Trishna
Official release poster of Trishna
Directed by	Michael Winterbottom
Produced by	Sunil Bohra Melissa Parmenter Michael Winterbottom
Screenplay by	Michael Winterbottom
Based on	Tess of the d'Urbervilles  by Thomas Hardy
Starring	Freida Pinto Riz Ahmed
Music by	Amit Trivedi Shigeru Umebayashi
Cinematography	Marcel Zyskind
Editing by	Mags Arnold
Studio	Revolution Films Ballet Boyz Productions
Release date(s)	September 9, 2011 (2011-09-09) (Toronto Film Festival) September 3, 2012 (2012-09-03) (United Kingdom)
Running time	108 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English Hindi
Box office	$240,381[1]

Trishna is a 2011 British drama film directed by Michael Winterbottom, starring Freida Pinto and Riz Ahmed. The story is an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles. It is Winterbottom's third Hardy adaptation, after Jude and The Claim. It was shot in Jaipur and Mumbai, India, in early 2011.^[2] It premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9.^[3]

Plot [edit]

Based on Thomas Hardy's classic novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Trishna tells the story of one woman whose life is destroyed by a combination of love and circumstances. Set in contemporary Rajasthan, Trishna (Freida Pinto) meets a wealthy young British businessman Jay Singh (Riz Ahmed) who has come to India to work in his father's hotel business.

After an accident destroys her father's Jeep.Trishna accepts Jay's offer to work at his hotel, In order to support her family.

Jay is attracted to Trishna's beauty and innocence whilst Trishna also begins to develop feelings for Jay, but stays reserved due to her social status. Eventually she concedes and after a passionate encounter between them. Trishna starts to regret. Jay offers her to come and live in the city with him to which she agrees.

They have a live in relationship together. As time goes by tensions begin to rise between the couple. On the premise of a business trip he leaves her behind to fend for herself. With no news of Jay and no income to maintain herself in the city heartbroken Trishna returns to her village. To her surprise Jay returns to meet her and apologises. He offers her a job at his hotel where he promises to maintain their relationship.

Initially all is well. The happy couple maintain their relationship in secret whilst she works as an employee to his boss. Then things start to become tragic for Trishna. Jay becomes a changed man. He becomes heavily addicted to drinking and smoking cannabis. Under these influences he forces her to perform sexual acts and constantly abuses her. . And on one such occasion brutally rapes her. Trishna now fallen apart from this ordeal takes a kitchen knife and whilst Jay is sleeping stabs him to death. Trishna escapes the place and now resides back in the village with her family. Where she appears to be leading a normal life. In the tragic climax Trishna finds an isolated spot and commits suicide by stabbing herself with the same kitchen knife used to kill Jay. This is where the story ends.

Cast [edit]

• Freida Pinto as Trishna
• Riz Ahmed as Jay
• Anurag Kashyap as Himself
• Roshan Seth as Jay's father
• Amit Trivedi as himself
• Huma Qureshi
• Kalki Koechlin as Herself
• Neet Mohan as Sandeep
• Harish Khanna as Vijay
• Aakash Dahiya as Avit
• Meeta Vashisht as Trishna's mother

Production [edit]

The film was produced by Revolution Films and Ballet Boyz Productions, with financial support from Film i Väst and the UK Film Council. Filming took place in Jaipur, Rajasthan from 26 February 2011 and lasted six weeks.^[4]

Release [edit]

Critical reception [edit]

Trishna opened to a mostly positive response. It has a 67% score on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Film critic Roger Ebert wrote "Winterbottom is a director who never repeats himself, films all over the world, and in "Trishna," effortlessly embeds his story in modern India". Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal thought that the film was "spectacular visually, though awfully somber dramatically". It was nominated for Best Film at the London Film Festival and Tokyo Grand Prix at the Tokyo International Film Festival.^[5]

Box office [edit]

The film has earned $240,381 worldwide according to Box Office Mojo as of August 2012.

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Trishna at the Internet Movie Database