Nothing like a father's love for his daughter

Drawing parallels from history and eternal love, a daring new movie explores the father-daughter relationship

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feamre film

Ttfi premiered in Adelaide as part of the OzJ\s ia Fescival 2012. Winston i s a deepthinking wr iter who, in this film, has tried to put across some of bis thoug hts through the relationships and circumstances of his characters. The Sri .Lankai1 born director's visit to the Taj Mahal in India inspired him to depict the notion of the abiding love of Shah J ehan a nd Mumtaz Mahal, w ith the modern setting of Me lbourne as a backdrop to the story. Tty is about estranged father Vjay, starring new find t\lfahesh Jadu , who realises almost roo !ate his love for his 12-year-old daughter Priyanthi.

For m e the sta.r of the film is Pri yanthi, played by the delightfully named Coco-Jacinta Cherian who is Lmdoubtedly destined for greater things, having already secured a ro le in J'\Teighbozm After neglecting his daugh ter for a couple of rear s, Vjay, who has been attemptin g to write a b ook while taking dr ugs and gambling, exercises his vis iting righ ts which leads to the father and daughter drawing closer and evenmally sharing the task of building a model of t he Taj Maha l with Lego bricks, w hich is quite an original couch

The director aL~o introduces a couple of Vjay's friends - the first, a restaurateur and t he other,

W r it er- directo r Win ston Furlo ng, a nd a sce ne from his film Taj a vi sitor from Fiji. Both point out and contrast how o ne sho u ld live one's life against how Vjay is living h is This juxtaposi ci on succeeds in highlighting Vjay's pointless pam and li.festyle. The writer tries to show how one needs co be amhenric and true to onese l f, doing the best one can and n o t to try to be someone e lse. B r tl1e end of me film we see Vjay waicing at tables and thinking about going back to teach ing English as he used to do, as a path towards redemption. I r's a story about seeing the light and coming back o nro me righr path

While Coco-Jacinta was faul tless in her portrayal in every scene as the daughter of an estranged couple who loves botl1 her parents and also her mother's new love, Mahesh Jadu's somewhat brooding performance lacks a little subtlety, but is easily compensared for by his s hockingly good looks The supporting cast provide varied perfo rmances witl1 tl1e character Arlene as Pri yamhi's mother, p layed by Natalie O 'D onnell, and Vjay's estranged wife putting in a convincing performai1ee in her attempt to gee on with her life while protecting her daughter.

The fil m includes some events and scenes which could possibly have been handled d i fferentlj', and as Furlong himself said, tl1e suggestion that Vjay may have a form of cancer being included in the storyline perhaps did not quite come off. It's easy to see how difficult it must be to cry to strengtl1en a storyline by me in cl usion of material tl1at does not have a direct be aring on tl1e plot.

The fil m bas already been on the inrernacional festival circuit h aving been shown in Busan in South Korea, and B osto n and Tiburon,

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The company can also sponsor su itable candidates for Regional Ski lled Migration Visa born in me USA. Ir is due for a limited release in Australia later this year and 1 can see it making audiences sit up and think.

The sc reening of me film was followed b y a Q&A s ession with Furlong, and mere i s nothing like meeting w ith the w riter/director to g ive added life to a film.

Furlong immediately ap o logised for the inexplicab le loss of synchronisation of the sound to the film, and tl1en proceeded to g ive a b it of background and take questions

It \Vas interesting to n ote mat be has given up a career in engineering, but one can see his pass ion and the sh eer p leasure he gets fro m hi s present career of writing and film- making. Furlong had toyed with me id ea o f writing the great epic novel, but thoug ht better o f it. His e loquence and ease of communicacing were quite disarming and drew the audience closer to hi.n1. Furlong readily admitted that in the making of T"j he learned something about fil m -making but also learned a lot about hin1self. Furlong admitted that perhaps he s hould have spent a little more time o n the script which was a little wanting occasionally. And )'Ct, it's a moving , sensitive film tl1at leaves you wishing for a happy futme for Vjar- I n mis self-funded fu lllength movie, we have a man in Winsto n Furlong who took a risk, achieved a goal and is n ow setting about otl1er projects. Incidentally, a new screenplay of his entitled Serena and H er Sisten was a finalist i.n the New York Screenplay competicion 2012, in tl1e Comedy sectio n. Tty. is not a Bollywood dhol"k film but o ne mat has some trutl1 co li fe an d is well worth viewing.