Videsh Bollywood Movie Review

Preity Zinta plays the young village belle Chand. She arrives in Canada to be married to a man she has never met Rocky (Vansh Bhardwaj) with just one suitcase to call her own leaving her parents and brother back home in India.Her husband on the other hand is a short tempered young man who is dealing with his own pressures within the family. His mother still wants to have a hold on him, his father has no say in the house and with his sister, brother-in-law and their kids moving in the house is already bursting at its seams when Chand arrives.

To make matters worse, he is solely responsible for earning enough money so he can arrange for the immigration for the rest of his siblings to Canada as well.Chand on the other hand is educated and comes from a family where she is loved and pampered. Here in a foreign land, she tries to find comfort in her husband only to be mistreated and physically abused by him. While working in a factory, Chand meets a Jamaican woman who sees the bruise marks on Chand and gives her a magical root that she says will help turn her husband around.

However, the root has no effect on her husband and she only finds herself falling further into the trap of being at the mercy of her husband and his family. But that’s till she finds herself in the middle of an old Indian fable that suddenly gives her an understanding and loving husband. Confused how he suddenly changes during the day and then at night, Chand finds her sanity in imagining her loving husband in the face of a King Cobra – the old Indian fable of the icchadari naag.Videsh: Heaven on Earth disappoints you at every level.

The script is ridiculous and the acting even worse. Vandh Bhardwaj flies off the handle for no apparent reason. Yes he maybe short tempered and yes domestic abuse doesn’t ever have any logic, but the way here he is made to start beating his wife is ridiculous. The mother in law is equally annoying and actually reminds you of one of Ekta Kapoor’s numerous vamps who are obsessed with their sons! Don’t get him married if you want him tied to yourself – it’s really as simple as that.Coming to Preity in the film, the Bollywood actress plays the abused wife who is trying to please her husband well; but her character is so badly written that she couldn’t have saved the film no matter how hard she tried.

The differing shades of excitement, confusion and then helplessness are portrayed very well by Zinta but sadly a whole film cannot ride on it – no matter how short it is.Deepa Mehta who has given us brilliant award winning films disappoints with Videsh: Heaven on Earth.

While I agree with the concept of her film – young girl goes from a village, is married abroad only to find herself in a dead end and dealing with domestic abuse – I find that the film lacked enough meat. While we waited for the big deliveries to arrive, every time you had to settle for Zinta singing couplets to make herself oblivious to what she was going through.All in all Videsh doesn’t offer you any Heaven in your cinema, let along on Earth!