A Suitable Boy Series Review: — It’s suitable in an unsuitable manner.
Mira Nair directorial series A Suitable Boy now streaming on Netflix has been a very dubious argument to be made. In my opinion, a lot of unjustified negative publicity has been done about this 6 part BBC series. Most of it seems to be based on the opinions that, Andrew Davies who wrote and adapted this script from the best-selling novel by Vikram Seth didn’t do it rightfully.
Frankly speaking, I haven’t read the novel and can only judge what I binged, but what I think about this mini-series is that it’s a fine depiction. Before binging a series I always ask myself 3 questions. Is it Entertaining? Are the characters and script allured? Are the Actors convincing? The answer is yes to all the 3 questions. Andrew Davies the screenplay writer has a proven track record for Screenwriting and Television, especially in the Romantic Drama genre, he wrote screenplays for Bridget Jones Diary, House of Cards (the original and remake) the mini-series Sense & Sensibility 2008) A Room With a View (2007) Brideshead Revisited 2008 The Line of Beauty 2006 and Tipping the Velvet 2001 ( 2 of my LGBTQI favorites) Pride & Prejudice 1995 and many more so I’m not surprised that BBC chose him to adapt this novel to the screen. It would have been a very difficult and challenging task to adapt a 1349 page novel. With so many characters and subplots I think Andrew Davies has achieved what he set out to do, to tell the story of 4 upper-middle-class Indian families (The Mehra’s, The Kapoor’s, The Khan’s and The Chatterji’s ) and their various interactions over a period of 18 months that includes The Independence national election of 1952, and the Hindu-Muslim strife, that occurred at that time. Set in North India in 1951, it follows the coming of age of Lata (Tanya Maniktala), a spirited university student. Tabu, Ishaan Khatter, Rasika Dugal, and Ram Kapoor also star in the six-part series. In May 2019, the six-part series was officially commissioned by BBC Studios, with Indian filmmaker Mira Nair being brought on board as director. Produced on a budget of £16 million, it is one of the most expensive BBC series ever made. It’s interesting to me that the first comment I made while watching A Suitable Boy was that this series must have cost a fortune to make. It looks fabulous and colorful as you’d expect and the costumes and shooting locations are beautiful. It must have been a monumental task for the Production crew to clear the streets of crowds during filming and so they could film with the authentic vehicles and props to create authenticity to the era. The Principal photography for the series began in Lucknow in September 2019.
The shooting also took place at King George’s Medical University, Lucknow is shown as Berhampur University. This was followed by sequences being shot in several other cities in India, including Maheshwar and Kanpur. The actors all impressed me I wasn’t familiar with any of them and read it includes one of Indias most famous Bollywood actresses and personally one of my favourite Tabu, who is an Indian film actress primarily working in Hindi films who has portrayed the role of Saeeda Bai an integral character of the story who could probably be referred to as a wealthy singer courtesan, scorned by the women of the village but supported by her many male admirers and the keeper of many secrets. The award-winning Tabu was almost cast in a completely different role by the drama’s director Mira Nair. When asked which another character she was being considered for, Tabu replied: “I think the mother. But I wanted to play Saeeda Bai and Director Mira Nair said, ‘If you want to play Saeeda Bai, you do Saeeda Bai.” I’m glad she played Saeeda, it’s a much better and more sympathetic role than Lata’s mother. The main character is Lata Mehta played beautifully by actress Tanya Maniktala she’s delightful as the young woman who through her eyes we see the story unfold. Lata’s very protective and her frightful mother Mrs. Rupa Mehra played so well by Mahira Kakkar is trying desperately to find a suitable match for her 19-year-old. But her efforts are thwarted by her daughters two other “unsuitable “ suitors one a handsome Muslim boy Kabir Durrani played by Danesh Ravi. Lata is distressed when she realizes he is Muslim as her Hindu family would never allow her to marry a Muslim man, it’s a love match that her family will never allow. Lata’s other suitors are Amit, (Mikhail Sen) an England-educated poet who is under pressure from his family to grow up and marry but he is being deemed unsuitable by Lata’s Mother. Then eventually a suitable match who satisfies Mrs. Rupa’s strict sensibilities appears in the aura of Haresh ( Namit Das) a solid ambitious young man from a suitable family. Which one will be the successful suitor? You’ll have to watch the series and it is very worth watching. It’s a little slow burn and predictable at first but stick with it as there are some fascinating characters and interesting subplots that depict the troubled beginnings of India’s Independence and rise as a World power from its turbulent attachment to the British Empire. I found the attitudes of some of the characters fascinating especially the foppish snobby Lata’s brother who insists life was better before the British handed over and parades around like a poor imitation of Noel Coward. The other thing I found interesting was the relationship between Maan Kapoor ( Ishaan Khatter ) Lata’s brother-in-law the feckless youngest child of respected politician Mahesh Kapoor, the state Minister of Revenue, and his best friend Firoz Ali Khan son of The Nawab Sahib of Baitar played by Shubham Sarah. I’ve noticed this in some Indian characters that intimacy and affection between two men become so damn high in these kinds of melancholic series, that they almost seem to be like lovers at times but they’re not. They just express a natural almost flirtatious affection for each other which in our society would be frowned upon. This contributes to the shock of the dramatic conclusion of A Suitable Boy. I think famous Director Mira Nair another impressive Woman Director of great films like Monsoon Wedding 2001, Salaam Bombay 1988, Queen of Katie, and Western movies like Amelia and Vanity Fair 2004 has done a wonderful job on this series.
As I said at the start of this long review I can only judge the series, perhaps the book is more complex but I recommend this quality Television production.
