India, Oct. 31 -- Jane Austen was only 21 when she started writing the first draft of Sense and Sensibility, but it was only at 35 when she would finally publish it in 1811. Those years shaped her life entirely. It was her first book, one brimming with the rich complexities of early adulthood, of slowly revealing what it means to occupy the world as a woman. Austen's unfailing wit at poking the little hypocrisies of plain society are so acute and masterful that even today it stands out, one generation after another. So, with every new adaptation of her work, a new generation comes to see her anew, as a writer writing about what she knew best, to be a woman in a man's world.

The new adaptation, written by Diana Reid and directed by Georgi...