Some of the most self-important reviewers have panned the new Netflix series – A Suitable Boy. However, a great many others enjoyed the adaptation of Vikram Seth’s magnum opus by the same name (which happens to be one of the longest-ever novels in English). While there are flaws; chief among them being the incongruous English that all the characters speak, there is a lot that recommends A Suitable Boy as well:
The story is set in a newly independent post-partition India. Set against the backdrop of the religious tensions of the day, it follows the story of Lata, a modern young woman with more than one suitor and a mother who wants to find her a ‘suitable boy’. There is also the parallel coming of age story of Maan, a feckless young man and the upheavals of his life. In effect, this is the story of four families and their trials and tribulations.
Raja Sen eviscerates the show, saying that Seth’s epic book has been reduced to ‘Indian matchmaking’. He calls it a failed adaptation by Mira Nair with jarring ‘subtitle-grade translation’. According to him, the characters speak English poorly, are self-conscious, wooden and prone to exaggeration.
Set in the early 1950s, the series is all about the lavish ‘havelis’, beautiful clothes and painstakingly created interiors with a fine eye for detail. It series is high on visual appeal.
Lata (Tanya Maniktala) falls in love with a most ‘unsuitable’ Muslim boy; the handsome and passionate Kabir Durrani (Danesh Razvi). Meanwhile, Maan (Ishaan Khattar) develops an unwise relationship with the much older courtesan Saeeda Bai (Tabu).
There is Maan’s beautiful friendship with Firoz Khan (Shubham Saraf), the longstanding friendship of their respective fathers and Lata’s friendship with Malati. The series is peopled with many other interesting characters and is quite simply a marvellous story.
The truly brilliant bits are the sitar performances by maestro Shujat Khan himself. The ghazals are competent but nothing spectacular. The overall musical score is good – appropriate for the time it is set in and a fine blend of Indian and western.
He starts out as an unthinking, hedonistic brat and his story slowly evolves to reveal many complex layers. Ishaan Khattar is pitch perfect and utterly likeable; a revelation.
She looks exquisite and is captivating as the passionate but conflicted and ultimately tragic Saeeda Begum.
There is of course, the tortuous interfaith love story of Lata and Kabir. Even more fascinating is the story of Saeeda and Maan. The fact that she is much older and a ‘tawaif’ are such scandalous aspects of this love story that they eclipse the interfaith angle.
If one is able to overlook the incongruity of everyone in post-independence India speaking English; this is clunky and takes some getting used to – the series is riveting. The personal histories, love stories, the political turmoil, social hypocrisies are fascinating and but also very relatable today. Saibal Chatterjee calls A Suitable Boy a well-rounded, memorable experience – I who uncharacteristically binge-watched the series, have to agree.
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