Ethnocentrism Across Cultures Film Analysis of Bride and...

Bride and Prejudice and Ethnocentrism Across Cultures People who travel abroad always have a better understanding of what it means to meet new cultures and the experience of living in culturally different societies. While visiting a different society might be ideal, as a first step one may watch a foreign film that describes peculiarities of a different culture we are not familiar with. In this paper, I will discuss my experience of watching such a movie. The film I chose for this task is Bride and Prejudice (2005). It was made by a British director of Indian descent Gurinder Chadha and stars American, British, and Indian actors and actresses, including Miss World 1994 and the Bollywood top star Aishwarya Rai. The plot takes place in several cities, including Los Angeles, New York, London, Bombay, and Amritsar, and addresses such questions as pride, prejudice, ethnocentrism, cultural imperialism, and love. This is an adaptation of Jane Austins famous novel with a Bollywood approach and style though the film was made in English. It tells the story of a rich American snob Will Darcy who wants to open a hotel in an Indian city and visits the family of Bakshis in Amritsar. It is an Indian family where the mother is trying to marry her four daughters to rich men. One of them is Lalita. She is an outspoken, intelligent, and beautiful woman. Darcy and Lalita clash initially but love eventually blossoms between the two. Despite so many cultural barriers between America and