IFN Film Club - 'Trishna'

When: Saturday, 24th of March, 6pm-9pm
Where: The Irish Film Institute
The Film: Trishna by Michael Winterbottom
Facebook Event: RSVP http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/events/307022816018243/

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About: "Trishna is [Michael] 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." www.guardian.co.uk