DEAR JASSI
Drama and Romance | Running Time: 132 minutes
2023 / Punjabi and English
Country: India
Directed by: Tarsem Singh Dhandwar
MENA Premiere
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Indian-born Tarsem Singh Dhandwar went to the United States to study film, then becoming an award-winning Hollywood director. Known for his extravagant style, he has worked with stars including Jennifer Lopez, Julia Roberts and Ryan Reynolds. He has also directed numerous music videos, including MTV’s “Best Video” winner Losing my Religion for REM. He returned to India to make Dear Jassi.
ProducerBhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar, Vipul D Shah, Ashwin Varde, Rajesh Bahl, Sanjay Grover, Tarsem Singh Dhandwar
CastPavia Sidhu, Yugam Sood, Kanwar Grewal
ScriptwriterAmit Rai
A Romeo and Juliet story of star-crossed lovers is infused with urgency by the fact that it is based not on Shakespeare’s play, but on a real-life incident that took place just 30 years ago. Indian Canadian Jassi (Pavia Sidhu) aged 19, visiting family in the Punjab, falls in love with Mithu, an illiterate rickshaw driver. Their romance is touchingly chaste but Jassi’s determination to bring her unsuitable love to Canada appals her mother; if she had known she could do this, she says, she would have strangled Jassi at birth. Restrained in its delivery and surprisingly very funny, especially dealing with Indian bureaucracy, Dear Jassi nevertheless delivers a culminating gut punch that is both heartfelt and a dramatic coup.