Indinisation of jane austen Essay Example for Free

Indinisation of jane austen Essay In Gurinder Chadhas hands, Balraj (Bingley, Naveen Andrews) arrives in Amritsar from Los Angeles with the American hotelier Darcy (Mike Henderson). Balraj likes Maya (Jane, Meghna Kothari), and there is tension, or in Amritsari, tashn between Darcy and Lalita (Elizabeth, Aishwarya Rai). But Balraj and Darcy return to LA and it is only after the Bakshi sisters visit London and LA on the invitation of Kohli (Collins, Nitin Ganatra) that some sort of crisis develops by way of a punch-up between Darcy and Wickham (Daniel Gillies) in a cinema hall and successive slaps for Wickham from two Miss Bakshis. The plot does not make a film any more than it does a novel. The quality of the novel is in the texture of the interaction among characters and their ideas. Now be sincere, Elizabeth says to Darcy in the end. Did you admire me for my impertinence? For the liveliness of your mind, I did, Darcy replies. It is largely Austens creation of that mind that gives Pride and Prejudice its character, and makes of it such a celebrated novel. The film script is another story. In snobbery as directed by Chadha, Darcy wants to know if its safe to eat a pakora because he doesnt want Delhi belly on his first day in India. He says rude things about arranged marriages. Lalita defends it as a global dating service, and so no different from western ways. Darcy says people pay $500 a day for one of his hotel rooms. Thats more than what a lot of Indians earn in a year, Lalita replies by way of lively repartee. Nothing wrong in having standards, he says. So long as you dont impose them on others, replies she. Later, Darcy gallantly gives his first-class seat to Mrs Bakshi to seat himself next to Lalita in economy class when they all happen to meet at Heathrow en route to LA. How can anyone sleep in economy class, Darcy wants to know. Lively Lalita says she will sleep 10 hours in a 10-hour, 53-minute flight. A film that grandly declares itself inspired by Austens novel deserved something better than this for screenplay. After taking on an interesting idea, Chadha deserved to give herself a better scriptwriter than herself. Some of the better lines come straight from the novel; pity that Austen could provide no NRI material for Chadha to lift. What should have been the strength of a film like this emerges as its weakest link. Austen aside, its hard to see what this kind of script can do for anyone other than feeding a British audience yet more cliches of their idea of ways Indian. This is the flip side of Indianising icons; every such feed adds to a reduction. Within this adventure, Indianness is reduced, and by the same failing, Elizabeth is reduced. Far from the style of Elizabeth, Lalita emerges as a singularly dumb creature. Here Aishwarya, such as she is, seems to fit the script, such as it is. She never gets past that look-at-doe-eyed-me look. She rode a chariot that her admirers made for her when she became Miss World, and she hasnt gotten off it yet. She looks afraid that a real expression would mark her as a woman of the world rather than the lady on the chariot. Her expressions seem to halt in the early stages of formation; who knows which particular look might trap her in an unflattering snapshot? She travels the world a prisoner of her facial paint. Chadhas shadow of the book limps along in faltering episodes that fail to hold together, or to hold the audience. The characters only move from one country to another without appearing much moved in their selves. At the heart of the story is the idea of giving up pride and letting go of prejudices. Elizabeth sees how hearsay and her own misjudgement led her away from truth. She thinks she was blind, partial, prejudiced, absurd, I, who prided myself on my discernment. Nothing much happens to Chadhas characters. Theyre comfortable passengers (pardon the Punjabi! ), just transferring from a jumbo jet to a couple of elephants in Amritsar for the shaadi in the end. The faux-Bollywood style doesnt quite pull off either. The song-and-dance sequences seem to follow the dumb end of Bollywood style. Coming to Bollywood, as it has so regrettably come to be known, the film probably needed Madhuri Dixit, and screenplay of the Farhan Akhtar class. The script is self-consciously synthetic, the lyrics flat when audible, the music forgotten as you hear it, the film forgettable once youve seen it. The idea of adaptation wasnt bad, the adaptation is. It is a translation that fails both languages.