Directed by Tarsem Singh
In 1996 Punjab, India, Canadian-born Jassi falls in love with Mithu, a rickshaw driver beneath her social status. Their attraction is pure and unconditional, but is it strong enough to fight the dictates imposed by Jassi’s family and Punjabi society?
디어 자시, 旁遮普邦的羅密歐與茱麗葉
Canada Toronto International Film Festival 
UK BFI London Film Festival 
Hong Kong Hong Kong International Film Festival 
USA New York Indian Film Festival Canada Hong Kong UK USA 
JUSTICE FOR MITHU AND JASSI I NEED FUCKING JUSTICE
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i’m a wreck after watching this. this movie lured my attention in from the Wes Anderson x Bollywood style going on, but it takes you through a hell of a journey. every single shot in this movie is a painting, and the direction this movie takes is something VERY my taste.
i hate that this is a true story. i hate that this still happens. i hate that this is not the only romeo + juliet story to happen. and i especially hate that it took 22 FUCKING years for this case to settle.
absolutely heartbreaking, but tarsem singh just jumped up to one of my favorite directors, and i have a lot to learn from this film.
4.4
faith in a doomed love, hope the inevitable won’t come to pass. the poetic, masterful first half makes the second all the more upsetting. the letter reading scene is incredible, lives and words flowing in and out of each other seamlessly. love as a political act, conservatism begetting oppression and violence. upsetting in its restraint, lets the images speak for themselves.
Far more concerned with getting to the (absolutely devastating) finale than it is at telling a love story with characters that feel real. A tragic love epic where we barely get to see the characters fall in love and be in love. Maybe that’s the point - they’re young and superficially lovestruck like Romeo and Juliet - but it felt like missed potential to me and maybe even kind of distasteful given how things end. An important true story nonetheless, and I’m glad I’ve been made aware of it, but I don’t know…
Definitely the most upsetting film I’ve seen at TIFF this year.
“I appreciate that you find me beautiful
But I think God made me beautiful for you.”
A story of two halves, the first focusing on the larger than life, far-fetched, love at first sight relationship between Jassi and Mithu and the second dealing with the frankly brutal reality of the outcome of the family involvement in their relationship.
A total rollercoaster.
A tough, impactful, moving work. Glad to have Tarsem back making films
This is an offensive romanticization and tragic porn version of the true story the film is based on, where the character of Jassi is dumbed down to be a naive, irrational, love crazed girl. Instead of showing her resiliency, the film decided to focus on her suffering. The allusion to Romeo and Juliet is invalid for many reasons such as colonializing viewer’s expectation from the very start of the film. The circumstances the main characters went through is not at all similar to that of the Shakespeare play, and has very different morals from it. Jassi’s character feels one dimensional despise a tormentingly slow pacing of 2 hours - who is she other than a young woman in love eager…
Finally got a chance to see this devastating and infuriating film that is based on a true story. It is absurd that it still does not have distribution when it should be shown everywhere. At the MoMA Q&A Tarsem mentioned that the film might not be screened again. Hope that won’t end up being the case, but if you are in NYC, MoMA has one more showing on May 2.
very immersive and heart breaking.
was lucky to watch the film with Tarsem himself.
also proud of my homies who have worked on this film.
Assured and very moving, a formal confinement organizing resonant emotionality in what could be dismissed as an underdeveloped attraction. The proximity within which the camera is placed, its variable z-axis as additive to the motif of a pan, conjures and enforces the fated trajectory the narrative refuses to allow us ignorance over. In ways, a vicious film, a film in mourning, a film not knowing what to do with its anger.
Bringing back the bcs tag felt like King Arthur pulling out the sword from the stone
Watched this courtesy of Tarsem Singh himself who got me a ticket after a MoMA screening of The Fall. He took the time out of his afternoon to talk to anyone who approached him after The Fall, and even happily took pictures with people when he didn't have to be there at all.
I told him I loved seeing an Indian director do American films, and he asked where I'm from. After telling him my parents' countries, he joked "So you're fucked huh!" And that's pretty funny if you know where I'm from. He urged me to stay for the film because it's related to our shared culture, and said he'd get me a ticket just to make sure I…
