TIFF 2011 Coverage: First ‘Trishna’ Reviews

Trishna had its world premiere on Friday during the Toronto International Film Festival – and the first three five nine reviews are in! They’re mixed to positive, praising the cinematography and raw emotions of the main characters (Freida Pinto and Riz Ahmed), but a bit skeptical about the fact that they didn’t have a script. Read a few quotes about Freida and the movie below, click on the links to read the full reviews. As more reviews start coming in, I’ll be sure to post them as well.

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“…Winterbottom has also been extremely astute in his casting. Frieda Pinto has all the pouting beauty that Trishna requires as well as the awkwardness and vulnerability. Riz Ahmed is a revelation, showing bags of romantic leading man ability in a performance of immense charm and edge. He is such a sexy, appealing figure that he almost makes us too attached to Jay. When Jay turns increasingly controlling and cruel, it feels as much a betrayal of the audience as it does of Trishna’s wholehearted belief in him.”

Allan Hunter, Screen Daily

“Eclectic director Michael Winterbottom brought raw power to a Thomas Hardy adaptation once before, with Jude in 1996. In Trishna, he updates Tess of the d’Urbervilles to contemporary Rajasthan, India, delivering more emotionally muted yet arresting results, with Freida Pinto instilling fragile dignity into Hardy’s tragic heroine.”

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter

Culture deals a cruel hand to females in India, placing them and their future at the whim and mercy of the men in their lives, whether a father, an employer or a lover. I felt a sense of anger and defiance watching this, but Winterbottom so successfully conveyed this strange and different lifestyle that I found it believable to witness Trishna’s series of unwittingly short-sighted decisions. We root for her, but deep inside feel there is no escaping the life of woe and deceit she finds herself in.

Even though I enjoyed this film, there were a couple of weak areas.

First, the director opted to have the actors create much of their own dialogue and I felt the absence of a hard and fast script was rather apparent. The two lead characters lacked depth and fullness, mainly because the words weren’t there to give us the nuances needed to know who they were. Although as Ms. Pinto stated, it was a wonderful challenge for her as an actor – unfortunately it was her gain and the audiences’ loss.

wxgirl55, IMDb User

“Trishna is 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.

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.”

Damon Wise, The Guardian

“There isn’t any doubt that Trishna will capture a lot of attention at the next Academy Awards. It has all the makings of an Oscar contender: an outstanding leading lady, great direction, an impressive adapted screenplay, excellent cinematography and colourful costume design.”

David Rooney, Toronto Verve

“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.”

Peter Debruge, Variety

“When Freida Pinto walked the red carpet last week in Toronto at the premiere of Trishna, based on the Thomas Hardy classic (Tess of the D’Ubervilles) but set in Rajasthan and Bollywood, she made a bit of history. Of the five films she has acted in, four have been shown at the Toronto International Film Festival in three years. Trishna is very significant as she owns it, plays the title role and has given her most well-rounded and captivating performance yet. It is also her most substantial role.

The dark and tragic story of a chaste woman from a poor family who is seduced by a rich man who gets to see her more as a commodity as the story progresses, the film, directed by Britain’s Michael Winterbottom is sensuous in its early scenes. But by the time it moves into its last quarter, it becomes a story of tortured sex and callous male attitude, leading to a brutal murder and a powerful but downbeat ending.”

Arthur J Pais, Rediff.com

“Pinto gives a lovely performance here. No other role she’s been given — as the hero’s dream woman in Slumdog Millionaire, or as a Palestinian orphan girl in Julian Schnabel’s deeply disappointing Miral — has asked as much of her, and she greets the challenge boldly. In the barest terms of the plot, Trishna is a victim, a tragic heroine, but Pinto always lets you see the character’s immovable self-assurance shimmering beneath the surface — that’s the very thing that threatens her lover and tormentor, and brings about her downfall.”

Stephanie Zacharek, Movieline

“His question reminded me that I feel part of this story too — that I am a modern, western woman who travels in India; who has spent time in Rajasthan and Bombay; who has had relationships in India; and who has experienced the changing Indian society depicted in the film, though to a lesser degree — and thankfully to a much less tragic end!

In other words, the film rings true, despite its tragic and melodramatic story arc. And the excellence of the production adds to that truth — especially Freida Pinto’s acting. She is luminous. Her vulnerability is raw, and rare, and very moving.“

Mariellen, Breathe Dream Go