurette-Choreography, Ashanti's Song Outtakes Featurette-UK Premiere Featurette-Crew Does The Songs Theatrical Trailer Teaser Trailer Gallery-Photo DVD-ROM Extras-Production Notes Including Cast And Crew Biographies
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	106:49
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (62:38)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Gurinder Chadha
Studio Distributor	Pathe Films Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Aishwarya Rai Martin Henderson Daniel Gillies Naveen Andrews Marsha Mason Alexis Bledel Namrata Shirodkar Indira Varma Nadira Babbar Anupam Kher Anu Malik Ashanti Meghna Kothari
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Anu Malik Craig Pruess

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    Jane Austen's romantic comedy, Pride and Prejudice, has been adapted into countless plays, television productions, and films. It also has formed the basis of many other projects, such as Bridget Jones' Diary. Now, Gurinder Chadha (of Bend It Like Beckham fame) brings us Bride and Prejudice, which has cleverly adapted Austen's novel into a fun, Indian "Bollywood" spectacle. If you suspend disbelief, and accept it for what it is, you'll quickly find your toes tapping to this irresistibly likeable musical.

    Set in modern India, Lalita (Aishwarya Rai) lives with her parents and three sisters in a country town, Amritsa. Lalita is bright and confident, and even a little outspoken and stubborn. She is in no hurry to marry, which infuriates her pushy, marriage-hungry mother, Mrs. Bakshi (Nadira Babbar).

    Balraj (Naveen Andrews), is a successful UK barrister of Indian descent. Balraj visits Amritsa for a friend's wedding, but he is also looking for an Indian wife of his own. Balraj brings with him his seemingly arrogant and rude American hotel-heir friend, William Darcy (Martin Henderson).

    Lalita and Darcy meet, but after an initial attraction, they begin to bicker incessantly. Through a series of misunderstandings between the two, the calculating cad, Wickham (Daniel Gillies), makes a play for Lalita's attention.

    While a lot of this will sound familiar, maybe even predictable, Bride and Prejudice is still filled with surprises. For example, being Bollywood, the characters spontaneously burst into song, and a ready cast of beautifully costumed, smiling singers and dancers flood the elaborate sets to join in the fun.

    With its carnival-like feel, there are a riot of colours and sounds and some great dance scenes, choreographed by the highly acclaimed Saroj Khan. I have to admit that I didn't like some (okay many) of the songs, but perhaps I'm not used to the style. I also found that some of the singing voices didn't match the actors very well, but then again this is Bollywood.

Video

    Overall, the transfer is excellent.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced.

    The sharpness of the image is good throughout, but many of the scenes are intentionally soft. The black level and shadow detail were fine throughout.

    The colour is magnificent, with a beautiful palette of well-saturated colours that span the rainbow in just about every scene. The skin tones are accurate.

    There are no problems with MPEG or film-to-video artefacts. Very rarely, a few tiny film artefacts appeared, but they were difficult to spot.

    English for the Hearing Impaired subtitles are present on this DVD, and they are accurate.

    This is a Dual Layer disc, with the layer change placed at 62:38.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Overall, the quality of the sound is also excellent.

    There are two audio options for the feature on this DVD: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s), and English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s).

    The dialogue quality and audio sync are fine, but sometimes some of the lip-syncing to the singing looked a little wrong. As I mentioned earlier, I also found that some of the singing voices didn't match the actors very well.

    The music comes from a variety of sources. The song music is provided by renowned Bollywood composer Anu Malik, who has purposely provided very Westernised tunes. The score is provided by Craig Pruess, and it is an Indian-flavoured traditional orchestral score.

    The surround presence and activity is good, with the rears providing ambience as well as supporting the score, such as during the street party at 18:42. The LFE track is not very prominent, but was noticeable at times, such as with some of the deep drums at 5:50.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are quite a few extras.

Menu

    Audio & animation.

Audio Commentary

    Gurinder Chadha (Director & Co-Writer) and Paul Mayeda Berges (Co-Writer) provide an interesting, screen-specific commentary that discusses the balancing act between producing a Bollywood and a Hollywood movie. There is also some discussion on adapting the novel and a few anecdotes about the production.

Deleted Scenes and Song (12:54)

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio, there are six deleted scenes and a deleted song. The song is introduced by Gurinder Chadha (Director & Co-Writer), who explains why it was cut.

Featurettes

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio, these are very short snippets looking at some of the actors and various aspects of the production:

• Aishwarya Rai
• Martin Henderson
• Production Design
• Make-Up
• Choreography
• Ashanti's Song
• UK Premiere
• Crew Does The Songs

Outtakes (2:27)

    Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio, this is a short collection of bloopers.

Theatrical Trailer

Teaser Trailer

Gallery-Photo

    Stills from the production

DVD-ROM Extras

    Production notes including cast and crew biographies

    Bride and Prejudice will be released on DVD in Region 1 in July 2005. From the information available, our versions will have the same extras.

    Bride and Prejudice may lack the heart and purpose of Monsoon Wedding, but it remains a light, enjoyable, and colourful Bollywood-infused romp. Bride and Prejudice is pure escapist fun!

    The video quality is a little soft at times, but excellent overall.

    The audio quality is very good.

    The extras are genuine.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall