Fridae

This Deepavali, the impossibly beautiful Aishwarya Rai � the stuff of many girls' wet dreams � lights up our screens with Gurinder Chadha's musical adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice.

Austen's wickedly bitchy Victorian novel, about a snobbish girl who falls for an equally snobbish gentleman, has been given the full Bollywood treatment. Bride And Prejudice is a funny and colourful song-and-dance spectacle, telling the story of Lalita, who is attracted to an American businessman in spite of herself.

Director Gurinder (of the 2002-hit Bend It Like Beckham) certainly knows how to please audiences. She gives her latest film lots of music, jokes and a constant change of location from London to LA to India.

But serious literary buffs may be offended by how Austen's intelligent novel has been turned into a piece of frivolous entertainment.