Lukewarm response to 'Bride and Prejudice'

Bollywood star and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai's much-hyped debut international film, "Bride and Prejudice", received a lukewarm response at its opening weekend in Bombay, analysts said on Tuesday.
The five-million-dollar film, shot in Hindi and English, managed 60-70 percent seat capacity across Bombay, the home of Bollywood, on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, the seat capacity rose to 95 percent, but tapered back to 70 percent on Monday.
The Hindi version of Gurinder Chadha's film had an even poorer turnout of around 50 percent across Bombay, the barometer for the success or failure of Hindi-language and English-language movies in India. "I think the film is a commercial flop," said Indu Mirani, well-known film analyst and publisher of the film magazine, "Box Office".
Other analysts said the film, Chadha's follow-up to her very successful "Bend It Like Beckham", had failed to identify with Indians in general.
"The script of the film has not gone down well with the masses," said Komal Nahata, well-known film analyst and publisher of trade magazine, Film Information.
"The script is outdated and does not suit urban India which has changed drastically in the last 14 years. The new Indian woman has changed into a confident and independent person who does not relate with the heroine in the script."
The film, a Bollywood adaptation of Jane Austen's novel "Pride and Prejudice", deals with the tension of a mother who wants to see her four daughters married.
"This issue bothers people in rural and small towns of India, but not anymore in the cities. Women, the main audience, have failed to identify with the movie," Nahata told AFP. He was pessimistic about the future earnings of the movie in India.
"I do not think the film will click later because the fall in collections from 95 percent to 70 percent on Monday is huge," he added.
Box office collections from India were not yet available but in Britain, where there is an enormous expatriate Indian population, it coined 2.9 million dollars in its opening weekend.
The movie is due for release in the United States on December 25.
Most Indian film critics have given a three-star rating to the film, with most criticising both Rai and New Zealander actor Martin Henderson, who plays the role of Austen's Mr Darcy.