Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Jesse Boland A friend asked me to watch this movie and I am still glad I did. What you get is a story of Sexual Harassment, abuse of power, and abuse of the power of love. Two very big surprises made this tale so complete, and so much more touching. Poor Trishna, she dropped everything for him 3 times, and was never more than a conquest, or a possession the whole time. She gave in to love every time, but she should have given herself a chance instead. Take a chance on this movie, but be warned it gets dark. I Enjoyed this movie from the start, and if you can handle subtitles (most of this movie is English speaking though) I suggest that you give it a try. This is a retelling of an old story, and it is truly beautiful when it is not ripping your heart out.

gradyharp To claim that TRISHNA is an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' is really stretching the imagination. This is an engrossing film about caste differences in India: the screenwriters are not mentioned - only the fact that director Michael Winterbottom based his story on Hardy's famous novel seems to be more of a PR draw than reality. But the film is well acted and the aromas and atmospheres of India are well captured.TRISHNA reveals the life of one woman whose life is destroyed by a combination of love and circumstances. Set in contemporary Rajasthan, Trishna (Freida Pinto, beautiful and sensitive) meets a wealthy young British businessman Jay Singh (Riz Ahmed, inordinately handsome and polished) who has come to India to work in his father's hotel business. After an accident destroys her father's Jeep, Trishna goes to work for Jay, and they fall in love. But despite their feelings for each other, they cannot escape the conflicting pressures of a rural society which is changing rapidly through industrialization, urbanization and, above all, education. Trishna's tragedy is that she is torn between the traditions of her family life and the dreams and ambitions that her education has given her: the sexual double standard to which Tess falls victim despite being a truly good woman makes her despised by society after losing her virginity before marriage. Trishna has choices after she receives an education, but she instead chooses to follow her passion for Jay. Jay truly loves Trishna but his social class demands that he keep Trishna as an employee, making his physical love affair with her a private matter due to the rules of the caste system. Jay does not seem to be a villain here and Trishna is not a victim: these two facts make the ending a bit over the top and unnecessary. A more intelligent script could have made this a first class film.Freida Pinto and Riz Ahmed are fascinating to observe as they work through the confines of love in a world that does not condone their union. The other characters in the cast are excellent - especially Roshan Seth as Jay's father. In setting the story in contemporary India the director seems to have decided it was important to include cellphones and Bollywood dancing rehearsals and filmmaking to provide spice. But in the end it is the fine acting by Pinto and Ahmed that make this film work. Grady Harp

Karl Ericsson Michael Winterbottom is famous for making his actresses undress and perform 'nekkid'. Not so in this movie and that is the spoiler although I rather see it as an 'unspoiler', since you will not spoil time seeing this film when I reveal this. The main actress is beautiful and comes away from this movie quite 'unspoiled', which means not 'nekkid'.The film is 210 minutes long and the action begins in the 90tieth minute and ends shortly afterwords. Before that there are pictures of India that at times are nice looking and there is a beautiful song when the end titles begin, which maybe is a little late for a movie to be beautiful.If you take a classy movie and remove the porn, then you may still have a classy movie but if you take a classy porn and remove the porn, what will you get then? There was a classy movie on the same subject as this film by Roman Polanski called 'Tess'. It was so classy that I do not even remember if there was any porn or nakedness in it. It was beautiful from the very start to the very end but I do not even remember if the music was beautiful or if there was any music in it at all.Here there is a lot of music and a lot of dancing - so much so, that you begin to wonder if Indians do nothing but dance. Certainly they seem to love dancing judging by the Bollywood movies that are full of it and unintentionally hilarious because of it. There's so much dancing in Bollywood movies that if you see just one of them you will not want to dance for the rest of your life! So this is Tess with Indian dancing and this is Winterbottom without the bottoms or buttocks. And there is the fast forward button and if you sit on it with your bottom while watching and your bottom is small enough not to interrupt the beam from the remote control you may maybe endure seeing this movie.

Nicholas Lyons (Copyright1994) I was lucky enough to attend the world premiere of Trishna at the Toronto International Film Festival. Here is what I thought of it: The story is based on one of the most celebrated pieces of literature of all time, Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the d'Ubervilles". Director Michael Winterbottom takes this classic tale and adapts it for modern audiences by changing the setting to contemporary India. Does this work? Surprisingly, it does, and this is coming from someone who hasn't ever read the novel nor seen the 1979 Academy Award winning film adaptation from Roman Polanski, "Tess". The titular character, Trishna (Freida Pinto), is a humble, soft-spoken young woman and the eldest daughter of a poor, rural, Indian family. While working at a nearby resort to help pay the bills, she is swept off her feet by a young British businessman, Jay (Riz Ahmed), who finds himself in India to manage a hotel at the request of his father, a wealthy property developer. When Trishna's father is severely injured in an automobile accident, Jay asks her to work for him, and she shyly accepts. Their feelings for each other grow the more they spend time together. However, Trishna isn't easily torn away from her beloved family nor her traditional life nor her ambition as a dancer, and she's in for some drastic changes when she moves to Mumbai with her lover. To be honest, I really didn't know what to expect from this film. I entered the theatre only knowing two things about it: (1) the story is based on a classic novel and (2) it's set against an Indian backdrop. Never would I have guessed-- even at an hour and a half into the film-- that this simple premise would progressively turn into something a lot more shocking, to say the least (the last 10 minutes made the whole audience gasp simultaneously). This is a unique kind of cinema that really transgresses the boundaries of conventional filmmaking with the way it develops a seemingly simple story and with the many reactions it gets out of the audience as it unfolds. I guess you could call the film a little deceiving, because it never goes in the direction you imagine it would go. But I'm not suggesting that there's a plot twist at the end, so please don't go expecting that. What makes the ending so shocking, then? It's all due to the gradual, subtle buildup that does a great job developing the characters of Trishna and Jay as their relationship becomes increasingly odd and discomforting for the viewer. I don't know if I was alone here, but as I was watching the film, I was kind of going through what Trishna had to go through-- emotionally, of course. I believe this confirms that Freida Pinto still has what it takes to deliver a solid performance since her "Slumdog Millionaire" fame. The acting isn't anything amazing or noteworthy, but there's no denying that she does a good job in her role, despite being a little inconsistent in some scenes of dialogue between her and Riz Ahmed, the male co-star who plays Jay. He was surprisingly decent for a relatively unknown industry newcomer, but-- once again-- nothing extraordinary. To be honest, if it weren't for this ending, the film's many flaws would be significantly more distinctive and visible for me. I just can't get over how well everything is tied together in the last few scenes. This is where Michael Winterbottom finally achieves in putting his point across; in making sense out of the film as a cohesive whole. Apart from the unique structure and progression of the story, "Trishna" has many other memorable elements. I was particularly blown away by the beautiful, on-location shots and nearly candid cinematography that gave us a very realistic perception of life in India, and the clearly-defined division between both social classes. I loved how a great deal of non- actors were used in the production of the film (for instance, Freida Pinto claimed that her character's family was in fact a real family in rural India who cooperated with the crew). Throughout the entire film, there's so much absorbing beauty in all the outside locations in India that you won't believe your eyes! For the mere fact that what you're seeing in the background is completely real, you should be as blown away as I was while watching the film! It's breathtaking! This exquisite imagery is backed up by a powerful original score from Mike Galasso that complements the Indian countryside and the Mumbai cityscape without ever sounding too traditional or foreign. Music plays a key role in enhancing the emotion of this particular film. Despite all of these admirable aspects, this film is far from being perfect (though the concept of perfection is, in itself, flawed). I still question the pertinence of certain scenes in the film, as well as the strength of the narrative structure. Will "Trishna" stand the test of time? Will it live up to its original power upon multiple viewings? I'm inclined to say "no" to both of these questions, despite being very affected by this piece of cinema. It was clear that most of the audience wasn't very impressed by such avant-garde cinema, but I'm sure I wasn't the only one who admired it in so many ways. To me, this film feels like a one-time experience; an interesting artistic vision capable of marking you and staying with you for some time. So, go ahead! Whenever you get the chance to see this film, I say "go for it!". It's something refreshingly unconventional that you might find yourself drawn by for the same reasons as me! I recommend seeing "Trishna" because of its ultimately shocking, thought-provoking nature. Come on! You have nothing to lose! (Except a small sum of money, perhaps.)