Director Michael Winterbottom finds fresh pathos in that classic melodrama of a beautiful poor woman “ruined” by a rich rake with “Trishna,” an updating of “Tess of the D’urbervilles.” Winterbottom moves the story to modern day India, and makes it relevant all over again in a country where caste and class can still ordain who gets to ill use whom, simply by custom.

Jay (Riz Ahmed) doesn’t come off as an utter cad — not at first. The spoiled rich son of a wealthy hotelier (veteran Indian actor Roshan Seth), he’s showing a bunch of his friends from the UK around India when he meets Trishna (Freida Pinto), a lovely part-time waitress at one of his father’s hotels.

He is interested, but not pushy — solicitous, even. But you can sense the arrogance of wealth, the rude confidence of Indian sexism, in every encounter. She is casts her eyes downward and addresses him as “Sir.”

When her large, poor family faces disaster thanks to her father’s car accident, Jay is there to help. Her new job from him will save them.

But when he instructs his staff, “Can you get Trishna to serve me lunch in my room from now on?” we smell trouble. Even in his most chivalrous moments, Jay has an agenda. And it’s not to preserve Trishna’s chastity.

Winterbottom paints a colorful portrait of India, a land of lovely landscapes, glorious ancient monuments and teeming masses. It is a land of slums and film soundstages, abuzz with activity at every turn. Every trip through traffic has a hint of danger about it.

Pinto, the object of desire of “Slumdog Millionaire,” is the very face of demure passivity here. She gets across the flattery that she knows she cannot let go to her head, the fear and shame Trishna feels, the resolve she hangs onto as Jay sweeps her up into a whirl of Bollywood filmmaking (she could be a dancer), socializing, sex and stigmatization.

It’s a patient film, carefully layering on the petty humiliations that Jay foists on Trishna, building her sense of loss, confusion and guilt. Winterbottom (“A Mighy Heart,” “Welcome to Sarejevo”) balances the classical elements of the story — both from Thomas Hardy and from the strictures of Indian cinema — with the modern demands of realistic cinema. Conversations have an offhand, spontaneous feel, the editing is lively and all-encompassing, the music — orchestral, with 19th century melodramatic touches, the romance has Bollywood touches — a naive Indian girl living a Bollywood fantasy– and the sex, far more explicit than any Indian film would allow.

With “Trishna,” Winterbottom challenges Indian mores and the West’s understanding of them, giving what should be a stodgy and outdated story a woman ill-used modern currency. And Pinto, stoic and stunning, demonstrates why this heroine and this tale of her woe still have power over 150 years after it was written.

MPAA Rating:R for sexuality, some violence, drug use and language

Cast: Freida Pinto, Riz Ahmed, Roshan Seth

Credits: Written and directed by Michael Winterbottom, based on Thomas Hardy’s “Tess of the D’urbervilles.” An IFC release.

Running time: 1:53