By: Somesh Vasishth

I wish Ms Austen was alive to see this day. The day, when Bennett family, of her most prized work has become the Bakshis from a Punjabi village and Aishwarya Rai is nubile Elizabeth Bennett oops... Bakshi.

Welcome to Gurinder Chadhah's 'Bride and Prejudice', Ms Austen, who thinks you must be a Punjabi girl too in your previous life.

Mr and Mrs Bakshi are blessed with four daughters, Lalita (Aishwarya Rai), Jaya (Namarata Shirodkar), Maya (Meghna Kothari) and Lucky (Piya Rai Choudhray). And like any other Indian couple finding the appropriate grooms for their daughters is their utmost concern. Coming from a poor family background, Mr Bakshi (Anupam Kher) simply cannot afford to pay the dowry.

Enter Balraj (Naveen Andrews), alias Mr Bingley, a British Asian from London, like a whiff of fresh air. He is their new neighbour and Mrs Bakshi (Nadira Babbar) sees this handsome man as a perfect alliance for her eldest daughter Lalita, oblivious to the fact that Lalita is a headstrong girl and prefers to choose her own partner.

During one of the many social encounteras, between the Bakshis and Balraj, Lalita bumps into Will Darcy (Martin Henderson). Darcy, an American hotelier, happens to be Balraj's best friend. He is instantly attracted to her but it's not love at first for Lalita or is it?

What follows is very similar to the original Jane Austen bestsellar, Pride and Prejudice. Just like Jane Austen, Chadhah depicts the conflict between Darcy and Elizabeth not due to their social status but due to their cross cultures.

The music of the film is composed by Anu Malik while Farhan Akhtar turns lyricist along with his sister Zoya. Gurinder is hopeful that her Bollywood extravaganza will be accpted in the west as it is following the success of musicals like 'Chicago' and 'Moulin Rouge'.