Really Surprised!

Charming and brutal

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Trishna, a loose adaptation of Hardy's 'Tess of the Durbervilles', transplants the story from late 19th century England to contemporary India, an interesting switch when one considers the still ingrained patriarchal attitudes to women and the caste system (class in Victorian England).Michael Winterbottom's bold retelling fails due to the radical act of conflating the Angel & Alec characters into one personage. As other reviewers have written - interestingly, Jay's sudden transformation, from a caring, considerate person interested in Trishna to a man who abuses her and treats her callously, may be a comment because he can due to his economic standing.Yet, this was Alec Durberville in the book. He was not without charm. Both Angel & Alec fail Tess in different ways: it is hinted that one sexually abuses or at least takes advantage of her in the seduction, whilst the other is guilty of sexual hypocrisy (moral values) and guilty of idealising her: the two views of Victorian woman as either ideal or whore.Perhaps it might have been a more conventional take on the narrative, but Trishna could have returned to her village and found 'love' with a village teacher etc, who idealises her, but perhaps, again similar to Angel Clare, fails her when she reveals her secret when he confesses his own debauched past, highlighting sexual hypocrisy.Instead, I found Trishna a terribly passive figure, which probably is true in many senses of women in developing societies, who are subject to economic values & victims of sexual exploitation. The film becomes repetitive, a cycle of abuse that can only end tragically as in the novel.Interesting, but a flawed experiment, the decision to conflate the love triangle & the two male protagonists into one is radical, but does make Jay's erratic behaviour confusing to the viewer.Perhaps, ultimately, the film is not as interesting, radical or daring as it thinks itself to be, compared to 'The Square Circle' & the gender politics of that film.

About halfway through the film, why does rich boyfriend start behaving so badly? I've pondered this and come to a simple answer: Because he can. He's not merely financially comfortable, he's so wealthy that his freedom is practically unbounded and he can get away with just about anything. Society (including the legal system) imposes very few limits on BF's conduct. His world-weary father seems nice to Trishna, but in a sort of condescending, noblesse oblige way. There's certainly no requirement that he be nice to her.Unfortunately I don't think writer-director Winterbottom dramatizes any of this particularly well. During the 2nd half of the film, BF's badness is as inexplicable to us as it is to Trishna.Nevertheless, I give the film credit for the romantic and fun first half. The music is wonderful, Trishna and BF are gorgeous (really) and the photography of India is better than a lot of western directors achieve.

Trishna – CATCH IT (B) Trishna is loosely based upon critically acclaimed 1800's novel "Tess of the D'Urbervilles". This is a story of young girl whose life is destroyed by the circumstances and love. Tess of the D'Urbervilles is a beautiful novel and the story is more complex than Michael Winterbottom decides to adopt in his adaptation. Here the director only chooses to pick up the poor girl and a rich man who first makes and then destroys her life. He left many key characters and moment from the magnificent novel, which I think would have made this movie more interesting. Otherwise Trishna seemed more like an erotic version relies on sex only. Once you become aware of the novel you will understand that the director chooses an easy way to make this an erotic bonanza. We never gets to hear why Trishna doesn't leave from sexual abuse later or at least tell him that she is felling like a sexual victim but sadly we never get to hear her point of view. She does what she was told by men in her life from her father to the man she falls in love with. Freida Pinto is truly a Revelation, starting from Slumdog Millionaire, then to Red Woman in Woody Allan's ensemble YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER to Immortals with Henry Cavill to Rise of the Planet of the Apes with James Franco and now in Trishna, she has proved why everyone wants to work with her. Riz Ahmed is superb; he is charming, passionate and evil in one body all together. On the whole Winterbottom successfully adopted the Indian atmosphere and also was able to take out brilliant performance from Freida Pinto and Riz Ahmed but I think he failed to do justice to the Thomas Hardy novel "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" because it was never about eroticness it was about a young girl destroyed by her circumstance. If I forget it's based upon this novel than it's a very nice movie.

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.