Trishna (dir: Michael Winterbottom, *ing Freida Pinto, Riz Ahmed)

[leaf]

This is apparently an adaptation of Tess of the D'Urbervilles. I'm a bit confused as to why Winterbottom is making this an Indian story.

Freida, Riz to star together in 'Trishna'
Priyanka Dasgupta, TNN, Feb 16, 2011

Freida Pinto and Riz Ahmed to do Michael Winterbottom's adaptation of Tess of the d'Urbervilles titled 'Trishna' about the relationship between a property dealer and the daughter of an autorickshaw owner.

Remember, last year TOI had broken the story of Michael Winterbottom adapting Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles (edition dated Oct 28, 2010) that would star Freida Pinto in the lead? Well, the news is that the film, titled "Trishna", will be shot in Rajasthan, this year. Joining Freida in the cast is actor-musician Riz Ahmed, who has played the lead in Winterbottom's "The Road to Guantanamo", Eran Creevy's "Shifty" and Chris Morris' "Four Lions". David Bryan, the art director of " The Hurt Locker" and "A Mighty Heart" , is the production designer of the film.

Incidentally, Winterbottom has relocated the film to contemporary India. "Trishna"'s plot follows the story of the relationship between the son of a wealthy British property developer and the daughter of an autorickshaw owner. Sources say that the story follows Jay (Riz), the son the property developer in Rajasthan, who comes on a six-monthlong vacation to Rajasthan, where his father has bought a heritage hotel. That's where he meets Trishna and offers her a job at his father's hotel. After Jay returns to England, Trishna finds that she is pregnant and gets an abortion done. Subsequently, when Jay returns to India, he confesses his love to her and they both decide to shift to Mumbai where Jay wants to work in the film industry. Things, however, take a different turn when Jay learns about Trishna's pregnancy and abortion.

When TOI got in touch with Riz's spokesperson, Donna French, she said, "I can confirm that Riz will be doing Michael Winterbottom's film, "Trishna" , starting in March." Riz (also known as Riz MC) is now working with Freida in Jean-Jacques Annaud's "Black Gold" . Earlier, Riz and another actor from "The Road to Guantanamo" were in the news, when they were detained at Luton Airport on their return from the Berlin Film Festival, where the film won a Silver Bear. Says an industry source, "Freida is finishing one of her projects in Tunisia right now. She should be coming down to India to start filming Winterbottom's "Trishna" in the summer." India apart, portions of the film might be shot in London and LA too.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-02-16/news-interviews/28551024_1_freida-pinto-silver-bear-film-industry

Freida Pinto shoots in Mumbai
Vishwas Kulkarni and Kunal Shah, Mumbai Mirror | Apr 16, 2011

Director Anurag Kashyap, in a corner of something called the 'control room', is playing Scrabble on his I-Pad.

It is the last day of shoot on the sets of Trishna, a film he is co-producing with Sunil Bohra and Guneet Monga, both welcoming souls and clearly ecstatic about collaborating with international superstars like director Michael Winterbottom and Freida Pinto, who has beaten Aishwarya Rai hollow in the 'see you at Cannes' game.

The control room is basically a rectangular box atop a set of stairs in Manoranjan Studio at Chakala, Andheri East.

The control room has a large glass window from which you can survey the action on the floor below: a dance troupe is doing a Bollywood dance number in all its garish glory. It is the sort of scene that the West likes to imagine about cinema in Bombay.

It isn't that far from the truth, come to think of it. This has been happening for a week but the producers have managed to keep everything under wraps.

In a corner near the video monitor, Freida Pinto, in a blue blouse and black pants, is observing the action. Your correspondents wait for her turn to come on stage and do the shimmy. But this is not the case.

During a tea break, when the dance troupe and spot boys and assistants get down to the serious business of eating, your correspondents too try to munch on samosas and sandwiches. But we realise that we are being shot too! This is not for the making of the film bit, which film crews do all the time. This is actually a part of the film.

We approach Freida twice in between this break, as an omnipresent camera unit hovers in all directions, like Paul the Octopus. She says, "No, you see even the break is part of the scene. So I can't talk in between breaks. I have to focus on either my work, or the interview. Not both." We understand.

Winterbottom though is easier to convince into talking. "Trishna is basically an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Riz Ahmed and Freida play the protagonists". Riz Ahmed is a British Muslim rapper. Anurag adds, "He will be performing at a pub called Red Ant later in the evening.

Freida and the rest of the crew will be really chilled out then. Why don't you guys try and get her then?" It's not a bad suggestion, but just then a PR person gives us an in.

We follow Freida into what she insists on calling "the trailer". Closer home, it is called the make-up van. On entering, one of us says, "Congratulations," though why exactly we are congratulating her is not known to any of the parties involved, including Freida. "Oh, thank you so much," says Freida, who looks quite regular.

But then again, this must be method acting Hollywood-style. Anurag tells us, "In the film Freida is a simple girl from Rajasthan who has come to Mumbai. Here she comes to see a shoot with a friend. At this shoot she sees Ganesh Acharya choreographing a song with Uma Qureshi and Vicky." Uma Qureshi is the girl Kashyap is launching in The Gangs of Wasseypur, his next feature.

Vicky is the son of ace action director Sham Kaushal, who worked on Slumdog Millionaire.

The air-conditioned make-up van has an odd décor that alternates between metal walls and cobalt blue cushioning. When the photographer tries to grab a picture she is firm, "Look, the trailer is nowhere in the film, so I don't know if I can allow myself to be photographed in the trailer." The photographer steps out.

Just as we are about to begin, a girl from the crew, opens the door to the trailer and says, "Michael wants you out right now."

"Oh my god, this is so embarrassing. Look can't you give me five minutes?" pleads Freida.

"Michael wants you out right now! He's calling for you!" From behind the crackle of static on her walkie-talkie, Michael Winterbottom begins to reveal the killer inside him. "Where is she! We're beginning to shoot out on the street!"

The interview is over.

On the way to the street outside the studio, the crew girl goes, "It's not about us, ya. With us we'll give you five minutes, ya, No problem. But you know how they function, no?
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/Freida-Pinto-shoots-in-Mumbai/articleshow/7997946.cms

[Amba]

This is apparently an adaptation of Tess of the D'Urbervilles. I'm a bit confused as to why Winterbottom is making this an Indian story.

Well, Tess is about a guy who becomes disgusted and abandons his wife after he learns about her pre-marital past (even though he's had dalliances of his own himself). It's not a story that would work in contemporary Britain, so it makes sense to shift it to a place which is still fairly socially conservative.

[leaf]

^^There are plenty of ways to make that work in contemporary Britain. She could have been a prostitute, for example.

[Amba]

^^There are plenty of ways to make that work in contemporary Britain. She could have been a prostitute, for example.

Turning Tess into a prostitute would turn the story into something else entirely (though Winterbottom doesn't seem like he'll adhere that closely to the text; judging by the synopsis, it'll be a fairly loose adaptation). I think it's a good idea to turn the Angel Clare character into a British Asian. Angel fancies himself a freethinker, but he turns out to be fairly conventional at heart. I think one could turn him into a British Indian who considers himself a liberal and modern guy, but who nevertheless reveals that he still has some old-world attitudes when push comes to shove.

Winterbottom has adapted Thomas Hardy to the screen twice before (both Jude and The Claim were based on Hardy novels). I'd rather watch a movie version of a Hardy novel than actually read Hardy. He's one of the few Victorian writers that I don't enjoy at all; I can't stand his prose style. This could potentially be good, or it could be Slumdog Millionaire Mark II; we'll have to wait and see.

[rubicon]

I'm curious to see how this will be adapted. Hardy's novels - Tess, in particular - are very symbolic; I can see that symbolism working well in an Indian context. Thanks for sharing, leaf.

[leaf]

Turning Tess into a prostitute would turn the story into something else entirely (though Winterbottom doesn't seem like he'll adhere that closely to the text; judging by the synopsis, it'll be a fairly loose adaptation). I think it's a good idea to turn the Angel Clare character into a British Asian. Angel fancies himself a freethinker, but he turns out to be fairly conventional at heart. I think one could turn him into a British Indian who considers himself a liberal and modern guy, but who nevertheless reveals that he still has some old-world attitudes when push comes to shove.

I'm sorry, but South Asian men aren't the only ones who consider themselves free thinkers and turn out to be narrow-minded chauvinists. As you said, Winterbottom seems to have fudged with the story quite a bit to fit into this scenario, he could have made changes in order to make this the story of white Britons. The plain truth is that India and South Asian culture is just becoming a fantasy land for British and American filmmakers who want a little more "grit" or "reality" in their films. They don't seem to realize it's reality for 6 billion people, not Narnia.

[Amba]

I'm sorry, but South Asian men aren't the only ones who consider themselves free thinkers and turn out to be narrow-minded chauvinists. As you said, Winterbottom seems to have fudged with the story quite a bit to fit into this scenario, he could have made changes in order to make this the story of white Britons. The plain truth is that India and South Asian culture is just becoming a fantasy land for British and American filmmakers who want a little more "grit" or "reality" in their films. They don't seem to realize it's reality for 6 billion people, not Narnia.

Well, we're just going to have to agree to disagree. Tess of the D'Urbervilles is rooted in a particular conception of sexual honour that's more alive today in some cultures than it is in others. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of misogyny in Anglo culture, but it tends to be manifested in a different form than it is in South Asian culture. While we're at it, how about withholding judgment about this movie being an orientalist fantasy until more information about it is available? From what I've seen of Winterbottom's work, he doesn't strike me as culturally insensitive and arrogant.

[leaf]

While we're at it, how about withholding judgment about this movie being an orientalist fantasy until more information about it is available? From what I've seen of Winterbottom's work, he doesn't strike me as culturally insensitive and arrogant.

It's not so much about Winterbottom specifically. I actually like quite a few of his films. What I'm commenting on is him as a director who is not Indian directing an "Indian" story for a Western audience after Slumdog Millionaire. When I say fantasy land, I mean a world that you can manipulate to meet your story's demands, that somehow India is more malleable to your needs when your own (Western) reality is not, because it's not quite as real as your world. Taken on its own, SDM is a pretty enjoyable film, and Trishna could be a brilliant film, but this is starting to be something of a trend, and orientalist or not, I'm not comfortable with the idea of these British directors appropriating India as a prop to tell their stories.

I don't believe that the only way to make a contemporary Tess of the D'Urbervilles is to set it in India, but what it does allow is for contemporary British society to distance itself from the misogyny in the book, making it something that is part of a foreign past and a foreign culture that has nothing to do with them and can be watched guilt-free. Whether the filmmaker intended it or not, that is what happens with stories like this. But, as you said, let's agree to disagree.

[corbie]

Well, Tess is about a guy who becomes disgusted and abandons his wife after he learns about her pre-marital past (even though he's had dalliances of his own himself). It's not a story that would work in contemporary Britain, so it makes sense to shift it to a place which is still fairly socially conservative.

I read Tess and truly did not like it.

[Simran_Singh]

This movie will premiere at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival:

http://twitter.com/#!/cameron_tiff/status/95836142921981952

[leaf]

I'm mostly looking forward to this for Riz Ahmed.

More pics.

[rubicon]

Official Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdFiV9yDHG4

Is that Kalki in the trailer?

[leaf]

I also spot Anurag (at 1:24 with Kalki and maybe Amit Trivedi). I guess he's every British director's go-to guy for contacts in Bollywood now. At 1:33, I think that's Mini Mathur. At 1:27, Ganesh Acharya. And yay for Amit Trivedi's music! Riz Ahmed looks absolutely dishy.

I was about 10 when I read Tess and the scene in the woods was thoroughly disturbing to me and that scene in the trailer makes me queasy even without the context of the film.

[leaf]

Reviews from TIFF

Trishna
10 September, 2011 | By Allan Hunter

In a year of striking literary reinterpretations (Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre etc), Trishna may be the boldest of them all as writer/director Michael Winterbottom successfully translates the dark tragedy of Thomas Hardy’s late Victorian classic Tess Of The D’Urbervilles to the streets and mores of contemporary India.

The issues of class privilege, inequality and masculine arrogance still resonate within the setting allowing the film to shake off any of the fusty connotations of period drama and connect with a modern, arthouse audience. Gorgeous cinematography and potent star performances from Freida Pinto and Riz Ahmed should also help to widen the demographic for what could be one of the prolific Winterbottom’s most commercial efforts.

Fifteen years ago, Winterbottom filmed Thomas Hardy’s Jude The Obscure. His faith in the author’s work pays off again with a film that almost neatly divides into two halves. The first half is filled with light, hope and the giddy beginnings of a promising romance. The second half grows darker and more intense as romance turns to unbearable shame. The narrative arc of Hardy’s epic is faithfully woven into this modern interpretation even although a great deal has been omitted or significantly altered.

In Winterbottom’s version, 19 year-old Trishna (Freida Pinto) is the pure woman of the story. When Jay (Riz Ahmed) catches sight of Trishna in rural Rajasthan he is instantly smitten by her beauty and shy manner. The English-educated Jay is the son of a property developer and offers to find her a job at his father’s hotel in Jaipur.

His intentions seem pure and the prospect of increasing the family income is an offer that she cannot refuse. He charms and seduces her in a romance that develops through the careless brush of a hand or the warm breath that intimately caresses a neck.

Trishna’s faith in Jay remains untarnished by his actions and casual disregard for her feelings. She agrees to accompany him to Mumbai as his live-in girlfriend, an arrangement that becomes much more clandestine when Jay is obliged to manage another one of his father’s hotels.

Trishna is infused with the spirit of India. Winterbottom is able to convey the tensions in a complex nation that respects traditional values and yet rushes to embrace all the liberties and luxuries of a booming modern economy.

Cinematographer Marcel Zyskind captures a real feel of the dust and dynamism of India offering breathtaking images of bustling city streets, contrasted with the lemony dusks and burning bright sunlight of the countryside. The look of the film alone may be enough to attract and intrigue some viewers and the soundtrack by Shigeru Umebayashi is equally beguiling.

Winterbottom has also been extremely astute in his casting. Frieda Pinto has all the pouting beauty that Trishna requires as well as the awkwardness and vulnerability. Riz Ahmed is a revelation, showing bags of romantic leading man ability in a performance of immense charm and edge. He is such a sexy, appealing figure that he almost makes us too attached to Jay. When Jay turns increasingly controlling and cruel, it feels as much a betrayal of the audience as it does of Trishna’s wholehearted belief in him.

Trishna does feel overlong and starts to drift in a slightly repetitive, doom-laden second half but that makes the surprisingly steamy sex and violent denouement all the more shocking. What begins as an infatuation similar to In The Mood For Love ends much closer to the destructive obsession of In The Realm of The Senses.
http://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-latest/trishna/5031895.article

Trishna – review
Michael Winterbottom avoids Slumdog-style kitsch to create an Indian Tess of the d'Urbervilles as compelling as Hardy's
Damon Wise
Sunday 11 September 2011

Toronto film festival's co-director Cameron Bailey hit the nail on the head introducing Michael Winterbottom's new film, a two-hander shot in Rajasthan and Mumbai over seven weeks earlier this year. He described Winterbottom as "protean", and, if nothing else, Winterbottom will go down in British film history as one of the country's most versatile directors.

Last year he was at the Toronto international film festival with the film version of his BBC comedy The Trip, and 18 months ago he was in Sundance with his ultraviolent neo-noir The Killer Inside Me. And here he is now, returning to his roots with another riff on the work of Thomas Hardy, who inspired his 1996 film Jude, a take on Jude the Obscure, and also The Claim, an adaptation of The Mayor Of Casterbridge, relocated to a Californian mining town.

Trishna is Winterbottom's take on Tess of the d'Urbervilles, filmed previously by Roman Polanski in Tess, an epic, slow but hypnotic period movie. Winterbottom's version is shorter, set very much in the present, and diverts from Hardy's text in many ways, but is just as compelling.

The technical qualities are superb. India is more than just a backdrop, the camera captures a studious, almost documentary-style vision of the country, one that never segues into kitsch, post-Slumdog cultural tourism.

Jay (Riz Ahmed) is the wealthy son of a London hotelier on holiday in India with his mates. Jay's life doesn't add up to much; he earns just enough to do nothing. But then he catches sight of the beautiful Trishna (Freida Pinto). Trishna is a peasant girl, working to support her family after her father was crippled in a road accident, so, to tempt her away, Jay lands her a well-paid job at one of his father's hotels in Jaipur. But after their relationship turns physical, Trishna is racked with guilt and goes home.

Jay pursues her and convinces her to come with him to Mumbai, where they can live unnoticed and untainted by the rich-poor divide of rural Rajasthan. At first, Trishna enjoys her new freedom, taking dancing lessons and dreaming of Bollywood stardom. But Jay starts to neglect her, and loneliness sets in.

Like Polanski's Tess, Winterbottom's heroine is rather passive, a woman who lets things happen to her, and for many, the gorgeous but woefully reactive Trishna will be frustratingly meek. Likewise, Ahmed's Jay, a nice guy who transforms somewhere along the way into a boorish bully, will be a test of an audience's sympathy.

But for those prepared to take the journey, the film is a seductive, allegorical study of male-female relationships that says more about what its characters are than who they are.

And anyway, if Winterbottom's fans are disappointed, at least they won't have to wait long for the next one.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/sep/11/trishna-review-michael-winterbottom-film

Trishna: Toronto Review
9/10/2011 by David Rooney

"Jude" director Michael Winterbottom brings another Thomas Hardy novel to life on screen, and sets it in contemporary India.

Eclectic director Michael Winterbottom brought raw power to a Thomas Hardy adaptation once before, with Jude in 1996. In Trishna, he updates Tess of the d’Urbervilles to contemporary Rajasthan, India, delivering more emotionally muted yet arresting results, with Freida Pinto instilling fragile dignity into Hardy’s tragic heroine.

The 1891 novel has been adapted multiple times for British television, but seldom for the big screen. Its best-known film version is Roman Polanski’s 1979 Tess, starring the director’s partner at that time, Nastassja Kinski. Hardy subtitled the book “A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented,” and Winterbottom honors that view of the story, even if he streamlines much of the narrative detail and blends the characters of libertine Alec and more well-intentioned but ultimately weak Angel into a single figure, Jay (Riz Ahmed).

The spoilt son of a wealthy, blind hotelier (the ever-distinguished Roshan Seth in a brief but incisive appearance), Jay was raised and educated in England. In India to explore opportunities in Mumbai, he struggles to resist his father’s efforts to get him involved in the hotel business. While he’s traveling with three buddies from home, the lovely Trishna (Pinto) catches his eye during a tour of an ancient temple. A second encounter cements the attraction, but when he next sees the 19-year-old girl, she is recovering from a road accident that injured her father and wrecked his jeep, which is the large family’s sole means of earning a living.

Jay arranges for Trishna to leave her remote village and work at one of his father’s luxury hotels. A delicate courtship begins, with Jay hypnotized by every glimpse of Trishna, now effectively in his employ, while she remains demure around him.

Unlike his direct counterpart in Hardy’s novel, Jay initially is presented with some noble intentions, enrolling Trishna in a hotel management course so she can improve her prospects. And when he rescues her from harassment on the city streets late one night and makes an unscheduled stop on the way home, their sexual initiation is more seduction than violation.

However, the shame Trishna feels causes her to flee back to her village, where she discovers she is pregnant and is forced to have an abortion, losing her father’s respect. Sent to work in her uncle’s factory, Jay tracks her down and takes her to Mumbai. Their relationship flourishes during this idyll as he flirts with becoming a film producer and Trishna is accepted by his hipster friends. But when Jay’s father suffers a stroke back in England, Trishna rashly shares the secret of her pregnancy and abortion, driving a wedge between them as he’s leaving.

Winterbottom is less interested in echoing precise events from the late-Victorian novel than he is in exploring how love can be poisoned by class divisions, even in a modern, urbanized environment. Jay evidently sees himself as an evolved man, but never treats Trishna as an equal, underestimates her complexity and remains insensitive to his growing humiliation of her when he returns from England.

With nobody else willing to oversee the family business, Jay reluctantly goes back to Rajasthan. Since living openly as an unmarried couple there would be socially unacceptable, he suggests that Trishna resume working as a hotel maid, scheduling increasingly emotionless sexual trysts when she delivers his meals. Bored, resentful and frequently hitting the hash pipe, Jay’s treatment of her becomes steadily more abusive.

Given that The Claim also drew loosely from Hardy, it’s clear Winterbottom’s fascination with the author runs deep. In Jude, he had formidable leads in Kate Winslet and Christopher Eccleston to breathe passion and wrenching pain into the author’s ill-fated lovers. As easy as they both are on the eyes, Pinto and Ahmed are more limited in their expressiveness. Still, the restraint of the performances feeds nicely into what’s overall quite a gentle tone, even if what should be a shattering conclusion is not as affecting as it might have been.

Cinematographer Marcel Zyskind shoots the dusty landscapes and teeming cities in a rough-edged documentary style that breathes restless energy and a fitting sense of uncertainty into the story. Composer Shigeru Umebayashi and Amit Trivedi, who contributed a handful of original songs, enhance the action with a flavorful mix of orchestral score (notably a gorgeously languid, melancholy waltz theme) with traditional and contemporary Indian sounds.

Visually and aurally, the film benefits from a strong sense of place, without overworking the ethnic exotica. If this transposition of Hardy comes up a little short in emotional impact, it nonetheless is a distinctive new take on a classic story.

Bottom Line: Freida Pinto’s incandescent beauty gives this somewhat dramatically underpowered Hardy adaptation a beguiling center.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/trishna-toronto-review-233759

[Prem Rogue]

http://www.deadline.com/2011/09/toronto-sundance-selects-lands-north-american-rights-to-trishna/

Toronto: Sundance Selects Lands North American Rights To ‘Trishna’
By MIKE FLEMING | Thursday September 15, 2011 @ 1:55pm EDT
Tags: Freida Pinto, Michael Winterbottom, Riz Ahmed, Sundance Selects, Toronto Film Festival, Trishna
 
EXCLUSIVE: IFC’s Sundance Selects has acquired North American rights to Trishna, the Michael Winterbottom-directed drama that stars Freida Pinto and Riz Ahmed. It has been a busy 24 hours for Jonathan Sehring and Arianna Bocco, who add this deal to yesterday’s IFC acquisitions of the Lynn Shelton-directed Toronto title Your Sister’s Sister and the gory Midnight Madness title The Incident, as well as the Abel Ferrara-directed Last Day on Earth.

A contemporized version of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, it is set in modern-day Rajasthan, where Trishna (Pinto) meets a wealthy Brit businessman (Ahmed) who comes to India to work in his father’s hotel business. They fall in love, but societal conflicts that get in the way. Winterbottom and Melissa Parmenter produced, and Bankside Films is handling international sales. This marks IFC’s fourth film with Winterbottom and fifth with Revolution Films; previous pictures include the Red Riding trilogy, Shock Doctrine, The Killer Inside Me and The Trip. Bankside brokered the deal.

“Trishna is Michael Winterbottom’s most beautiful and sensual film and features a truly sublime performance by Freida Pinto,” Sundance Selects’ president Sehring said.

[Simran_Singh]

I saw this at TIFF, and generally agree with the reviews leaf posted. The film makes excellent visual use of the Indian locations without resorting to kitsch. Riz Ahmed manages to make the weak, spoiled Jay appealing enough in the first half so that when he takes a turn for the truly sinister in the second half the audience feels betrayed right along with Trishna. Freida Pinto has very little dialogue, but I thought she did a good job expressing the character of Trishna through her body language. The music - including some original songs by Amit Trivedi - really stands out as being excellent. Also a standout for me: Anurag Kashyap and Kalki Koechlin's goofy cameos. Anurag seems to be playing himself, Cheshire Cat grin and all, but Kalki seems to be playing 'herself' as if 'herself' was a huge diva and as a result gets some of the funniest and most memorable lines in the film. I was also excited to see Roshan Seth, one of my favourites, in a brief but important appearance.

Winterbottom makes several interesting choices in the film. For example, an important incident early in the film is not shown at all, and so the situation is left entirely up to the audience's interpretation. I also found the costuming choices interesting with regard to the message they sent - the most obvious being the contrast between what Trishna wears at home with her family and what she wears in Mumbai. But a more subtle, and to me important, contrast is between the uniform she wears while working at the first of Jay's hotels, and the uniform she wears while working at the second of Jay's hotels. The way the end is put together is also interesting, and I think I understand what Winterbottom was going for there, but it doesn't quite work. The last moment of the film is still pretty devastating, though.

[Moot]

From the Guardian :- http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2012/feb/14/michael-winterbottom-riz-ahmed

I feel way out of the loop on this and so many other films.  Could be good.  The Tess story is a good one.

[filmcrazy]

When is this movie releasing?

[Moot]

The release dates on IMDb are here :- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1836987/releaseinfo

It says it has a limited release in the US from the 18th May.

[Moot]

Here's a link to a video review from the Guardian :- http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2012/mar/09/trishna-video-review

Quite positive.

[Spencer]

Guardian UK

Trishna – review

Michael Winterbottom transplants Hardy perennial Tess of the d'Urbervilles to Jaipur, but she fails to bloom

Rating: 2/5

Peter Bradshaw
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 8 March 2012

Michael Winterbottom is such a restlessly, brilliantly prolific and unparochial film-maker, declining to be limited either conceptually or geographically: always keeping us on our toes. This latest movie starts with a bold and intriguing concept, but is bafflingly muted and underpowered, its initial promise fading as it drifts away to a self-conscious conclusion. Trishna is a Thomas Hardy adaptation – Winterbottom's third, in fact, having made Jude in 1996 and The Claim (based on The Mayor of Casterbridge) in 2000. It is a loose reworking of Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and the story is transplanted to modern India where Jay (Riz Ahmed), the son of a rich Jaipur hotelier, is travelling with friends. One evening Jay is captivated by the delicate beauty of a young woman he sees at a party: this is Trishna, played by Freida Pinto. She comes from a poor family, and her father, a delivery driver, plunges the family into poverty by driving half-asleep on India's hair-raising roads and crashing his jeep. (It's a smart twist on one of the novel's most famous scenes.) The infatuated Jay hears about Trishna's plight and gets her a job at his dad's luxury hotel; and so begins a fateful relationship.

Any Hardy reader will find himself tipped off balance by the challenge in Winterbottom's bold opening. All the stuff about the father of Tess/Trishna and his delusions of family grandeur is jettisoned in favour of a fast, fluid introduction that actually centres on Jay: rich, a little conceited, but quite decent and high-minded. Wait: is he supposed to be Alec d'Urberville or Angel Clare?

An interesting ambiguity, but like so much else in the movie, it seems to get slowly but surely poured away into the story's damp sand. There is tragedy and violence, perhaps attributable to thwarted ambition: although both find themselves in the hotel business, Jay has dreams of being in Bollywood and Trishna is a talented dancer. Their dreams are soured and their life and love are on a tragically wrong track. Yet something prevents Ahmed and Pinto from expressing these emotions powerfully and satisfyingly enough, and Pinto never quite shows that her character is changed by what she has gone through. The story is rather shapeless, with little dramatic traction: it feels as if it could end at the one-hour mark or go on for another four. Winterbottom's location work in Jaipur and Mumbai has richness and spectacle, but somehow this does not come fully to life.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/mar/08/trishna-review

[jjake61]

Saw this at a special free screening the other day.  Ok so my view is tainted by my dislike for Tess of the D'Urburvilles.  It was pretty yes...expecially Frieda but her lack of personality drove me nuts..couldn't figure out why Jai liked her. Was frustrated that she didn't verbally express any frustration wuth her situation 'though as Simran_singh says Frieda did convey alot in her body language.

Best line was when Jai confesses to Trishna that before she got to Mumbai he slept with "Kalki". 

[Dariya]

I'm sorry, but South Asian men aren't the only ones who consider themselves free thinkers and turn out to be narrow-minded chauvinists. As you said, Winterbottom seems to have fudged with the story quite a bit to fit into this scenario, he could have made changes in order to make this the story of white Britons. The plain truth is that India and South Asian culture is just becoming a fantasy land for British and American filmmakers who want a little more "grit" or "reality" in their films. They don't seem to realize it's reality for 6 billion people, not Narnia.

I agree with you and it's what puts me off of a lot of international productions based in India.  I just saw the trailer for this though and it looks amazing and gorgeous! I didn't get the impression of condescension or escapism from it either.  It seems like the director just has an interest in India and wanted to set the story there -- I don't see what's wrong with that.  It's an intriguing idea!  I was especially interested to hear that it's a (loose) adaptation of Tess of D'Urbervilles as my mom has been trying to get me to read that book for years.  When I told her about this she dug up the book for me and I'm really enjoying it so far (though I can't see what it has to do with this movie at all, must be a REALLY loose adaptation?).  It's a shame to see the film hasn't been well received, but it looks like just the kind of movie that I would love.  

I just realized that Westerners portraying India as a fantasy land is totally mirrored by BW portraying the West as a fantasy land (obvious realization, I know.  )  I guess we're all guilty of it in one way or another.

[tabula rasa]

I saw this at an advanced press screening about a month or two ago.

Freida was unexpectedly very good - I hadn't had much hope for her as an actress

However I thought it was an unsuccesful adaptation, but that aside, I'm noticing this thing where British stories of a certain time (esply the 19th Century classics) find a place in contemporary India for a contemporary Western audience. Things like marriageability, dowry, inability to own property, or rather women owned AS property, inflexible social classes, new reactions to social mobility - all which seem dated in the Western hemisphere seem to be alive and relevant in today's South Asia, and thus seeming to be a good (and now cool) setting to transplant classics (Bride and Prejudice was a great example).

I do wonder how PC such a creative decision is, though.