Jay Singh (Riz Ahmed) is a westernized Indian. He and his friends travel out into rural Rajasthan and stays at a local hotel. He is taken with villager Trishna (Freida Pinto) performing at the hotel. She and her father are injured in a car accident. Her father can't work and they struggle with the debt. Jay offers her a job at his family's hotel outside of Jaipur. Jay falls deeper in love and one night, he does something which changes everything.
Director Michael Winterbottom brings out a beauty from the setting and Freida Pinto is a large part of that. The story lacks a focus that would raise its inherit social commentary and tension. First I would make Jay's hotel much more modern. It needs to differentiate from Trishna's home town. Then there is that night. It's filmed with so much ambiguity that it doesn't really make the point hard enough. This is an adaptation of the classic Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and there is a good parallel between the two social worlds. This movie should work a lot better than this.
Director Michael Winterbottom brings out a beauty from the setting and Freida Pinto is a large part of that. The story lacks a focus that would raise its inherit social commentary and tension. First I would make Jay's hotel much more modern. It needs to differentiate from Trishna's home town. Then there is that night. It's filmed with so much ambiguity that it doesn't really make the point hard enough. This is an adaptation of the classic Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and there is a good parallel between the two social worlds. This movie should work a lot better than this.