By John Corrado

★★★ (out of 4)

The 2023 Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 7th to 17th.

Tarsem Singh Dhandwar returns with Dear Jassi (which was awarded the Platform prize at TIFF), a stylistically mature romantic heartbreaker rooted in tragic fact that is both the Indian-born director’s first film set in India, and his most notable work since The Fall in 2006.

The film opens on Sikh musician Kanwar Grewal sitting in a field in India’s Punjab region, speaking to the camera. Grewal serves as our storyteller, introducing us to the tale of Jassi (Pavia Sidhu) and Mithu (Yugam Sood), two young people who fall in love in the 1990s, but face barriers to being together. Jassi comes from a more well-off family and has Canadian citizenship, splitting her time between India and Vancouver, while Mithu is a humble rickshaw driver from Jagraon, who is considered to be below her caste.

They meet while Jassi is visiting family in Jagraon, and stay connected through letters and phone calls, but these disparities and family tensions force them to hide the extent of their relationship. There is a lot to admire and like about Dear Jassi, which takes this tragic case and turns it into an epic Romeo and Juliet-style romance. The film doesn’t exactly hide where this is going (and many audience members will already know the well-documented true story), giving a somewhat somber air to the proceedings that is felt even during the breathless early courtship scenes.

The film is a bit slow to start, but the director steadily builds to a tense, unflinching last act that leaves an impact. The film also looks ravishing with its captivating cinematography by Brendan Galvin, which features rich colours and allows scenes to unfold through long takes, as the camera pans around the frame. There is a grounded maturity to Dhandwar’s filmmaking here, right down to the haunting, extended fade-out that has the feel of a funeral procession.