TRISHNA

A new Winterbottom movie is always something that I really look forward too with great anticipation, partly because it’s almost impossible to predict what genre he will choose let alone the subject matter.  After last year’s wonderfully funny 'The Trip' Mr Winterbottom, one of the UK‘s most versatile and prolific directors, has gone back to the 19^th Century novels of Thomas Hardy for the third time (‘Jude’ based on Jude The Obscure, ‘The Claim’ from The Mayor of Castlebridge) and turned ‘Tess of the D’Urbervilles’ into 'Trishna'.   He’s transported the story from rural England to modern-day India, adapted the facts to make the story tighter, and ditched the whole religious part which I think is no bad thing.

Tess is now Trishna, an intelligent Indian peasant girl and the daughter of an auto-rickshaw owner who throws his whole livelihood into jeopardy when he ‘totals’ the vehicle in an accident.  Trishna is now the breadwinner of the large family and is encouraged to accept a job offer in a hotel in far away Jaipur that had been made by a wealthy young man who recently met her when visiting the countryside with his mates. 

Jay is far more interested in Trishna than in running his father’s hotel and she eventually succumbs to his amorous advances (she is after all a 'pure woman' as Hardy insisted Tess was).  She gets pregnant and without telling Jay runs back home to her distraught family who insist on an abortion.  Now back leading a rough rural life and working in her Uncle's factory she is an easy target when Jay eventually tracks her down and persuades her to go live with him in Mumbai. They set up home together and for a time they enjoy a rather romantic and privileged life. And then Jay’s ailing father instructs his son to takeover the big country hotel that is not too far from Trishna’s family home and they both accept that as their relationship will be not approved of by anyone, then she will have to take a job as a Maid there just so that they can still sort of be together.

Its an arrangement that Trishna is agreeable too at first, until Jay really starts playing the lord of the manor and treats her more like a servant and a sex object rather than the love of his life.  And if you know your Hardy, you will know that action makes for a very bloody end for the young man.

This is not Mr Winterbottom’s first movie set in Asia   ('In This World', ‘A Might Heart’) so he handles the settings and cultures like a native.   He found himself a beautiful talent in Friedo Pinto to play Trishna, and this was a great role for her after her breakout performance in 'Slumdog Millionaire'. Riz Ahmed in his second Winterbottom movie (although better known for the wonderful farcical  jihadist black comedy ‘Four Lions’) made a convincing and menacing Jay.  The other cast member that caught my attention was Roshan Seth who played Jay’s father who I remembered from 'Monsoon Wedding', but importantly IMDB jogged my memory later when I re-discovered that he played a father in Stephen Frear’s ground-breaking ‘My Beautiful Launderette’ back in 1985.

Anyway this tale of love not conquering all is another splendid piece of movie making from one of my favourite designers.  The one ‘but’ , and it’s a fairly large one, relates to the film’s middle section when the young couple are establishing themselves as a couple in Mumbai, and suddenly you have this overwhelming sense that Mr Winterbottom has handed over the reigns to a Soap Opera Director.  It’s not only a very stilted passage but it is more than a tad annoying.

Nevertheless, still highly recommended.

(Due to be released in the US in July …. but readers in Russia and Australia will get a chance to see it in May.)


★★★★★★★★