Pride and Prejudice: The Musical

When I last posted on this blog, I was sure I would be working on Bollyviewer’s posts immediately to keep this blog alive and importantly, for myself, to remain connected with the blogging world, a connection that I have enjoyed via Bollyviewer all these years. It was easier said than done! Not wanting to face that sense of loss, which intensified every time I opened one of her incomplete posts, I preferred to distract myself with the demands of routine life – work and family. Which only made it more difficult to start with again. That was until a few weeks ago, when I received a mail from Anu, asking how I was. That little message, a reminder of the world that I have more or less disconnected from in the last year, but which I realize I have been missing, has given me the push to start again. Thank you, Anu!

So, here is one of the posts that Bollyviewer was working on and on which we had had lots of fun discussing, even through her illness.

Perhaps you might think, as did I, that Pride and Prejudice has been done to death in films and series. There are so many versions of this (longtime favorite of ours) story, on celluloid, that the plot now appears staid and repetitive; and the dialogues are so well known, that the words seem to have lost meaning. Well, then you haven’t contended with Bollyviewer’s take on it. And I am not talking about the fantasy casting coup that she and our youngest sister carried out earlier, with some really interesting contributions from the readers, but about Pride and Prejudice: The “Bollywood” Musical.

Bhowani Junction (1956) – Raj romance the way it should be!

I’ve always been keen on watching foreign films set in India, though I’ve seldom liked them! They’re either too Orientalist or too boring – frequently both. In spite of that, it’s hard to resist the pull of seeing India through an alien lens. Bhowani Junction was one of the first set-in-India English language films that I ever saw. I’ve compared every subsequent film of this kind against it, and found it wanting! It’s not because Bhowani Junction eschews Orientalism/Colonialism altogether, but because these are kept in fairly good check, and the fast-paced and interesting narrative keeps me too occupied to brood upon the flaws.

 

The Thief of Baghdad (1978)

I must admit that I have never outgrown Arabian nights tales with handsome princes and flying carpets, especially when the handsome prince happens to come in the form of young Kabir Bedi. So when I became aware of the existence of this film, I immediately turned to my trusted resource – youtube. Imagine my delight when I found the entire film on youtube, in a fairly watchable print! Naturally, I want you all to be aware of it, too! Nothing like a good old-fashioned fairy tale to while away the hours, or chase away the blues! So, here goes…

How To Steal A Million (1966) – A lesson in love and larceny*

What happens when you lend your invaluable statuette to a Paris museum and want it back in a hurry? Why, you enlist the help of a society cat-burglar and steal it from the museum! Elementary dear Watson. But which society burglar? Its 1966 and Cary Grant has retired (well, almost) and Stewart Granger is too busy making spaghetti Westerns in Germany. Fear not. In the British Isles the sun never sets on debonair thieves. Lets get Peter O’Toole. He isn’t British (he is Irish) but can disguise himself as an Arab and even has something that Grant did not – intensely blue eyes and a true-blue British accent (Grant’s accent is classified as Mid-Atlantic)!