Videsh – Movie Review

Reminds me of Hermann Hesse, the Nobel-winning author who, in a prologue to one of his books, muses about the challenge of writing about non-existent things: “The fact that serious and conscientious men treat them as existing things brings them a step closer to existence…” Something like this happens to Chand ( Preity Zinta ) in Deepa Mehta’s film Videsh .

She leaves her home in a Punjab village to marry and live with her husband Rocky ( Vansh Bhardwaj ), and his family, in Canada. But within days of the wedding, she becomes a victim of domestic violence as her short-tempered, mom-loving husband beats her up for slightest of reasons.


A beautiful, buoyant girl who left her home with dreams of having a loving, caring hubby, Chand finds her unfulfilled desires and longings take an external form through the metaphoric episode of a sheshnaag, a cobra that, according to folklore, can assume human form.

This sheshnaag, that slithers in the backyard of the family’s home in Canada (where, we’re told, cobras aren’t found) enters the world of Chand as the husband she always longed for.

Inspired from Girish Karnad’s play ‘Naag Mandala’, the concept is absolutely mind-boggling. It makes ‘Videsh’ more than just a story of battered wives. It takes us into the minds and hearts of these women, who pop in painkillers to suppress the physical pain of repeated battering, but got no balm for their bruised souls. How the repressed feelings of one such woman find an outlet through her imagination is what makes ‘Videsh’ a class apart from other films on domestic violence.

Kudos to Deepa Mehta for making an exceptional film that’s so intense that it hardly spares you a moment to blink. Mehta’s execution is at par with the work of great masters of cinema. Notice the first time when sheshnaag appears as Chand’s husband. He has a wound on his back. Just a few moments earlier, we were shown Rocky chasing the snake and managing to strike it before it slips into its burrow. Or take that scene when Preity is made to catch the sheshnaag in front of the entire family to swear that she hasn’t cheated on her husband. The legend has it that if she lies, the snake will bite her, but if she tells the truth she’ll be spared. And when she holds the cobra in her hand and confesses, you realize she’s spoken the truth and yet absolved herself of all accusations.

It’s these deft and intelligent strokes that make ‘Videsh’ a thought-provoking masterpiece.

The movie could not have been the same without Preity Zinta, who inarguably gives the best performance of her career so far. Note the scene when she mixes love potion in her husband’s milk and waits for him to glance towards her. Or Preity’s emotive rendering of poetic monologues. They are reflections of her character’s longings.

Deepa Mehta has got the perfect cast ensemble in place. Vansh Bhardwaj oscillates between contrasting emotions without ever going over the top. The actors playing his mother, father, sister and brother-in-law are aptly cast.

Despite all its finesse, ‘Videsh’ or Heaven On Earth does appear skewed at places. For instance, in the entire family, Chand doesn’t find a single shoulder to cry on. It’s as if the entire family is up against her. But such minor lapses don’t take much away from the film.

‘Videsh’ keeps switching from colour to black-and-white intermittently, thereby alternating its intimacy with the audiences. It’s a cerebral, intelligent film that ought to be seen to be truly appreciated.

Hell, I’m gonna watch it again.

Rating: ****



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