Bride and Prejudice

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Bride and Prejudice's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Bride and Prejudice completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 16 February 05.

Overall comments and recommendations

Bride and Prejudice is a Bollywood slant on the popular Jane Austin novel. The story line retains its original theme but is boldly transposed into modern day India . In true Bollywood style it is full of colour, vibrancy, song and dance and as such is very entertaining and funny. Austin purists might find it hard to take but others will find it amusing.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Bride and Prejudice contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

In this modern version of Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice, the Bennett Family is now the Bakshi Family, a middle class Indian family living in Amritsar . Mr. and Mrs. Bakshi have four lovely daughters whom they are trying to marry off and in particular Jaya, the eldest, so that the others can follow suit. Mr. Balraj, a millionaire living in England , travels to India for the wedding of a friend together with his friend Will Darcy, an American hotel heir. Balraj and Jaya meet at the wedding and immediately fall in love. Lalita, the second eldest is attracted to Darcy and he to her, but they are put off by mistaken first impressions. Lalita finds Darcy arrogant and cold and thinks he believes himself to be culturally superior.

When Balraj wants to take Jaya on a holiday to a beach resort Mrs. Bakshi is very enthusiastic but has to insist that Lalita go as her escort. There Lalita meets handsome John Wickham whom she likes immediately but who is also a sworn enemy of Will Darcy. Wickham spins her a story of deceit and betrayal by Darcy which Lalita believes whereas in reality Wickham had run off with Darcy's 16 year old sister Georgie, leaving her pregnant.

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is a little violence in this movie:

• in a film being watched, a man is attacking a girl who is screaming
• Darcy and Wickham have a fist fight
• Lalita and Lucky both slap Wickham.

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Some children under the age of eight might be concerned by the above mentioned scenes. Otherwise there isn't anything particularly scary in this movie.

Aged eight to thirteen

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

Children in this age group would not be scared by this movie.

Over the age of thirteen

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Children in this age group would not be scared by this movie.

Sexual references

There is quite a bit of sexual innuendo in this movie. Other sexual references include:

• mention is made of lesbians when Mr. Colley is talking about American girls.
• transvestites are shown dancing during a dance scene.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is no nudity or sexual activity but girls in brief clothing and provocative dancing.

Use of substances

There is quite a lot of drinking of alcohol: at home, at functions, around a campfire, on the plane.

Coarse language

There is a little coarse language with occasional use of:

• Jesus
• Oh my God
• Bullshit

The movie's message

The take home message is not to judge people too quickly and that first impressions aren't always correct.