A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth murdered by Mira Nair

 

Have you ever waited in anticipation for a drink (tea, coffee, or whatever your poison is) from a place that is atrociously famous for it and then after you have taken your first sip, you feel cheated!!! If you know that feeling, then you will understand how I felt after watching Mira Nair, and Shimit Amin’s Cinematic adaptation of Vikram Seth’s novel - A Suitable Boy.

What were they thinking!!!!

The book is a massive 1,349 pages and it was deduced to a mockery of Western clichés of Indian thinking in 6 episodes.

I, for one, am not a fan of Vikram Seth’s novel because I found it too drab and maybe I was not mature enough to understand the complexities of emotions, relationships and depth of familial ties of a setting in newly free India. However, even then, I am appalled by the mockery in the guise of an adaption.

The series, of which I believe there will be more episodes in the coming future; seemed like a joke to me. In an India struggling to find its real identity in the post freedom era; Lata’s dilemma seemed frivolous and childish even. Her mother’s obsession with finding a suitable groom for her young daughter is justified; but not Lata’s ignorance of the political unrest in India, the Hindu Muslim discord, the absurdity of her own feelings and desires and the unnecessary stereotyping of characters.

Lata and her three suitors Kabir Durrani, Haresh Khanna and Amit Chatterji (clockwise L - R)

I did like some portions and the one I loved the best is when Haresh Khanna (Namit Das) after hearing all about the wonderful places he had missed in London from Lata’s eldest brother Arun Mehra (Vivek Gomber), asks him when he had been there recently; to which Arun starts chocking because he had never ever stepped foot in London.

Arun Mehra symbolized millions of Indians who talk about places abroad when in truth they have never stepped out of India ever!!! Somewhere, our obsession with the west and all things foreign has a long history and going by the feverish excitement that we in India had during the Presidential Elections in America, I am sure this trait is for keeps!!

Coming back to the Netflix series; the characters were truly comical caricatures, the accents very heavy and unnecessary, the disgust for all things Bengali and disrespect for women of Calcutta – uncalled for, the boy - Maan Kapoor’s (Ishaan Khatter) fixation for the Courtesan Saeeda Bai (Tabu) fascinating and her reciprocating his love understandable, the relationship between Maan and his friend/brother Firoz Khan (Shubham Saraf) with its undertones of untamed homosexuality, the brotherhood between Mahesh Kapoor (Ram Kapoor) and Nawab of Baitar (Aamir Bashir) special; in all made for a complex concoction where exemplary actors were underutilized.

Maan Kapoor (Ishaan Khatter) with Courtesan Saeeda Bai (Tabu)

If you are someone like me who prefers books to movies; then my unsolicited advice to you - please spare yourself the torture of watching the series and those of you who have seen the series, then please read the book for its brilliance, its narrative and its justice to the characters from a time when India was just born and trying to find her footing amidst the blood and gory of inter class, inter community, inter religious ideologies.

Vikram Seth

 ps: I am now going to pull out, dust and read the book once again. I suggest you do so too.