Trishna – Monday 19 March 2010
Our group saw this film at Tyneside Cinema – the Silver Screen showing, following which there is a regular discussion group.
The cinema was nearly full for this screening which leaves no doubt that we need to book in advance for Silver Screen and turn up early too in order to get group seats together.
Our group opinion was that it was a thought-provoking film with a real insight into the Indian lifestyle. Settings were colourful, chaotic and bustling. Sandra’s cutting from the Sunday Times “The Indian Highway Code” sprang to mind!
The story, based on Tess of the d’Urbervilles, differed from it not only in the location and time period but in the fact that only one male is involved. In Tess of the d’Urbervilles, there were two men, one whom Tess hated and the other she loved. This film combined the qualities of both those males in one. Someone in the discussion group pointed out the similarities between 19th century England and modern day India as far as acceptable moral values. Trishna, as a character, is quite one-dimensional, much more subservient and impressionable throughout than Tess, and can’t walk away from abuse. Tess, although innocent at first, seemed to learn from her experiences and differed from Trishna in that she neither fitted into the class she was born into nor the upper one into which her father tried to push her. The less said about the male character in the film Trishna the better! The denouement reflected Trishna’s descent into self-loathing and humiliating family dishonour rather than the result of any judicial retribution.
VERDICT: Interesting – what did you think?
