Aishwarya Rai and co-star in Bride & Prejudice

It needed a ?Punjabi Britisher? who prefers Manoj Kumar to Manoj Shyamalan to get the dhoom back in the city box-office?

It needed a fun family entertainer to stop a sleaze show from becoming the surprise pre-Puja hit in the so-called cultural capital...

Calcutta ? locked in an embarrassing embrace of T.L.V. Prasadh?s Tauba Tauba last week ? has just lapped up Gurinder Chadha?s latest offering, Bride & Prejudice, this weekend.

If the collections on the first three days ? 60 per cent for multiplex morning shows and close to 90 for the rest ? are anything to go by, the Ash effect, with a sob and a smile, has done the trick, again.

?The best thing about the film is that it is pulling in people of all ages and everyone?s loving the loud comedy,? explains a spokesperson for INOX.

?Oh is it doing well in Calcutta? That?s so heartening after the crappy reviews we got here in Mumbai,? laughed Gurinder Chadha, when contacted in Mumbai.

The Jane Austen-inspired film on the Bakshis ?with Aishwarya Rai playing Lalita Bakshi, not Elizabeth Bennet ? comes on the heels of a string of Bollywood flops (all but Yash Chopra?s Dhoom), punctuated only by the low-budget skin flick Tauba Tauba. The film, drawing not from Romantic literature but from a string of seduction dramas of the My Tutor kind, collected a cool Rs 5.5 lakh at the Calcutta box-office last week, while the other much-hyped October 1 release, Popcorn Khao! Mast ho Jao! could only manage Rs 1.6 lakh.

But October 8 onwards, it has been balle balle all the way. Not literally, though.

For, the English version of Chadha?s British-Punjabi pot-pourri has been far more popular than the dubbed Hindi version, with a net 10 to 15 per cent difference in the audience count. Many, say hall managers, are not being able to establish instant connect between Bride & Prejudice and Balle Balle: Amritsar to LA.

?English has definitely been the first preference for most, but those not so savvy with the language, are watching Balle Balle as a typical Bollywood potboiler,? adds the INOX spokesperson.

That balle balle is the new anthem ? from impromptu jigs in the hall to bangle baskets outside ? is evident from Elgin Road to Narkeldanga. Says 89 Cinemas general manager Prashant Srivastava: ?We are just running the Hindi version because that is our target market. English films don?t do that well in a place like this (Swabhumi). Van Helsing, which did so well in New Empire, was an absolute washout here at 89. But Balle Balle has taken off very well and is headed for a good run of at least four weeks. There is not even a solid opposition in the coming weeks.?

Then again, 89 Cinemas is running a late-night show of Tauba Tauba and it?s still hot. ?Let?s face facts here ? sleaze sells. And if you get to watch a skin film at Rs 50 for a night show, it is a good bargain,? says Srivastava.

But the way of all flesh, for once, seems slated to lose out to some good ol? family fare in a brand new package. There is hardly any screen space left for skimpily-clad Tauba Tauba as the Bride & Prejudice party begins in Calcutta.

Deepak Nayar, co-producer of the east-meets-west film, was ?happy? with the city?s initial reaction. ?It is very clear that even today, people of Calcutta appreciate good cinema,? he averred.