Blimey, I have watched a lot of movies from India lately.
And even when it came to one by Lancashire lad Michael Winterbottom there was no respite.
I'm something of a Winterbottom fan. I thought A Might Heart was a tremendous picture, was quite taken with Genova and was blown away by The Killer Inside Me.
Thus, I approached Trishna with a decent level of expectation, despite having no idea of the story of Tess Of The D'Urbevilles on which it is based,
Thomas Hardy's story is apparently set a 100 years before Winterbottom's modern adaptation but, sadly, I can't offer a comparison.
What I will say is that Trishna starts very promisingly, goes through a mundane middle but has a terrific kick in the tail.
Freida Pinto, who has specialised in western movies plays the title role of a girl from an Indian village who falls for a rich and smooth-talking English Indian tourist (Riz Ahmed).
Credit to Pinto, Trishna is a naive much younger woman, but she carries the part off with aplomb.
Ahmed, meanwhile, oozes initial charm but has a dark side looming.
Winterbottom's movie gets into Indian culture in a way that Bollywood, ironically, tends not to.
Indian-made movies lean towards fantasy, presumably trying to take their audience away from the difficult day-to-day lives which Winterbottom highlights.
However, it also shows India's richness of colour and countryside, its vibrancy and its traditions.
He also throws in three songs for good measures to add to the authentic Indian-movie feel.
As said, I began being very taken with Trishna but wandered a bit only to be re-engerised when Trishna's relationship with her beau takes an intense turn.
Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: one nasty scene
Nudity: There are a lot of love-making scenes but the action stays out of camera shot.
Overall rating: 7/10
Thanks to Jake at Artificial Eye for the online link (these are just great with our new Smart TV!).