Bride and Prejudice

This 2004 Indian musical version of the Austen novel is energetic, colorful, distracting fun. At several points, it departs from Austen’s novel. Darcy’s proposal does not come out of the blue, but at the end of a series of dates (including a helicopter ride over LA and a sunset walk on the beach, accompanied by a very large robed church choir). Darcy doesn’t secretly take care of the Wickham-Lydia affair, but chases Wickham down in a theater, where they slug it out in front of the film audience. There is no Lady Catherine; Darcy’s mother stands in, and doesn’t appear enough to be much of a threat to the romance. And the pace and balance of the story is all wrong; Darcy does not propose until we are an hour and a half into the film, and things have to wrap up in twenty minutes.

I don’t object to these departures because I’m an Austen purist. I object because none of the departures from the original improved the story; in every instance, the changes weakened the original. I’ve always enjoyed Austen’s controlled, crystalline prose, her psychological insight, her wicked humor. But I came away from Bride and Prejudice with a deeper appreciation of Austen’s skill in plotting (which is not considered her strongest suit).