Trishna

Riz Ahmed and Frieda Pinto in Michael Winterbottom’s Tishna (India/UK, 2011) ***

In a year of striking literary reinterpretations (Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre etc), Trishna may be the boldest of them all as writer/director Michael Winterbottom successfully translates the dark tragedy of Thomas Hardy’s late Victorian classic Tess Of The D’Urbervilles to the streets and mores of contemporary India. / From "Clueless" to "Cruel Intentions" to "Easy A," high school has provided directors a quick setting to approximate the conservative mores of classic novels in the modern world. With "Trishna," Michael Winterbottom happens upon an inspired alternative, relocating "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" to contempo India, where the Victorian attitudes of Thomas Hardy's romantic tragedy still echo in a meaningful way today. Starring an incandescent Freida Pinto, "Trishna" acknowledges but doesn't exactly embrace the Bollywood tradition, marrying Winterbottom's naturalistic style with terrific songs by Amit Trivedi. Exotic result should attract extensive festival and specialty play. 2011TOR, 2012SANF, 2012SEA, 2012TRI