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Starring:
Preity Zinta, Gick Grewal, Vansh Bhardwaj, Geetika
Sharma, Orville Maciel, Ramanjit Kaur, Balinder Johal,
Rajinder Singh Cheema, Gourrav Sihan, Ramona
Omidvar-Khullar, Balwinder Singh Chana, Rodny Ahluwalia
Directed by Deepa Mehta
The film
inspired by Girish Karnad's play Nagamandala’s Hindi
title is Videsh, for international market it is ‘Heaven
on Earth’.
Chand (Preity Zinta) journeys from India to Canada to
marry Rocky (Vansh Bhardwaj), a man she has never met
and to live with her husband’s extended family in
Brampton. Soon trapped between tradition and the desire
for happiness, she retreats into a parallel mythical
world. But when myth and reality collide Chand must
choose between duty and freedom.
Rosa sees past the make-up that covers Chand’s bruised
face. Realizing Chand has nowhere to turn, Rosa gives
her a magical root advising her “to put it in whatever
the bastard drinks.”
The root
seduces the one who takes it, making them fall
hopelessly in love with the person who gives it to them.
Chand’s attempts with the magic root lead to surreal
incidents and her life gradually begins to mirror an
Indian fable involving a King Cobra. As the lines
between fantasy and reality converge, Chand and Rocky
come face to face with each other and themselves.
In Hindu mythology the King Cobra is the most feared and
worshipped of all the snakes. Lord Shiva, the most
powerful of the Hindu Gods, wears a King Cobra like a
garland around his neck. This is to show he is beyond
death. The King Cobra can also take any guise. When the
snake appears to Chand, it comes in the form of a very
loving and different Rocky. It is the Rocky she longs
for and soon she cannot tell the two apart.
Preity Zinta ought to be lauded to select such roles,
and she has come out with an award winning performance. So
apt she is for the role of Chand, that there is virtually
no actress in Bollywood who could have done better. Known
for her straightforward ways and liberated views, she has
wonderfully acted the just opposite as Chand and one
immediately sympathizes at her character. Newcomer Vansh
Bhardwaj too is impressive.
Director Deepa Mehta has keen sense of details and a
master of emotions and drama. In the second half when
things take a supernatural twist, it just unexpected! A
good watch for those who love fine cinema.
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PAW
CAST
Chand - Preity Zinta
Chand’s Mother - Gick Grewal
Rocky - Vansh Bhardwaj
Loveleen - Geetika Sharma
Kabir - Orville Maciel
Aman - Ramanjit Kaur
Maji - Balinder Johal
Papaji - Rajinder Singh Cheema
Baldev - Gourrav Sihan
Other Bride - Ramona Omidvar-Khullar
Priest - Balwinder Singh Chana
Cabby - Rodny Ahluwalia
Rosa - Yanna Mcintosh
Supervisor - Indiana Jagait
Rocky's Friend - Dilbagh Dhaliwal
Teenager - Shainu Bala
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Vibrant and irrepressibly alive, Chand is
a young bride leaving her home in Ludhiana, India, for
the cavernous landscape of Brampton, Ontario, where her
husband Rocky (Vansh Bhardwaj) and his very traditional
family await her arrival. Everything is new to Chand;
everything is unfamiliar including the quiet and shy
Rocky who she meets for the first time at the Arrivals
level of Pearson Airport. Chand approaches her new life
and her new land with equanimity and grace, and at times
the wide-eyed optimism of hope—her first snowfall is a
tiny miracle of beauty, and the roar of Niagara Falls
creates the excitement of new beginnings.
But soon optimism turns to
isolation as the family she has inherited struggles
beneath the weight of unspoken words, their collective
frustration becoming palpable. No one feels the pressure
more than Rocky, weighed down by familial obligations. A
controlling mother who can’t let him go, a sweet but
ineffectual father, and a sister whose two children and
unemployed husband are also a burden. All live with Rocky
and Chand in a two-bedroom house in the suburbs of
Toronto. To make matters worse, Rocky is expected to find
the money to bring his extended family to Canada. Unable
to express his anger, he finds other ways to release it
and it’s Chand who bears the brunt of his repressed rage.
Trapped in a world she cannot comprehend and unable to
please her husband, Chand is desperate. Hope comes in the
form of Rosa (Yanna McIntosh), a tough and savvy
Jamaican-Canadian woman who works alongside Chand in a
factory where immigrant women from all over the world
clean and press dirty hotel laundry.
Credits & Crew:
A Deepa Mehta Film
A Hamilton Mehta Production
In Co-Production With
The National Film Board Of Canada
Writer & Director - Deepa Mehta
Producer - David Hamilton
Director Of Photography - Giles Nuttgens
Production Designer - Dilip Mehta
Editor - Colin Monie
Music Score By Mychael Danna
Sound Recordist - Sylvain Arseneault
Costume Designer - Rashmi Varma
Produced With The Participation Of
Telefilm Canada, Astral Media The Harold Greenberg Fund,
Ontario Media Development Corporation
Produced In Association With The Movie Network, Cbc
Television, Movie Central
Co-Producers - Anita Lee, Mehernaz Lentin
Executive Producers - Ravi Chopra, David Hamilton, Silva
Basmajian, Deepa Mehta, Sanjay Bhuttiani
Line Producer/Production Manager - Stephen Traynor
First Assistant Director - David Mcaree
Second Assistant Director - Lorin Raine
Associate Producer - Richard Blonski
Art Director - Bill Layton
Special Effects Coordinator - Derek Liscoumb
Snake Wrangler - Tiger Paw Exotics
Snake Handler - Tim Height
Casting Director - Marsha Chesley
Photographer - Dusty Mancinelli
Associate Producer (India) - Swapna David
Unit Production Manager - Alok Kapur
Production Coordinator - Chandni Kumar
First Assistant Director - Siddhartha Luther
Second Assistant Director - Ananya Rane
Director’s Assistant & Locations - Kabir Singh
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