論文

Rajshree Ojha’s Aisha (2010) and Capitalism in the
Indian Film Adaptations of Jane Austen’s Novels

TAMAZAKI Yukari

要旨

文学作品の映像化翻案作品は原典の二次的産物として見られることが多いが、文化的作品は間テクスト性を重視したアプローチにより理解の幅が広がる。ジェイン・オースティンの『高慢と偏見』、『分別と多感』、『エマ』の三作品はよく映像化される人気作品であり、いずれもインド視点からの翻案が存在する。どれも原作との差異から読み解くとき、資本主義的構造への批判が浮かびあがる。英米合作の『花嫁と偏見』では英国の帝国主義的支配にとってかわった米国の資本主義への批判が、タミル映画『カンドゥコンダイン・カンドゥコンダイン』においては資本主義的構造の否定と継承拒否による構造への挑戦が現れ、ボリウッド映画『アイーシャ』
では、ヒロインの描出のされ方を原作小説や他の翻案作品と敢えて対照させ、現代インド上流社会の消費主義的側面を強調することにより、西洋化された現代インド人の姿を魅力的と見る風潮を皮肉り、伝統的価値観への回帰を提案している。
キーワード：film studies（フィルム・スタディーズ） film adaptation（フィルム・アダプテーション） intertextuality（間テクスト性）
Jane Austen（ジェイン・オースティン） Indian Cinema（インド 映 画 ） Imperialism（ 帝 国 主 義 ） Capitalism（ 資 本 主 義 ）Post-colonialism（ ポ ス ト コ ロ ニ ア リ ズ ム ） Transnational
Cinema（トランスナショナル・シネマ）

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No. 39Film adaptations of a literary work are regularly confronted first with the mostplausible criticism of being different from the original. Especially when the original work
is of the elitist high culture, a mere product for the masses is easily dismissed. Some of
the “heritage” and historical films may garner recognitions for being authentic and true tothe original work – which still means that the original is placed higher than its adaptation,and some other art films may earn admirations for their aesthetics as they can be considered
as forms of high culture themselves. Troost and Greenfield basically see the problem as
inherent to the nature of film as an art form, for films flesh out the novels too much with
an abundant amount of texture and information, with the visuals and the sounds, leaving
less room for imaginations and interpretations on the viewers’ part, and thus taking away
the delights of the precious ambiguities that literary works present.1) Their approach toread films as a way to understand us and our society, rather than for the merits of theinterpretation of films themselves, therefore, is quite a sensible one, which can be justified
through the discipline of cultural studies as well. In fact, it is logically contradictory to
dismiss an adaptation (or a makeover) for being “different” from the original in the firstplace. If one is to view an adapted work in relation to the original, one is supposedly
viewing them intertextually. An unquestionable intertextual understanding would be
rendered on the premise that the works stand equal to begin with. Then the verdict to drop
one of them as inferior should only be justified when the other is proved to be superior. It
is imprudent to simply accept the superiority of an existing work just because it has beencreated first, although being the first does deserve some merit. Still, any scholar should
know the danger of readily accepting unproven preconceptions or pre-existing judgments
as they are. There lies the beauty of criticism – to doubt pre-existing notions and ideas.
We can only be intellectually free when we break away from preconceived notions. Thus,
it is not fair or smart to conclude that an adaptation is a secondary, inferior work without
a proper examination process. The cultural practices of adaptations and makeovers
naturally demand us to appreciate the body of works not individually but intertextually.
Adaptations and remakes are not to be disregarded because of their differences (from the“original” works) they display; rather, the very differences are to be understood as
representations of the political dynamics of our contemporary culture in addition to theconnections and references they make to other works. The “fidelity” approach to film
adaptations of literary works is only one of the possible disciplines and nothing more. It
is my attempt in this essay, therefore, to look at three typically underrated Indian film
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Rajshree Ojha’s Aisha (2010) and Capitalism in the Indian Film Adaptations of Jane Austen’s Novels

adaptations, or “appropriations” as some scholars claim, of the novels by Jane Austen(1775-1817), who is one of the most distinguished and loved authors in the history ofEnglish literature, and explore the ways in which the adapted works help us understandthe world we live in. As I have already discussed two of the three films to some extent
elsewhere, my focus in this essay will be on the third film, Rajshree Ojha’s Aisha (2010),
which shows indications of its inspiration coming from Amy Heckerling’s Clueless(1995), a “makeover” film of Emma (1815), and thus has often been doubly undervalued.
Compared to the likes of William Shakespeare, Anton Chekhov, and Charles Dickens,for example, not many screen or TV adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels actually exist.2)
Clearly, it has partly to do with the number of works the writers have produced, and theform of the writing – as plays are easier to be adapted for obvious reasons, as well as thefilm industry’s preference in sensational and dramatic subjects and stories.3) Nevertheless,considering the number and the type of novels Austen has left for us, she is indisputably
one of the most adapted classic authors, especially in the recent decades. Among thenumerous global and transnational – oftentimes non-English – adaptations or reworkingsof Jane Austen’s novels and characters, the Indian “appropriations” stand out in their
singular tendency to depict capitalism as one of the defining elements that affect the plot
as well as the work’s messages.4) For each of the top three adapted novels by Jane Austen,an Indian (or partially Indian) film version is produced: These are Gurinder Chadha’s
British-American production of Bride and Prejudice (2004) for Pride and Prejudice(1813), Rajiv Menon’s Tamil film Kandukondain Kandukondain (2000) for Sense andSensibility (1811), and Rajshree Ojha’s Hindi film Aisha for Emma. There must be someparticular appeal to the Indian audience these quintessentially English novels by Jane
Austen hold.5) Significantly, capitalism figures as one of the crucial factors in each of thefilms. On the other hand, not many literary scholars of Jane Austen have traditionallyfocused their readings of the novels on the historical representations of the economy in
England, for the author’s commentary on the social class does not go so far as attacking
the system of the landed gentry, indicating that her central concerns lie elsewhere: She ismore interested in the daily lives of the women of the English gentry in the countryside.
Even though Austen does deal with the social hierarchies of the time in her stories, as it
can be seen in the fact that the matter of her characters’ marriages is tied to their economic
survival, her novels do not seem more political than personal. While the very social
systems show signs of capitalist structures even in her own works as the Bennetts and her
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No. 39notable heroes such as Mr Darcy and Mr Knightley are the members of the landed gentry,
which cannot be detached from the emergence of agrarian capitalism in England, Austen
seems to have been not threatened by the possibility of those systems giving rise toindustrial capitalism and therefore exploitation of the lower class. (Of course, one of thestandard criticisms directed at Austen is that her works show that she little cares about theservant class.) Austen is not interested in changing the system, at least in terms of
economy, even though she is presenting a critique on the social classes of the time. It isnoteworthy, therefore, that each of the adaptations from an Indian perspective magnifies
the politics of economy in the film.
Pride and Prejudice is undoubtedly Austen’s most popular novel, soundly followed
by Sense and Sensibility, even in terms of visual adaptations. The classic American(MGM) production of Pride and Prejudice (1940) where Greer Garson plays Elizabeth
Bennet and Laurence Olivier the first iconic Mr Darcy was well received as a well-madecomedy of manners with brilliantly portrayed leading characters despite its alterations
from the novel: the period of the film was set to a later time than that of Austen’s work,
which enabled the characters to dress in more spectacular costumes, and the meanings ofsome characters’ behaviours were distorted as a result of the changes in the scenes andlines. Arguably the most famous production, the 1995 BBC television series with Jennifer
Ehle and Colin Firth, whose portrayal of the character was so phenomenal that he became
to be associated with Mr Darcy most often and even inspired writers such as Helen
Fielding to create a modern version of Mr Darcy, remains to be the most “authentic”
visual adaptation of the work to date, while Joe Wright’s star-studded, romantic heritage
film (2005) was generally praised by film critics, mainly for its beautiful cinematography
and Wright’s direction and film techniques, in spite of the film’s distance from the original
novel; altered scenes and dialogues as well as additional scenes from Mr Darcy’s
perspective, on which most of the criticisms from literary critics and devoted Austen
readers concentrated.

What Chadha’s Bride and Prejudice does in comparison ispoliticising the characters’ relationships by spelling out Imperialism as a highest form ofcapitalism through a conversation between Will Darcy, who is an American6) in a hotelbusiness in this adaptation, and Lalita Bakshi, a daughter of a farm owner in Amritsar – anIndian equivalent of Elizabeth Bennett. The variations in their characters allow them totalk, while they are enjoying the sun in the resort town of Goa, about how American
capitalists are commodifying India.
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Rajshree Ojha’s Aisha (2010) and Capitalism in the Indian Film Adaptations of Jane Austen’s Novels

Lalita: “I’m sure you think India’s beneath you.”Darcy: “If I really thought that, then why would I be thinking about buying thisplace?”
Lalita: “You think this is India?”
Darcy: “Well, don’t you wanna see more investment, more jobs?”
Lalita: “Yes, but who does it really benefit? You want people to come to India,
without having to deal with Indians.”
Darcy: “That’s good. Remind me to add that to the tourism brochure.”
Lalita: “Isn’t that what all tourists want here? 5-star comfort with a bit of culture
thrown in? I don’t want you to turn India into a theme park. I thought
we got rid of imperialists like you!”Darcy: “I’m not British. I’m American.”Lalita: “Exactly!”
Just as in Said’s criticism of Aida in Culture and Imperialism, the Western commodification(which makes one refuse to acknowledge the reality) of the East is highlighted, and astrong association is made between British Imperialism and American capitalism as acontemporary Western subjugation of the East. The postcolonial critique on British
Imperialism emerges through the film’s unique repositions of the characters, and Will
Darcy’s attempt to learn the real Indian culture in the end, in the form of playing a
traditional drum, brings about a connotation of a union of the West and the East, which thedirector is attempting to achieve through the film on many levels.
An attack on capitalistic ideas and structure is more central to the story and thecharacters in the case of Kandukondain Kandukondain. While the characters’ decisions
to seek a better livelihood and a fortune through marriages are not so much as condemnedin Austen’s novel, the characterisation of Srikanth (an equivalent of John Willoughby)
and his profession in the film expose the foulness of capitalism. As opposed to Willoughby,
whose flirting and insincere dealings with women make him at fault, Srikanth does nothing
wrong in terms of his affection towards Meenakshi (Marianne), except for his ultimate
betrayal which results from his belief in the capitalistic system. Srikanth’s financecompany does well when being operated on a small scale, but once it expands its schemeand starts to do business on a global scale, it goes bankrupt. The film critiques thecapitalistic system through a warning from Sivagnanam, a common but wise characterwith a practical mind. When Sivagnanam’s friend loses in a card game and mutters that
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No. 39he should have deposited the money to Srikanth’s company instead of betting on the card
game, for then he would have still got the interest, Sivagnanam points out the possibilityof losing the principal altogether, which is exactly what happens later. Srikanth’s love istrue, and he would not have betrayed Meenakshi if his company had not gone bankrupt.
If he had not been absorbed in the idea of exploiting the depositors and investors in thefirst place, nothing would have stood in the way of the couple. All the blame is cast on his
capitalistic ideas. In the end, he gets married to a minister’s daughter to save his company.
He who aimed to play the capitalist ironically ends up selling himself. What Manohar, theEdward Ferrars equivalent, goes through as he attempts at directing his first feature filmin India also challenges the “globally” accepted Western ideas – the hegemony of
Hollywood as the global standard, and therefore the capitalistic structure. Westerninfluenced Manohar originally wishes to make an action-packed suspense film in an
American-style, transplanting a commercially successful Hollywood film Speed (1994)
into an Indian setting, but he eventually gives in to the opinions of his staff and backers
who insist on making nothing more than a traditionally Tamil film with various elements,
including the extravagant song and dance scenes, to satisfy the local audience. His
Western ideas do not work in India: As his father tells him, “foreigners (Western people)
may be satisfied with a chicken, but the Tamil audience will not be satisfied without avariety in their cuisine.” On the other hand, Manohar’s eventual success in the industry
lets him live independently with his own skill and talent and reject his father’s offer totake over his factory with 600 workers. This refusal to succeed his father’s business isplainly analogous to rejecting the given path by the previous generations. Alterations inthe sisters’ characters also indicate how the film politicises the social structure while
tailoring the story and the characters to the values of the modern audience. Sowmya(Elinor) becomes the main source of income for the family after they are driven out of
Poongudi after the death of their grandfather who has left nothing for them. She works as
a telephone receptionist before getting promoted to a computer programmer. Meenakshi
pursues a career in music and soon becomes quite successful as a singer. As they havebecome able to establish and support themselves professionally in the city of Chennai,
they could afford to turn down the chance to return to their old house in the village. When
Sowmya and Meenakshi start to make a decent living, thanks to their capacities andtalents, their uncle, who has originally inherited the properties from their grandfather,passes away and leaves the house to his sister, the girls’ mother.
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Meenakshi: “We don’t want it. We have faced enough problems (because of notgetting the inheritance before). We can live without Poongudi now.”
Uncle’s Wife: “Even if you don’t want it, take it at least for your futurehusbands.”
Sowmya: “Our husbands-to-be should come and marry seeing us, and not by
seeing the walls around or the properties.”
This kind of blatant refusal of inheritance is not found in the original novel or otheradaptations. In the novels by Austen, the characters find ways to get by within the system.
The maintenance and the succession of the property were of their great and prior concern.
In contrast, the characters in Kandukondain Kandukondain strive to live by their own
merits without having to do with inherited status and properties. The incarnations andrelocations of the characters do not simply make the film relatable to the local audience:
They create a proper background to convey the film’s message. The film’s differencesfrom the novel demonstrate not just the results of the process to mix Western and Indiancultures but the testimonies of the film’s political statement.
As often argued by Austen critics, the film’s some other alterations from the novel– additional details and scenes that are not present in the original – suggest that
Kandukondain Kandukondain is in fact not a genuine adaptation of the novel but rather aremake inspired by Ang Lee’s 1995 film, whose award-winning script was written by
Emma Thompson.7) Just as Colonel Brandon presents Marianne a piano, Major Balabrings Meenakshi a tambura. Furthermore, both films end with a memorable scene of adouble wedding of the sisters. It seems that Menon simply borrowed the ideas in Lee andThompson’s successful film which was convenient to tell his story to the local audience,much in the same way Manohar first attempted to transplant Speed into an Indian setting– a common practice in the Indian filmmaking. Similar evidences can be seen in the caseof Aisha and Clueless. Aisha, too, is often accused of employing too much details that are
not found in the novel from Clueless, the American high school version of Emma, to beconsidered a serious adaptation of Austen’s English novel. Although Theresa Kenney’s
intention is to argue how Aisha is closer to the world and novel of Austen than Cluelessis, she nevertheless admits to the similarities between the two films, citing Ian Crouch’s
review of Aisha. She believes Aisha adheres more closely to Emma than Clueless does.
While recognising the differences between the film and the novel, claiming that Aisha ismore of a descendant of the heroines in other Bollywood romantic comedy films than of
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No. 39Emma, and the film’s negligence to the values in Austen’s time, she points out that“[t]hough the dialogue is certainly changed from the novel, these set pieces mark Emma’s
progress through her story, and they allow the film to resonate Austen’s realism, herbuilding of character and of tensions in relationships. They also develop her themes ofself-delusion, class consciousness, and noblesse oblige.” Kenney compares Aisha with
Clueless only to undermine the film’s references to its American predecessor later. Rosa
M. García-Periago extensively and convincingly discusses Aisha as an instance in thelong tradition of Bollywood films, rather than a transnational remake of an Austen
makeover: Aisha “is more indebted to Indian culture and Bollywood conventions,”
portraying diasporic characters who struggle to find the balance between Westernmodernity and the traditional Indian values.
In most cases, the major point of comparison between Aisha and Clueless (andconsequently with Emma) is the heroine’s character. To fit into the urbanised locale (asopposed to the provincial one in the original) of each film and to simultaneously satisfy
the contemporary audience optically, both Aisha and Cher (the heroine in Clueless) are
portrayed as rich and vain, much in the traditions of chick flicks and of popular televisionseries of urban rich girls, whereas one of Emma’s virtues is literally her lack of vanity.
Clueless begins with a montage of Cher having fun, driving her Jeep without a licence,
shopping at the mall, and clubbing without a care in the world. The first half of Aisha isfull of product placements of high-class labels, and Aisha looks like a model in those TVcommercials for designer’s brands. It also begins with Aisha driving a yellow Volkswagen,though she must have a licence unlike Cher. The difference between the two may seem
subtle on this matter of vanity, but the subtle difference calls for our attention. The vanityof the heroine is narratively and cinematically demonstrated through her need to give a
makeover. Partly because Cher is still 16 years old, her makeovers of a transfer student
Tai Frasier who looks “clueless” in terms of appearance and of her teacher Ms Geist are
rendered without money. The fact that she does not buy new things for the makeovers
when in reality she could have (with her father’s plastic) should be pointed out. On theother hand, Aisha goes for a serious shopping at an expensive department store for the
makeover of Shefali, her new middle-class friend from a small town, and the camerawork
makes sure that we see Aisha’s consumer driven life by showing the credit card being
swiped and the bill being signed. This ostensibly subtle difference begins to weigh moresignificance in a later scene when Shefali finally realises that Aisha has been manipulating30

Rajshree Ojha’s Aisha (2010) and Capitalism in the Indian Film Adaptations of Jane Austen’s Novels

her. Neither in Clueless nor in the original novel, the Harriet character denounces theheroine’s selfish manipulation or hypocrisy in such a way Shefali does Aisha. Shefali
finally sees how Aisha has been treating her with condescension and for her own
gratification when Aisha tries to make Shefali give up on Arjun, her Mr Knightly, for she
is beginning to fall for him herself:
Aisha: “But Shefali, you and Arjun are different. He’s not your type. You are
so different. You’re not his type, Shefali.”
Shefali: “What do you mean by different? Aisha, what do you mean by that? Is
it because I don’t wear good clothes like you do? Because I don’t speak
English like you do? (italics mine) Because my father isn’t as rich as
you are – that I’m middle-class? . . . Because I’m a villager, right?”
Aisha: “No. You are misunderstanding.”
Shefali: “I understand everything, Aisha. You never considered me as yourfriend. . . . I’m just a project. ‘Cut that poor thing’s hair.’ ‘Give thatpoor thing some clothes.’ ‘Take that poor thing to Mumbai.’ . . .
‘Shefali, Randhir is nice.’ ‘No, Shefali, Randhir isn’t nice.’ ‘Shefali,
Dhruv is nice.’ ‘No, Shefali, Dhruv is not nice.’ Enough, Aisha,enough! You’ve never considered me as an equal to you, have you?”
It is made clear in Shefali’s understanding (and as this leads to Aisha’s reflection and her
eventual character development, what Shefali points out here corresponds with the film’s
sentence) that Aisha is at fault for her imposition of her Westernised way of life, especiallythe use of the English language, on Shefali as well as for her arrogance among otherthings. Furthermore, Aisha comes close to becoming an epitome of consumer capitalism
here. If the characters in Aisha represent the diasporic or postcolonial prototypicalcharacters of popular Bollywood films, as Garcia-Periago argues, Shefali’s denouncementof Aisha becomes at least one of the film’s political statements in terms of the Indians’
ideal attitude toward the West and Western consumerism, whose growth coincided withthe growth of capitalism, and the characterisation of Aarti (the Jane Fairfax equivalent) as
an ideal diasporic individual who maintains her Indian identity and respects Indian
traditions and rituals reinforces the film’s inclination.
Another defining factor of the heroine’s character is the portrayal of the world she
lives in. Both Aisha and Clueless retain the depiction of the heroine’s world as a small
and limited one, though not presented as visually symbolical as in the 1996 theatrical film
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No. 39version, directed by Douglas McGrath, where it opens with Gwyneth Paltrow holding asmall globe in her hand. Instead, Cher is depicted as an airhead who lives comfortably inher small world which consists of her big house and high school in Beverly Hills. Steppingout from familiar areas immediately invites danger to her being: She is put a gun to herhead once she is outside of her father’s and Josh’s care and protection. Her oral argument(in Valley Girl dialect) in a Debate class never surpasses the threshold of her lawn: World
problems are turned into a story of her party. The limitation of her world is exposed
geographically and intellectually. Even though Cher learns to be less self-centred andhave a wider view of the world in the end, her intellect fails to improve: She only becomes
emotionally intelligent, if any at all. On the other hand, Aisha’s geographical world iswider than that of Cher’s. She moves back and forth from Delhi to Mumbai, in addition
to having holiday trips. She is also not as intellectually lacking as Cher, even though she
is much more arrogant and condescending than her counterpart. The limitation in Aisha’s
world results from the very arrogance and condescension: Arjun criticises her for staying“in [her] own little bubble,” when she thinks too highly of herself and cannot imagine
other people might have different and better ideas. In the small society of her friends andfamily in the upper-class world, there is nothing to discourage her from being the princess,but her world begins to collapse as her matchmaking effort fails repeatedly, making her
realise the deficiency in her perception of the world. That is when the self-centred girlreally begins to see and understand “others” for the first time. She is grown and has awider view of the world in the end just as Emma matures and learns there is a world
outside of her in the novel. It is significant, therefore, that Aisha ends with a scene of a
wedding in the style of Bollywood films. While the wedding at the beginning of the film
was in a Western style, the four couples at the end of the film, including the bride and thegroom, are all dressed in traditional Indian attire. This return to the traditional presents
the film’s message distinctly. The overwhelmingly extravagant Western life Aisha wasembracing at the beginning of the film begins to assume an ironical hue. Even though it
is indeed entertaining to watch the life of the riches, the latter half of the film rewrites its
impression. Some may feel the discrepancy in the moods of the lively first half and thedarker letter half of Aisha, and that is as it should be. Just as the English part and theJewish part of George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda should be read together, the two halves ofthe film give meaning to the audience through the combination.

The first half’s

excessiveness was stressed so that the latter half could turn the table over and make a
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claim: to return to the traditional Indian sensibilities.
Aisha’s references to Clueless, then, also begin to take on a new meaning. As statedabove, the two films begin in a similar way, making the Emma character drive her car
daringly. In the first few scenes, Aisha makes a verbal reference to Clueless by repeating
Cher’s pet phrase “whatever.” There are a number of scenes where Aisha seems to pay
homage to Clueless; Tai’s listening to “their song” repeatedly and Shefali’s stealing ofRandhir’s CD, the Harriet character being rescued by the person who really cares andignored by the person intended for her (by the Emma character), and the way the Harriet
character gets rid of her memorabilia. The two films even share the wedding finale, too,even though the connotations of each wedding scene should be taken into consideration.
It must be a conscious decision on the filmmakers of Aisha to make use of the scenes in
Clueless so that the differences are given emphasis, for in the differences lie the film’s
political message: They present a critique on consumer-oriented American capitalistic
society. Aisha is not a mere remake of Clueless but a legitimate adaptation of Jane
Austen’s English novel, as we can see more details from the novel fleshed out in Aisha
than in Clueless: However, Aisha simultaneously makes a postcolonial statement to theaudience by way of making references to Clueless. In the time when literary works are
adapted or appropriated globally and transnationally all the time, a faithful translation ofa work gets more and more ambitious to say the least. An intertextual approach is ananswer to the problem. This intertextual reading of Aisha proves the film to be a complex
work of art that not only talks about Jane Austen’s novel but also about the postcolonial
Indian sensibilities and about Bollywood films. On the other hand, it can also be said that
Aisha is repackaging Austen as a commodity as well. It is talking back to the world where
the West regularly commodifies the East, and taking avenge, as it were, for a change.

Notes
1) “ Introduction: Watching Ourselves Watching.” Jane Austen in Hollywood.
2) A ccording to the Internet Movie Database, William Shakespeare has 1,355 writing credits (including
those still in the pre-production stage) under his name, Anton Chekhov 473 credits, and Charles
Dickens 389 credits, whereas Jane Austen has only 74 credits, as of 24 March 2018.
3) I n the early history of narrative cinema, filmmakers often adapted 19th century sensation novels into
films, where they only used shocking or spectacular scenes in their 10- to 20-minute duration of the

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No. 39film. Most films were only 1 or 2 reels before 1910, which made a decent story-telling impossible.
4) I have already discussed how Kandukondain Kandukondain takes a postcolonial stance in its
depiction of capitalism and the class society in my previous essay, “De-colonisation throughKandukondain Kandukondain, a Masala Austen Film.” The main points will be briefly referred tofor clarification here in this essay.
5) B ride and Prejudice’s director Gurinder Chadha and Sonam Kapoor who plays the titular heroine in
Aisha have both said in interviews that the rules and regulations and the class society in Austen’stime is still very much prevalent in contemporary India which makes it easier for them to make theconnection. Kapoor has also insisted that the audience would be able to relate to the story and thecharacters as the situations are the same all over the world.
6) C hadha has expressed why she made Darcy an American in her interview with Aftab: “I did not want
Darcy to be English, because of the connotations of the Raj, and also because of Colin Firth and his
performance in the BBC television adaptation. I did not want to put that pressure on a British actor.
Also, because of the Iraq war, it was good for me to make him American, as Americans feel like theyrule the world.” All characters except for George Wickham are given new race or nationality in thisfilm. The Bingleys (Balraj and Kiran) are NRIs in London, and Mr Collins (Mr Kohli) is an Indianaccountant in Los Angeles. Leaving Wickham, the villain in the story, to be the only English
Caucasian invites speculations of a kind. For further details on the reading of the film’s alterationsin the characters’ race and nationality, I am indebted to Suchitra Mathur’s article.
7) “ There seems to be no homage to Austen’s novel, only echoes of Thompson’s screenplay,” in Troostand Greenfield’s words.

Works Cited
Aftab, Kaleem. “A Marriage of Two Minds.” Independent, 7 Oct. 2004,
www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/a-marriage-of-two-minds-27434.html.
Accessed 24 Mar. 2018.
Ahmed, Omar. Studying Indian Cinema. Leighton Buzzard: Auteur, 2015.
Aisha. Directed by Rajshree Ojha, performances by Sonam Kapoor, Abhay Deol, Amrita Puri, Cyrus
Sahukar, and Arunoday Singh, Anil Kapoor Films, 2010.
Austen, Jane. Emma. 1815. Edited by George Justice. 4th ed., Norton, 2012.
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