Trishna (2011)
Certified: 18
Duration: 108 minutes
Directed by: Michael Winterbottom
Starring: Freida Pinto, Riz Ahmed, Anurag Kashyap, Roshan Seth, Amit Trivedi, Huma Qureshi, Kalki Koechlin
KRS release
Michael Winterbottom’s fascination with Thomas Hardy’s work is well known. He adapted the novel Jude the Obscure for Jude (1996), which starred Kate Winslet in a groundbreaking and heart-rending performance.In The Claim (2000), he turned The Mayor of Casterbridge into a Western film with impressive results.
With Trishna, the director delivers a powerful and very original adaption of Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles. It’s the tale of a woman who struggles to be able to find some sort of direction or meaning in life.
The transposition into an Indian modern setting gives the film an exotic appeal. Yet it remains a heavy tragedy. Winterbottom orchestrates and arranges one scything emotional arc after another as the central character is buffeted around with no means to control herself.
Frieda Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire, Rise of the Planet of the Apes) is the film’s emotional scoreboard. She is Trishna, an Indian girl who comes from a large lower-class family. Her future does not look very rosy, especially when her father has an accident and she has to accept Jay’s (Riz Ahmed) offer and work at his family’s hotel.
She feels like a fish out of water, but Jay charms and impresses her. She eventually falls for him and ends up pregnant. This scares her and she runs away, but Jay follows her and takes her with him to Bollywood.
Their relationship is put under new stress and Jay tightens his malicious grip on Trishna.
Marcel Zyskind’s cinematography brings a variety of textures to the film. Each time the scenes moves from one ambience to another, the film changes look.
The beauty here is quite deceptive; it is as if these dazzling visuals are a means to hide all the turbulence – both physical and emotional – the main characters go through.
Additionally, the camera simply loves Pinto as it amplifies her lovely features and increases her appeal. She gives a powerful performance as the sweet, naïve Trishna who transforms into a woman scarred by the events in her life. When she finally explodes, it’s understandable.
The third act sees Winterbottom placing the final nails into Trishna’s life and idea of a relationship. This seems to kick-start the film and it simply hits us below the belt as melodrama kicks in. Through all this, Pinto becomes more and more part of her character with a consummate intensity that is admirable.