Trishna

Trishna is a love story based on the Thomas Hardy novel Tess of the D'urbervilles. I haven't read it or seen the Polanski adaptation with Nastassia Kinski. Freida Pinto is the Tess character this time round, and she is breathtakingly beautiful; so casting is not the problem here. The story is so fractured, and the editing so poor, that I don't know what the filmmakers were going for.

It begins with a group of bored upper class Indians on a balcony discussing the best cities to party in. They get in a Jeep and drive recklessly around like a bunch of college frat boys. They visit an ancient temple where Jay; the leader of the pack, spots the stunning Trishna. He gets up to dance with her and later drops her off at the lower class families home.

The next day, Trishna is riding on the back of her father's truck to deliver produce when they crash into another vehicle and her dad is so badly injured that he cannot work. Jay comes to the rescue by offering Trishna a job at his father's big resort hotel. She works as a servant and he eventually has an encounter with her. The next morning she goes back home very quietly. Three months of vomiting and a visit to a doctor confirm a pregnancy which is terminated.

Jay reappears, and a few dance numbers are presented in between for no apparent reason. Trishna ends up at another of Jay's dad's hotels working once again as a servant. They also have a secret sexual relationship which grows cold and distant very quickly. At this point, I had lost interest in both Jay and Trishna. The camera loves Ms. Pinto, but she needs better material to work with.

I am indebted to Sarya-Jayothsna who's review of Trishna certainly helped me to identify with the movie. Having only been to New Delhi and never experiencing rural India I had little idea at to what might be considered "normal" in such an environment.

I have always admired the sultry beauty of Indian women and Freida Pinto (as Trishna) added a much deeper aspect to my admiration. The total subservience that she displayed when working at her first job in the Jaipur hotel was delightful - every male was addressed so beautifully demurely as "Sir" with the typical Indian hand gesture of obeisance. The skill with which her manners were conducted was, far from being demeaning, an absolute pleasure to the extent it made me want to reciprocate (had I been there, of course). Far from placing Trishna into a position of being "used," I felt that it inspired a desire to treat her with the same respect that she gave to others. I guess, as a man, I would interpret that as making me want to love her - and that has nothing to do with sex - it made me want to cherish her and let her know just how much value she had as a person. So the way Jay (Riz Ahmed) simply used her as a pleasure toy incensed me. How could anyone be so insensitive not to realise how his treatment hurt?

As a simple, sincere village girl, Trishna had never loved anyone in an intimate way in her life and so, when a handsome young man shows an interest in her, it literally sweeps her off her feet and, sadly, there is no one to pick her up. She fell in love and he fell in lust! If ever a movie had evoked a strong desire to lovingly comfort the leading character, Trishna does that.

I suppose, because the story is an adaptation of an English classic, the ending was inevitable but I really wish it hadn't been. I was left feeling empty and useless. What a waste!

There have been many modernisations of classic novels and plays, from Alfonso Cuaron's Great Expectations and Baz Luhrman's version of Romeo + Juliet. Now Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles have been given a modern version thanks to Michael Winterbottom.

In Rajasthan, Trishna (Freida Pinto) is a young woman in rural Rajasthan who lives with her large family and meets a British traveller, Jay Singh (Riz Ahmed). When her father is badly injured and the family indebted, Jay offers Freida the her a job at his father's hotel in Jaipur. Soon Jay offers Freida the chance of an education, advancement and financial support for her family. But as they grow closer they start a on-off relationship and are continually drawn to each other.

Setting the updated version of Tess of the D'Urbervilles, it would not have worked in Modern Britain and India does have issues involving rural poverty, a massive class divide, splits between rich and poor and traditional social values in that nation. But I found Trishna to be a rather dull affair. It was boring from a story perspective, that it wanted to try and cram too much of the novel into the film, resulting with numerous montages showing the passing of time instead of showing events in detail. The visuals and the performances are bland, the cinematography and art direction neither has any real grit or realism nor a bright colourful visual. There are some good moments like a tender moment when Jay and Trishna are in bed and she reveals a secret and when the relationship when it gets darker. But at the same time I did not quite buy the relationship between the two, either as it was forbidden or that Ray is Trishna because for the most part it seem like Ray was good for her. Ahmed is a decent actor but I did not buy there was a darkness in his character early on. I put it more down to writing and direction then Ahmed himself. Pinto was okay but she has been better. She has let to find the right vehicle since Slumdog Millionaire.

Winterbottom's direction had a weird paradox, because of the need to cram so much that the film felt rushed but other times the film felt like it was dragging and stalling. The editing and pace was all over the place and there was no coincidence. He is much better then this.

Amit Trivedi and Shigeru Umebayashi did provide a very pretty soundtrack and score, helping provide for the Indian feel the film was going for.

Sadly Trishna was a disappointment and this is certainly not a repeat of Slumdog Millionaire.

Take a classic Thomas Hardy novel and replace the setting (Victorian England) by modern India, a society that still has some of the characteristics needed to make this story believable. That's what Michael Winterbottom has done and it works wonderfully well.

Where else than in India can a poor, submissive girl who has never learned to speak up for herself, have a relationship with a rich guy who is used to getting everything he wants? Of course, the love affair is doomed because of the strict social rules that are still prevalent in India. We know from the beginning there will be tragic developments because this is a remake of Tess of the D'Urbervilles.

Winterbottom shows us very clear that the two would-be lovers have nothing in common. For him, she is purely an object of desire, a pretty face he can show off to his friends in Mumbai and have fun with between the sheets. For her, he is an escape route from poverty, an entrance ticket to the world of the jet set and possibly to a career in Bollywood.

Freida Pinto, of Slumdog Millionaire fame, is quite believable as the working class girl who is only used to obeying orders. For her, there is not much difference between saying yes to her father who asks her to fetch a glass of water, and saying yes to her lover when he asks her to move to Mumbai with him and become his live-in girlfriend. There is not much spirit in her role, and that makes you wonder if her passivity is the result of her acting talent, or, on the contrary, if it shows her lack of talent. Anyway, she plays the role exactly the way it should be.

The film doesn't paint a pretty picture of India. It's all there: the rural poverty, the girls who can't go to school because there is no money, the horrible traffic accidents, the inequality between the rich and the poor.

The only thing I didn't like about this film are the many scenes of successive nice-looking images, underscored by romantic music. In many of these scenes Pinto is featured very prominently, which is understandable because she is extremely beautiful. But it gets tedious after a while. I also lost count of the number of scenes where we see her carrying a tray to customers of the hotel she works in. These scenes make the story unnecessary slow and unbalanced.

To claim that TRISHNA is an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' is really stretching the imagination. This is an engrossing film about caste differences in India: the screenwriters are not mentioned - only the fact that director Michael Winterbottom based his story on Hardy's famous novel seems to be more of a PR draw than reality. But the film is well acted and the aromas and atmospheres of India are well captured.

TRISHNA reveals the life of one woman whose life is destroyed by a combination of love and circumstances. Set in contemporary Rajasthan, Trishna (Freida Pinto, beautiful and sensitive) meets a wealthy young British businessman Jay Singh (Riz Ahmed, inordinately handsome and polished) who has come to India to work in his father's hotel business. After an accident destroys her father's Jeep, Trishna goes to work for Jay, and they fall in love. But despite their feelings for each other, they cannot escape the conflicting pressures of a rural society which is changing rapidly through industrialization, urbanization and, above all, education. Trishna's tragedy is that she is torn between the traditions of her family life and the dreams and ambitions that her education has given her: the sexual double standard to which Tess falls victim despite being a truly good woman makes her despised by society after losing her virginity before marriage. Trishna has choices after she receives an education, but she instead chooses to follow her passion for Jay. Jay truly loves Trishna but his social class demands that he keep Trishna as an employee, making his physical love affair with her a private matter due to the rules of the caste system. Jay does not seem to be a villain here and Trishna is not a victim: these two facts make the ending a bit over the top and unnecessary. A more intelligent script could have made this a first class film.

Freida Pinto and Riz Ahmed are fascinating to observe as they work through the confines of love in a world that does not condone their union. The other characters in the cast are excellent - especially Roshan Seth as Jay's father. In setting the story in contemporary India the director seems to have decided it was important to include cellphones and Bollywood dancing rehearsals and filmmaking to provide spice. But in the end it is the fine acting by Pinto and Ahmed that make this film work.

Grady Harp