A scene from ‘Dear Jassi’

TIFF ’23 Review: ‘Dear Jassi’ is a heart-wrenching tale of forbidden love

‘Dear Jassi’ depicts the real-life tragedy of two young people who are punished for falling in love with each other.

Finding someone to love and spend your life with can be a daunting task with hopefully positive results. But in some cultures, the search is taken out of people’s hands and given to their families. Whether the soon-to-be-wed have a say in their ultimate match varies, though it’s expected they’ll find happiness either way. This process becomes complicated when the prospective betrothed fall in love without their family’s approval and absolutely problematic when it’s someone who would never receive their family’s approval. The choice then becomes family or love. In Dear Jassi, a young couple pay dearly for their forbidden relationship.

Jassi’s (Pavia Sidhu) family moved from Punjab to Canada to provide a better life for the next generation. On a trip to visit her cousins, Jassi meets a poor boy named Mithu (Yugam Sood) and they immediately fall in love with each other. Exchanging letters and phone calls, they establish a long-distance relationship. After failed attempts to bring Mithu to Canada, Jassi returns with a ploy to introduce him to her family so he can ask for permission to marry her. When a series of events make this impossible, they secretly wed, hoping it will be easier to beg forgiveness than to seek permission.

The opening narrator frames the tale as one of Romeo and Juliet, so audiences expect their relationship is not going to have a happy ending. But the manner in which it all goes wrong is beyond the horrors of anyone’s imagination and to see it unfold (directly or implied) on-screen is devastating. The two-hour film takes on an ominous tone for the final 30 minutes as the couple’s jubilation turns to anxiety and the viewer nervously anticipates the repercussions for their secret relationship. While expertly executed by director Tarsem Singh, the punishment for their actions is appalling, particularly in the context that the film is based on a true story, and impacts audiences in a way that is not easily forgotten.

That said, for a filmmaker known more for his visual style, Singh brings a new level of substance to the screen and truly captures the heart of this story. It’s not all poetry and roses as every step of Jassi and Mithu’s relationship feels difficult and worked for, but to the actors’ credit, their devotion to each other permeates the film. The locations are indistinct, though there is a vague colour palette — vibrant when they’re together, drab when they’re apart and dark when they are under threat. It underlines the switch when something so beautiful turns so ugly. It’s difficult to imagine hating anything or anyone so vehemently over something so innocent, yet these circumstances are not unique.

Even though the last act is upsetting, the film as a whole is exceptionally well-made, effectively drawing audiences into their romance so, when the time comes, they can also experience their pain.

Dear Jassi had its world premiere in the Platform programme at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Read other reviews from the festival.

Director: Tarsem Singh
Starring: Pavia Sidhu, Yugam Sood and Gourav Sharma

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