Though the trailer of A Suitable Boy appeared exciting and happening, adapting a 1300 page best-selling novel (Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy) into a six-part mini-series comes with certain setbacks and flaws.
Mira Nair’s latest directorial venture, A Suitable Boy, is set in the early 1950s, a few years after India became a free nation. The story revolves around Lata Mehra, a 20-year-old college student who has a knack for English Literature, and Maan Kapoor, son of a political tycoon (played by Ram Kapoor).
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The series opens with Lata’s elder sister Savita Mehra (Rasika Duggal) getting married to Maan’s elder brother Pran Kapoor, a college professor. Unlike her sister, Lata does not celebrate the idea of marriage. “I don’t think I ever want to get married,†she says to her mother, who is determined to find Lata a suitable boy.
Lata falls in love, breaks her heart, and finds herself stuck between choosing from three suitable prospectors. Maan, on the other hand, is flamboyant and ignorant, often putting his father on the verge of embarrassment. But both Lata and Maan discover themselves, re-introspect their choices, making a suitable also a coming of age drama. However, it’s not just Lata and Maan’s story.
There are families and cultures involved. Lata and Maan are caught between their families’ traditional values, thus leading to a conflict between modernity and obliging to the cultural desirability. However, the series could have fleshed out more of Maan Kapoor.
Tabu, as Saeeda bai, a courtesan Maan falls for, lifts the energy of the series. Vijay Varma, as Rasheed, is beyond words. With his brief appearance, he brought the right amount of intensity to the character. The entire cast of A Suitable Boy is perfection. Taniya Maniktala, as Lata, is charming and poignant and has already been declared a national crush!
Ishaan Khatter, as Maan, plays the irresponsible yet sensitive brat in a way that neither makes us hate him but nor makes us forgive him for his ignorance. Other notable performances that deserve mentions are Mahira Kakkar as Lata’s desperate mother, Ranvir Shorey as Waris, and the adorable Namit Das as Haresh.
In the first five episodes, A Suitable Boy moves ahead in bits and pieces, struggling to find a connection and endpoint. It looks as if the entire story has been stuffed in the final episode where all the bits and pieces come together to complete the puzzle. But wait! The puzzle still seems incomplete.
Certain characters in A Suitable Boy do not get a closure leaving us wondering what might have happened to them. Not just the characters, but even certain scenes are left unexplored. The drawback of shrinking a long novel into a six-part mini-episode it seems!
A Suitable Boy meddles between English, Hindi, and Urdu creating a conflict of communication. The characters belonging to the lower strata of class construct speak either broken English or Hindi, leading to an ambiguity of the maker’s intention. The overall making of A Suitable Boy appeals to the white audience more than the native Indians.
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The production design is gorgeous, from the slick costumes to the architectural splendor, and furniture selections that pay homage to smart Indian design. Some well-stretched frames capture the essence of the post Independence era with all its heart and soul. A Suitable Boy veers away from the clichéd orange filtered fantasy version of India.
Overall, despite some wonderful performances and beautiful frames, Mira Nair’s version of A Suitable Boy is tedious fragmented and could have been so much better if planned effectively.
Images via Netflix YouTube
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I have read the novel and hope the makers have done justice to it. I enjoy reading books and watching movies. During the lockdown, I have been reading reviews from movie blogs and watching it on OTT platforms. The review sounds interesting, and I will watch this movie on Netflix.