Celebrated director, Mira Nair takes you back to the post-partition India with the story of Vikram Seth’s drama-crammed novel A Suitable Boy.
It’s a saga between four families consisting of Mehras, Khans, Kapoors and Chatterjees. All the families have a different story going for them, and all those stories are tightened by marriage and family values. Mehras are looking for a suitable boy for Lata (Tanya Maniktala), Kapoors’ younger son Maan Kapoor (Ishaan Khatter) finds his suitable girl in courtesan Saeeda Bai (Tabu), Chatterjees & Khans get interconnected with both of the above families as the story progresses.
Tanya Maniktala is the best thing which has happened to the show. She is illuminating! An example of perfect casting. I knew from the casting that Ishaan Khatter will shine and he doesn’t disappoint. Tabu’s character Saeeda Bai holds equal importance. Tabu holds every trait that was required to pray Saeeda Bai. Ram Kapoor is subtle throughout and shares great chemistry in his scenes with Ishaan. Namit Das does a commendable job as the suitable boy of the show. Mikhail Sen handles his role with impeccable charm. Pairing Vijay Varma and Vijay Raaz’s character together also remains an underrated masterstroke by the makers. Both of them retain the excellency of their usual brilliant skills.
Mahira Kakkar goes from great to super-melodramatic between scenes. Shahana Goswami and Randeep Hooda are underused due to scripting. The talents of Vivaan Shah, Rasika Dugal, Sheeba Chaddha, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Manoj Pahwa, Ranvir Shorey, unfortunately, remains underutilized.
Mira Nair gives a face to all the simply complicated characters conceived by Vikram Seth. She does a brilliant job at setting up the scene but falters a bit at managing too much in such a short span of episodes. Vikram’s novel demands detailing, and Mira brings a whole of it in her style. The scripting should have been carried out by an Indian writer to maintain the essence of the original text, whether you want it in English or Hindi, the scripting feels hollow.
Alex Heffes and Anoushka Shankar’s music featured within the transcript but could have been given more limelight based on the beauty of each composition.
Rating: 8/10