Translating Jane
The Egalitarian Bookworm reviews Kandukondain Kandukondain, a Bollywood reinterpretation of Sense and Sensibility–not unlike Bride and Prejudice, but more of a “real” Bollywood film.
The verdict? In short, it was a lovely film and the actors and actresses were completely fantastic, but it couldn’t hold up to Ang Lee’s adaptation of the novel. The plot rambled too much, and it lacked those social back-and-forths that give Austen her oomph. I know it’s a different form of movie, but Austen doesn’t get its zest from plot and plot alone. The tension wasn’t amped up as much as it could have been. The best part of the movie was the sisters– they played off each other perfectly and summoned the spirits of their literary inspirations.
Austen-purism aside, there’s something so wonderful and vital about those Bollywood music scenes where the couples wear flowy clothing and dance freely, in front of beautiful natural backdrops and across the turrets and papapets of castles and ruins. It’s something no US director could do unironically. At the risk of projecting my Western understanding onto the form, those scenes hearken back to what Romantic with a capital R is all about. Shelley would be proud. As would Kate Bush.
We’ve had this film on our Netflix queue for ages; probably should move it up.
