Jane Austen, with a Bollywood spin

Bride and Prejudice, Gurinder Chadha's Spice-Girls-Go-Bollywood rendition of the similarly titled novel by Jane Austen, updates and relocates the tale of the husband-hunting sisters from village England circa 1800 to rural India circa 2000. The five Bennet sibs, budding English roses, are now the four Bakshi sisters, blossoming lotuses in the marshes of Amritsar.

Bride is not the drollest or most original of the Austen-influenced movies - that would be Clueless. And it's not the wryest - that would be Persuasion or Bridget Jones's Diary. Still, the film is uniquely spirited, radiating the exuberance and sexual heat of an Elvis musical, a characteristic shared by its songs and dances. Bride very well may be the first not-so-great film since Viva Las Vegas that I watched with an ear-to-ear grin throughout. It's pure pleasure.

"Anyone who's got big bucks is shopping for a wife," cracks Lalita (Aishwarya Rai), a traffic-stopping eyeful who probably would triumph over Halle Berry, Angelina Jolie and Helen of Troy in a Miss World pageant. Her quip, which sets the tone of Chadha's film, is a slangy translation of the famous opener of Pride and Prejudice, "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

The Bakshis are from the striving end of the middle class; their father cannot afford large dowries. Thus the daughters must market themselves to men who, like themselves, seek cash, looks and smarts in the same package.

When out-of-towners Balraj (Naveen Andrews), an Anglo-Indian businessman, and his crony Will (Martin Henderson), an American hotelier, come to Amritsar for a wedding, they are taken with the elder two Bakshi daughters. Balraj is bewitched by Jaya (Namrata Shirodkar); Will likes Lalita, but he strikes her as a snob, and her wounded pride strikes him as aloofness. They spend the next 100 minutes reconsidering a first impression that was a worst impression.

Where Chadha's Bend It Like Beckham affectionately presented an Anglo-Indian girl honoring both of her cultural identities while pursuing a nontraditional career, the new film feels retro, and not only because it adapts a classic. Beckham exulted in an evolving multiculturalism and expanding opportunities for women; Bride traffics in cultural fender-benders experienced by women pursuing the traditional role of spouse.

And yet, and yet. Nothing retro about Lalita belting, "I just want a man who gives some back/ Who talks to me and not my rack."

Best among the film's lush musical numbers, some on the cinnabar-and-marigold-festooned streets of Amritsar, is "No Life Without Wife," with the sisters teasing the values of their nouveau riche American cousin in a song that's more Motown than Mumbai.

If it does nothing more than introduce English-speaking audiences to the lovely Rai and the buoyancy of Bollywood, then Bride and Prejudice succeeds.

Contact movie critic Carrie Rickey

at 215-854-5402 or crickey@phillynews.com.

Bride and Prejudice

** 1/2 (out of four stars)

Produced by Gurinder Chadha and Deepak Nayar, directed by Gurinder Chadha, written by Gurinder Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges, based on Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice, photography by Santosh Sivan, music by Anu Malik and Craig Pruess, distributed by Miramax Films.

Running time: 1 hour, 51 mins..

Lalita Bakshi. . . Aishwarya Rai

Will Darcy. . . Martin Henderson

Balraj. . . Naveen Andrews

Jaya Bakshi. . . Namrata Shirodkar

Mr. Bakshi. . . Anupam Kher

Parent's guide: PG-13 (sexual references)

Playing at: Ritz at the Bourse, Ritz Sixteen/NJ