Beautiful Preity’s Bold Role in Videsh *spoiler*

Deepa Mehta's internationally acclaimed and awarded film Videsh/Heaven On Earth starring effervescent Preity Zinta in a lead role will hit the Indian screens tomorrow. Preity will be seen for the first time in a deglam avatar essaying the role of simple middle-class Punjabi girl who gets married to an NRI and is subjected to abuse.

Talking about the film she says, "Videsh is a film which shows how the power of imagination helps us elevate our lives when reality becomes simply unbearable. It's not just a story of Chand who leaves her family residing in India's small village and goes abroad after marriage only to get subjected to abuse, it's a story of millions of girls who go through the same dilemma and have no support system in Videsh. It's a full bodied film in which abuse just plays a small but integral part. The film is also about immigration."

"Videsh is very intense and for me to play a woman who is vulnerable free-spirited yet traumatised, I had to understand the character well. The film is based on the play Nag-mandala written by Girish Karnad. Deepa also gave me a documentary 'Lets Talk about it' to go through for referential reasons. The documentary had been shot by children whose mother's faced domestic violence! It made me realize abuse is universal and exists everywhere. It is up to women to either bear it or oppose it. It's a matter of choice," she said talking about her role in the film.

We usually saw Preity doing our masala Bollywood flicks but what initiated this transition to such a real character and Preity explains, "Ten years ago when I entered the industry I was different. Today I want to climb higher mountains, reach higher peaks. I have newer dreams, ambitions; you can't stick to conventional all the time. I was frustrated two years back as I felt stagnated. With Videsh, I feel I've grown as an actor. I can't compare myself to the younger girls, as they are what I was years back. In recent past I've turned down lots of roles, it's just that I don't talk about it. I am secure and content with what I am doing."

We wish Preity luck' hope her film does well even on the Indian shores!

Ever known that blood-curdling sensation when you stand up for the so-called victim, unleashing a diatribe of verbal gunfire against the apparent offender, only to have the object of your blind support curtly nudging you, 'You're over reacting.'

Deepa Mehta latest does that to you. Videsh [Images] starts out as a disturbing account on domestic violence but loses all objectivity the minute it resorts to elements of mysticism, inspired by Girish Karnad's play Nagamandala. It's a dangerously incompatible mix and damages the possibility of a decent movie to an outright ridiculous one.

And that's really sad coming from Mehta, especially after demonstrating what fine filmmaking is all about in the poignant and profound Water.

In spite of the awkward dubbing from English to Hindi, it opens with enough promise. In Videsh or Heaven on Earth (its international title), Preity Zinta [Images] plays an unassuming, happy-go-lucky Ludhiana girl, Chand Grewal.

Cliches are gladly abandoned. Like there's no running around mustard fields or romping about colourful bazaars bargaining for glass bangles to establish the same. Instead her face lights up as she claps her hands in glee during a ladies sangeet/gidda or dabs talcum powder under her armpits inside an airport washroom (captured through Giles Nuttgens' discerning cinematography) providing ample evidence of her lively disposition.

Like most girls on the brink of marriage-hood, Chand too dreams of a rosy-hued future, doting hubby and affectionate in-laws. She's obviously a quintessential romantic who's hoping her life to turn into a Karan Johar [Images] brand of grand fairy tale, Made in Canada [Images]. But that's not the kind of fate Chand, married to Rocky (Vansh Bhardwaj doesn't impress with his lout-like stubble and grating grimace), an Ontario-based cabbie, meets.

Once inside a cold, unfamiliar foreign land, Chand finds herself isolated from all things humane. Exasperated by the ever-growing burden of his stiff-eye browed, conniving mum (Baljinder Johal), spineless dad (Rajinder Singh Cheema), jobless brother-in-law (Gourrav Sihan), indifferent sister (Ramanjit Kaur), their two kids -- a rebellious son and docile daughter, Rocky is least interested in having any conversation with, forget basking in the gentle affections of, his new bride. Depending on his mood, she's either his preferred punching bag or object for intercourse.

Needless to say, Rocky's revolting behaviour would make any self-respecting individual (on and off screen) clench his/her fist and give him a healthy dose of his own medicine. And that's exactly why a heavily-bruised Chand's desperation to lure him with some magical root potion strikes as particularly regressive. What follows from then on is just too bewildering to endure.

Without really getting into details, all I'll say is while I genuinely don't have any issue with mythological snakes falling in love with Bollywood's leading ladies, the purported twist in the plot seems most asinine and out of context. I mean, nagparikshas? Come on!

Besides deviating irrevocably from its original concerns, Videsh, despite its few 100 minutes duration and distressing assault scenes, is surprisingly slow and tepid, respectively. There are flashes of heartfelt anguish reflecting Chand's growing sense of alienation -- when she scribbles down her name and address on the walls of a public loo or makes whispered pleas to her beloved 'Wahe Guru' in a bid to get connected with her parents on the phone. But the impact of her appeal is diluted in the disjointed narrative crammed with suggestions of various sub-plots involving immigration, ambition, isolation and loss of innocence, to name a few.

Also pray, why does the film enter black and white mode at repeated intervals? It's neither a flashback nor symbolic. And it's certainly not stylish.

What Mehta truly succeeds at is extracting a landmark performance out of Preity Zinta. The actress immortalised in effervescence erases any trace of happiness she may have previously conveyed with her startling transformation into Chand. Known for her forthright ways and liberated views, Preity breaks away from her real-life image to effectively slip into the wounded soul of her character. Even when she talks to the camera, unexpectedly breaking into grim, trance-filled monologues, there's immense fervour in her convictions.

Despite the vagueness that ensues, the cast, besides Preity, including Baljinder Johal as the overbearing mother-in-law and Ramanjit Kaur as the silently sympathetic sister-in-law, fares well. If only the screenplay had not taken such a serpentine turn, under the pretext of imagination, in surfeit, that is.

Heaven on Earth is a cool title for a cocktail. Apply it as a concept in a script. And the result is as ambiguous, mixed up and convoluted as Videsh.

Rediff.Com

Originally posted by: AmritaRao-Nina

I love Rani and Priety because they have done some great roles than look just glam. This is a interesting subject want to see it.

i have seen the film and i think preity has done a wonderful job