{ London Film Fest 2011: Trishna. }

[delga]

Trishna
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Writer: Thomas Hardy (book)
Cast: Freida Pinto, Riz Ahmed
Trailer

"Thank you, Sir."

Confession: I have not read Tess of the D'Urbervilles. I have, however, read enough literature from the period to know that modern day India is a good setting for the book. I have been telling people for years that being an Indian today is much like living in that period, what with the industrial and technological boom, and the sociological transformation that the subcontinent is undergoing. That's part of the reason why I think the film could have been much better than it was. I didn't think Trishna committed to its subject enough.

Trishna is about a young Indian woman from a family of poor means who falls in love with a British-born Indian, Jay, the son of a hotelier. Her entanglement with Jay leads her on a not-so-merry chase, in and out of financial and personal straits, and across Rajasthan to Mumbai and back. By the story's end she has returned home, wretched in heart, and a disappointment to her father. Suffice to say, it does not end well for her.

It's a beautiful film, certainly. Winterbottom revealed that the chose to shoot the scenes at the time of day they were set, making the most of the natural light. The dialogue - part Hindi, part English, part MaruGujar (a Rajasthani dialect) - is very natural, mostly because there was not a script as such. Instead, there were certain scenes and plots that were decided upon, and the actors worked to them. Pinto revealed that often she had no idea what Ahmed was going to say next, and she had to respond to him in character.

I was very aware that this was India through a British lens, which is not a criticism but an observation. Pinto protested that she felt both Slumdog Millionaire and Trishna were her 'Indian' films because the soul of the films - the location, the people, the language, culture and mores - were Indian, but I disagree. It is a very Western film, with a Western perspective, made with Western techniques. I think an Indian - not Bollywood, but Indian independent filmmaking - interpretation of the novel would have been quite different. Trishna's motivations seemed very odd to me: that she was clearly beholden to her family values, but that she would abandon her maternal uncle and his wife so easily; that she was independent enough to leave one place once, but not to leave the second another. I understood the strictures she was placed under, just not always her response, and I think that an Indian adaptation of the novel may have had better insight.

It was interesting hearing Pinto speak, She is an extremely passionate and articulate young woman with a great deal to say and I was pleased to hear that she was frustrated by Trishna's passivity, especially since, from what I know of the novel, Tess had more autonomy than Trishna displays. In terms of her dialogue, most of her English-dialogue scenes consisted of yes, Sir, and no, Sir, which frustrated me as a viewer, especially as I came to detest Jay, the lover. But Trishna is a listener and an observer. Her one act of independence is therefore necessarily bloody. After a lifetime acting out others' instructions, of course her liberty would manifest violently.

There were things I enjoyed about the film, and in particular I was fond of the score, composed by Japanese composer Shigeru Umebayashi, and the songs which were written by Amit Trevedi. The musical tone was important to me because that is the India that I - and Trishna, who loves to dance to Bollywood songs on the television - know. The sound reminded me strongly of a Bollywood film called Chalte, Chalte - light narrative songs, sometimes plaintive, but extremely melodical. A small thing, but a joyful one for me.

There is a lot to be said about novel adaptations. I am told that the book contains two lovers, one spiritual and one physical, both of whom are represented in the film by Jay. I am interested in this process of transposing extremely English stories onto different world because I think the comparisons are apt, but I think the political ground is sometimes shaky. There are aspects of the film which feel vicarious - as though the producers used the country wihtout looking at the people. This is honestly not the case, but I wonder at things like the costumery at certain points. Things like having one of the songs subtitled are a clear invitation to Bollywood initiates, but the wide, framing shots are so clearly a Western eye lingering over the exotic landscape.

Ultimately, I was not satisfied with the film. I think it has strengths, and I wonder if I miss something by not knowing the novel very well. But I also think that the core of the film - Trishna's anxious position between tradition and desire - is not steadfastly or earnestly portrayed, and so I was not convinced that actions unfolded the way they did out of a need to do so. Trishna's passivity is problematic, and in the end, not something I could overcome. At least it is something beautiful to look at.