I adored this version of Pride and Prejudice transposed to 1970s Mumbai

More proof of the amazing universality of Jane Austen’s characters and situations

More about Jane Austen, in this special year, the 250th anniversary of her birth, which I covered in my last posting.

This one is about a contemporary tribute to her, although I was quite a few pages into What Will People Think? by Vedashree Khambete-Sharma before I realised it was a transposition of Pride and Prejudice to 1970s Mumbai.

The name ‘Mr Pingley’, for the charming wealthy young man who had taken a shine to the main protagonist’s older sister was the final nudge it took for me to make the connection.

Then the pushy mother, the five unmarried sisters and the overly retiring and sardonic father all fell into place – and not least the wit of the leading character.

Once I’d cottoned on to the premise (oddly not mentioned on the cover of the reading copy), I relished every bit of it.

It’s so interesting and fun to see how adroitly the author renders all the characters, plot points and settings to late twentieth century India – and for an Austen fan, thrilling to see how perfectly they all work there. It’s seamless.

More proof of the brilliant universality of Austen’s vivid characters.

I enjoyed the book so much I had a Zoom chat with Vedashree, who lives in Mumbai, to find out what inspired her to write it.

Vedashree Khambete-Sharma

An English Literature graduate who works in advertising (and is a mother and writes books, so respect) Vedashree reread Pride and Prejudice during lockdown.

‘I went back to it as a comfort read,’ she told me. ‘And it struck me that the attitudes were very similar to India fifty years ago.’

I asked how much things have changed now. Have they moved on from the restrictions and expectations still very much in place according to the wonderful 1993 novel A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth?

‘In some ways it has changed, in some ways it hasn’t, there is still a long way to go. In the cities – metro – people are more educated and things are more progressive. People are instinctively realising that things need to change for a boy and a girl and their happiness, so love marriage is more common.’

What about mixed religion marriages, which was the big theme – and the big problem – in Seth’s story?

‘Cross religion marriages are also happening more, but they are still not commonplace. It’s cultural more than anything, so people choose familiar over unfamiliar.

‘In India children live with their parents, so you are marrying into their family and that’s when the cultural differences really begin to show. They might be wonderful people, but everyone in the whole family has to be involved to make it work.’

Interestingly, vivid detail of how religious practice is embedded in Indian life is one of the things that I loved in Vedashree’s book. The family in it is Hindu and I was fascinated to read about all the ways their beliefs and rituals are bound up in their daily existence.

‘I grew up in a devout family,’ says Vedashree. ‘It was part of everyday life, I’m not in a minority and I wanted to bring a little flavour of that. In Hinduism some people say there are 16 deities – some say 16,000. I grew up with a lot of gods around me. I try to keep the traditions up with my own daughter.’

The other cultural insight I found enthralling in the book is Maharastra – Vedashree’s home state – which is almost a character in itself, with vivid descriptions of the landscape, well-known beauty spots and food.

‘Each of the 28 states in India is like a country in itself, they each have their own culture, languages and specialities. Some authors specialise in regional fiction, others are more cosmopolitan.’

As a Marathi herself, it’s clear Vedashree is keen to share the special character of her state, especially now traditions are widely beginning to be lost, as India modernises at warp factor speed.

‘The metros of India are becoming more homogenous, with American fast food outlets everywhere.’

the sweet treat puran poli

So all the more reason for Vedashree to lovingly celebrate Marathi food specialities such as puran poli, described on Wikipedia as: ‘a buttery flatbread stuffed with a mix made of jaggery (molasses or gur ), yellow gram (chana) dal, plain flour, cardamom powder and ghee. It is consumed at almost all festivals. Puran Poli is usually served with milk or a sweet-and-sour dal preparation called katachi amti.’

By the time I’d finished the book, I had a strong desire to go to Maharashtra to try all the things described.

But while she clearly wants to do justice to her own culture, another thing that inspired Vedashree to write the book was to do a better job of transposing Jane Austen to an Indian context than another version – the film Bride and Prejudice.

Directed by British Indian director Gurinder Chadha, who also did Bend It Like Beckham, it has Pride and Prejudice reimagined as a Bollywood musical.

‘Me and my best friend watched it,’ says Vedashree ‘and we found there was a false note – Elizabeth Bennet is played by the actress Aishwarya Rai, who is a former Miss World. I thought, “I can do a better Indian version” than that.’

After talking to Vedashree I watched the film and found it highly enjoyable – mainly because I’ve never seen a Bollywood musical before and was enchanted by the hyper-colourful cast-of-thousands dance routines, seeming to involve every resident of a city, including the elephants.

But while the film is great fun – Mary Bennet’s dreadful piano recital is rendered as hilariously awful cobra dance, complete with Mr Bennet’s famous line – the rest of it really doesn’t do the subtlety of the original justice.

Vedashree’s version does.

‘I know it’s a huge ask of any Jane Austen reader,’ she says. ‘If I was in their shoes – I would approach with trepidation and I did think: “How could you have the GALL?” But I have done as honest a job as possible.’

She has done a lot more than that, giving us a highly satisfying retelling of this most treasured of plots, with the added value of deep insight into another fascinating culture.

Seeking submissions for favourite Jane Austen film and TV adaptations

Inspired by the comments about my last post about rereading Emma and watching (for the seventh time) the perfect film version of it with Johnny Flynn as Mr Knightley, as well as rereading all Jane Austen’s books this year - I’m also going to watch all the TV and film versions.

I will post my thoughts on each title as I’ve watched them and at the end we can do some POLLS and choose our favourite for each book and our favourite over all.

Such larks.

To help me get going, please can you tell me what your favourite Jane Austen adaptations are?

(I have also created a new section called ‘Jane Austen’ which thrills me.)

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Here is the audio version of this piece, featuring a big old stumble in the middle, but it felt more authentic just to keep going. I’m not reading the news.

I hope I’ve pronounced the Indian names and words correctly, apologies if not.

I recorded this one a different way - directly on to the site, rather then into my phone and then uploaded, which handily cuts out a couple of steps.

If you are a listener, please can you tell me if the quality is OK done this way? If not I’ll go back to the phone recorder.