THE HENNA ARTIST: Freida Pinto cast in TV Adaptation of Alka Joshi’s Drama novel Set in post-independent India

Freida Pinto Cast in The Henna Artist

Freida Pinto will soon be starring in the Miramax TV adaptation of The Henna Artist, the new Alka Joshi novel. After her success co-starring in the sleeper hit Slumdog Millionaire (2008), Pinto became a highly sought after actress noted for her supporting role in the Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) and for starring in Bruno Mars’ music video Gorilla (2013). More recently she was nominated for best supporting actress in the 2018 Indian Film Festival of Melbourne for her performance in Love Sonia (2018) in addition to the many awards and nominations she had received for Slumdog Millionaire. I think this will be a big step in Pinto’s career, as it will be her first leading role in such a prestige drama and a chance to raise her profile in the US market.

Set in 1950s post-independence India, the book itself follows the story of Lakshmi, a woman who flees her abusive marriage and ends up as a henna artist for the powerful families of the upper castes and is entrusted with their many secrets. Henna is a dye prepared from the Henna tree as well as an intricate, mesh like Indian tattoo style created with Henna dye. Catherine Ford of the Calgary Herald notes its richly evocative prose noting phrases like “‘gossip eaters” for the women who spread rumours and [that] the taste and smell of cumin and turmeric is almost palpable,” which is why I think Joshi’s writing style will translate nicely to the small screen where the audiovisual elements can capture these sensory experiences in a way that prose never can.

Like the book, the show will presumably focus on the frustration of having to navigate the highly discriminatory Hindu caste system and protect the reputation of one’s family as a woman of low caste. As Joshi herself writes: “In India, individual shame did not exist. Humiliation spreads, as easily as oil on wax paper, to the entire family, even to distant cousins, uncles, aunts, nieces and nephews.” As a white American man who has never been to the subcontinent, I have only a basic understanding of the struggle of caste discrimination; though I think this show is going to be highly topical in 2020, as non Hindu Americans are starting to become aware of how pervasive the caste system still is, even in Indian diaspora communities around the world. We’re starting to see it in productions like Netflix’s popular Indian Matchmaking (2020), which has been criticized for discouraging high caste Indian youth from marrying partners with lower cast and darker skin. Further reinforcing this awakening has been the high profile lawsuit against Cisco Systems Inc. for workplace discrimination against Dalits, (untouchables with the lowest social status of all) perpetrated by the many high caste Hindus who work at the company. Because of this, I am optimistic that The Henna Artist will not only make for good evening entertainment, but will also bring the problem of caste discrimination fully into the public consciousness of America.

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