A First Look at Michael Winterbottom's <i>Trishna</i> (VIDEO)

Whether we are to believe the critics, who are all raving about Freida Pinto's performance in Michael Winterbottom's Trishna -- most have yet to watch the film -- the trailer looks intriguingly like an old-time Bollywood film. Maybe something from the Raj Kapoor era but colorized, with a dash of Sanjay Leela Bhansali thrown in, or perhaps it will remind you, as it did me, of Deepa Mehta's exquisite film Earth.

Winterbottom has been deep at work re-adapting and reinventing Thomas Hardy novels into cinematic oeuvres and this is his third try, after Jude the Obscure and The Calm. With Trishna Winterbottom transports Tess of the d"Urbervilles to modern-day India -- picturesque Rajastan more precisely -- where a clash between Trishna's (played by Pinto) rural roots and the urbanity and education that her employer Jay (played by British rapper Riz Ahmed) represents are inevitable.

The film will premiere at this year's Toronto International Film Festival on September 9th, 2011.