that featuring political corruption,
duplicitous villains and fortuitious encounters-all culminating in a happy
ending.
However, Bollywood is changing to accommodate a younger, more urban and
educated audience. Thus, we have films such as Bride and Prejudice.
From the same director (Gurinder Chadha) and production team that created
the wonderful Bend It Like Beckham, we get a twist on the Austen classic
of ardent courtship and requited and unrequited love-Bollywood style. There's
music and dancing to the tune of marriage-age daughters battling it out with the
opposite sex and their mother at the same time. The setting bounces around the
world from present-day India to London and America.
"I am very proud of Bride and Prejudice," says one of
its stars, Aishwarya Rai.
"Audrey Hepburn's son, Sean Hepburn Ferrer, presented me with a book on his
mother. A week later, after the premiere of Bride and Prejudice, I was
compared to the great actress and her demeanor by some of Britain's leading
newspapers -- that's quite a coincidence."
Like the styles this film tries to blend together, the cast is also a
masala of talents that includes both Bollywood and Hollywood actors, including
Martin Henderson (The Ring) and Daniel Gillies (Spider-man 2).
However, the real star of this ensemble film is Aishwarya, who's been
enormously successful in her own country. "The reality is that I've had an
incredible time," she says. "The Time magazine cover; the
prestigious nomination as a jury member at the Cannes Film Festival; being
counted among the 100 most influential people in the world; being immortalised
at Madame Tussaud's wax museum; being the global face of India... it sounds
silly for me to list my achievements, but that's a fact."
So, is Aishwarya interested in leaving Bollywood for a shot at making it
in Hollywood? Not according to a Times News Network interview. "I've agreed
to scripts and ideas by many filmmakers here (in India)," she said.
So Hollywood's loss, as it turns out, is Bollywood's gain.
- Vince Everett
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