Here’s a neat idea – update Jane Austen’s enduring story about love and regret through the marsala mixer of Bollywood. Keep the city sophisticates in London, move the country cousins to India and add a layer of imperialism via the United States. Ripe grounds for a ripping tale of resistance and arranged weddings in which very colourful characters dance and sing against a very colourful background. An instant cross-over hit. Gurinder Chada understands the revelatory appeal of cross-cultural story-telling which she achieved with distinction in both Bhaji on the Beach and Bend It Like Beckham.

Here, you get the feeling that this Kenyan native doesn’t fully understand what she’s let herself in for. For all the screen-loving colour and movement, and there is a plenty of it, Bride and Prejudice lacks the entrancing songs and choreographed ease of Monsoon Wedding, or The Guru for that matter. These are reasonable comparisons since Chada’s film is not the Bollywood epic it would like us to think it is, but a hybrid that satisfies neither purist nor newcomer. Characters are thinly drawn and given to actors who are unable to make much of the material. Worst offender is Martin Henderson (Home and Away) as the non-singing (Bollywood sacrilege) William Darcy who is so tiresome he actually makes you cheer for the bad guy.

Fans of Chadha are bound to be disappointed: Bride and Prejudice was a good idea that with more spice could have been a tremendous crowd pleaser. Instead, it’s rather like going to a wedding with The Kumar’s – all cartoon relatives and awkwardness.

// COLIN FRASER