Bride & Prejudice
The culture-clash plot of filmmaker Gurinder Chada's surprise, soccer-girl-themed '02 hitBend It Like  Beckhamcouldn't offer American audiences much more than her bright, hand-picked sampler of India's pop music. But Chada's more traditional morality tale here (a limber adaptation of Jane Austen'sPride and Prejudicefeaturing Indian superstar Aishwarya Rai) shimmers with the intoxicating visual and musical splendors of a full-blown Bollywood-meets-Hollywood production. The song-score by noted Indian musical star Anu Malik is charged by propulsive folk rhythms ("Punjab Wedding Song," "Dola Dola"), yet laced with knowing Western pop conceits that range from Caribbean hip-hop ("No Life Without Wife") to the Broadway-suffused ballads "A Marriage Has Come to Town," "Take Me To Love (1&2)," and "Arrogance, Pride and Vanity." American R&B; star Ashanti's sultry "My Lips Are Waiting" and "Touch My Body" complete Malik's enticing East-meets-West fusion, a delightful, dizzying primer to his country's most beloved film and music genre.--Jerry McCulley