Dancing and singing in "Bride and Prejudice" makes for an exciting remake

By Tiffany Young
Based on Jane Austen's novel "Pride and Prejudice," "Bride and Prejudice" is a movie in English that takes on Bollywood-type qualities with music and dance throughout.

A fun musical, the movie begins in a small town in India where Lalita lives with her three sisters. Her mother is trying to marry her daughters off to rich men, so she does not have to worry about them.

A wedding is taking place, bringing a wealthy man, Balraj—who is interested in Lalita's sister—back to India. He brings Darcy, a wealthy American and one of his best friends, and his sister along on the trip.

While Darcy would rather be working, Lalita catches his eye with her beauty and her dance moves, but Darcy seems to say all the wrong things whenever he attempts to speak to Lalita causing her to dislike him even though he caught her eye at once, too.

Throughout the movie, the two run into each other through Balraj, and later through a business acquaintance of Darcy, Kholi, a distant relative of Lalita's looking for a bride to take back to America. Lalita is meant to be set up with Kholi, but she refuses him, leaving her best friend next in line. When her best friend decides to marry Kholi, Lalita's family is on their way to California where her destined meeting with Darcy continues.

Meanwhile, however, another man has entered the picture, a man known by his last name, Wickham, who says all the right things to Lalita and all the wrong things about Darcy—confirming Lalita's opinions of him.

But when he gives up his first class seat to her mother on the trip to Los Angeles, Lalita gives him a chance and goes on a few dates with him. His mother is not keen on his dating an Indian girl and invites his girlfriend—someone he does not seem interested in and is dating only because his mother wants him to—to the wedding. Since Lalita did not realize he was dating someone, she is upset and after the wedding Darcy tracks her down to express his love for her. Darcy says the wrong things again, however, causing her to tell him he is the last person he would want to be with.

He follows her to India, which turns out to be a good thing, since Wickham has been seeing Lalita's little sister, Lucky, behind her back and is now planning on seducing her. When Lalita finds out Wickham had gotten Darcy's little sister pregnant attempting to get her family money, Lalita trusts Darcy to help her find Lucky and Wickham. They find him and he and Darcy get into a fight in which Lucky sees he was always interested in her older sister anyway and they both leave him for good.

Darcy still has to make a few things right, but when he explains himself, Lalita's heart is finally won.

Thumbs up for "A Weekend with Mr. Darcy"

By Tiffany Young

This sweet novel should be on any Jane Austen fan's list of books to read. I realize their are some die-hard fans that may think it's an affront to the author to do spin-offs of her work, but this lovely read is inspired by Austen's novels, rather than trying to rewrite them as works such as "Clueless" attempted to do.

A Weekend with Mr. Darcy, by Victoria Connelly is set in England, partly in Jane Austen's hometown. Book lovers meet for a weekend conference to enjoy, what seems to them, will be a relaxing, enjoyable weekend, but becomes a bit more of a romantic whirlwind for the two heroines in the novel.

Katherine Roberts, an Austen specialist, is done with lying, cheating men and just wants to get away when she meets Warwick, a handsome man that wants to get close to her, but forgets to to tell her a minor detail that she may think is more important that he share than he thinks.

Robyn Love, a romantic who has been dating a very unromantic fellow for years, tries escaping for a nice, quiet weekend only to be followed by her boyfriend whom she's trying to get rid of. When she meets someone who may be Mr. Right, will she be able to let Mr. Wrong go once and for all? Or will she let guilt keep her stuck in a rut "'Til death do us part?"

Find out by purchasing the novel at www.victoriaconnelly.com.