Director Michael
Winterbottom finds
fresh pathos in that classic melodrama of a beautiful poor woman “ruined” by a rich rake with “Trishna,” an updating of “Tess of the D’Urbervilles.” Winterbottom moves the story to modern-day India, and makes it relevant all over again in a country where caste and class can still ordain who gets to ill use whom, simply by custom.
Jay (Riz Ahmed of “Four Lions”) doesn’t come off as an utter cad — not at first. The spoiled son of a wealthy hotelier (veteran Indian actor Roshan Seth), he’s showing a bunch of his friends from the UK around India when he meets Trishna (Freida Pinto), a lovely part-time waitress at one of his father’s hotels. He is interested, but not pushy — solicitous, even. But you can sense the arrogance of wealth, the rude confidence of Indian sexism, in every encounter. She casts her eyes downward and addresses him as “Sir.”
When her large, poor family faces disaster thanks to her father’s car accident, Jay is there to help. Her new job from him will save them.
But when he instructs his staff, “Can you get Trishna to serve me lunch in my room from now on?” we smell trouble. Even in his most chivalrous moments, Jay has an agenda. And it’s not to preserve Trishna’s chastity.
Winterbottom paints a colorful portrait of India, a land of lovely landscapes, glorious ancient monuments and teeming masses. The film alternates between slums and film soundstages, abuzz with activity at every turn. Every trip through traffic is fraught with danger, every flirtation a hint of a ruined reputation to it.
Pinto, the object of desire of “Slumdog Millionaire,” is the very face of demure passivity here. She gets across the flattery that she knows she cannot let go to her head, the fear and shame Trishna feels, the resolve she hangs onto as Jay sweeps her up into a whirl of Bollywood filmmaking (she could get work as a dancer), socializing, sex and stigmatization.
It’s a patient film, carefully layering on the petty humiliations that Jay foists on Trishna, building her sense of loss, confusion and guilt.
With “Trishna,” Winterbottom challenges Indian mores and the West’s understanding of them, giving what should be a stodgy and outdated story an ill-used woman modern currency.
Pinto, stoic and stunning, demonstrates why this heroine and this tale of her woe still have power more than 150 years after it was written. (Agencies)