Social
class is a hard immutable fact of life in Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles.
Plunking the classic story down in contemporary America would be highly
problematic, but India is a different matter.
Taking a few liberties here and there, Michael Winterbottom still
captures the spirit of the original novel and its new setting in Trishna (trailer here), which screened
at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival, with further screenings coming up this week
as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival.
Jay
will serve as both Trishna’s Angel and Alec.
Touring the off-the-beaten-path attractions of Rajasthan, his head is
turned by Trishna, the primary provider for her large family. The son of a British hotel mogul, Jay recruits
the young woman for the resort he reluctantly manages. Things are quite pleasant for Trishna, making
considerably more than she ever could in her village, while Jay harmlessly
pines for her.
One
night when her defenses are weakened, Trishna succumbs to Jay’s advances. Instinctively realizing a Rubicon has been
crossed, Trishna retreats, but Jay pursues, whisking her off to Mumbai, where
they are socially accepted as a couple.
However, Trishna’s life and relationship will take a dark turn,
paralleling Tess’s tragic history with men.
You
never know what you’re going to get from Winterbottom, but he has emerged as
the leading cinematic interpreter of Hardy’s novel, following up Jude and The Claim, very loosely based on the Mayor of Casterbridge.
He is clearly comfortable navigating the film’s sexually charged power
dynamics, but Trishna also exhibits
an affinity for India, even including musical montage sequences (with original songs
composed by Amit Trivedi) that would not be out of place in high-end Bollywood
cinema.
Winterbottom
uses the subcontinent as a big canvas, covering a wide swath of geography, but
his focus rarely strays from Frieda Pinto’s Trishna. While some might find her maddeningly
passive, she is a product of her environment.
Through Pinto’s haunted presence, viewers get a sense of the social and
cultural weight crushing down on her.
Thanks to Winterbottom’s streamlining, Riz Ahmed’s Jay has to turn on a
dime from leading man to a cruel exploiter.
Still, there are enough underlying consistencies in the impulsive,
entitled persona he creates to maintain audience credibility. Pinto and Ahmed really carry the dramatic
load, but veteran character actor Roshan Seth (Chattar Lal in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom)
has some memorable moments as Jay’s stern but humanistic father.
