A Suitable Boy @ Netflix

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Vikram Seth's 'A Suitable Boy' was published in 1993. I was eleven years old at that time. In those days Pranoy Roy used to do a news show called 'The World This Week' on Doordarshan. This book was featured in it. There was a buzz around this book. It was the longest book at that time. There was a graphic shown in the show which also commented on the weight of the book. As a child I used to wonder why someone would write such a long novel and who would have the time and energy to actually read it. Years later around 2005 I finally borrowed this book from RKM Library at Golpark and actually started reading it. Though I lost interest after the first few chapters and returned the book back to the library. 

Yesterday night I spent watching 'A Suitable Boy' at Netflix. I started watching it around midnight and the series finished around 6 a.m. Then I went to sleep. I watched it at one go. There were six episodes. Each episode was around an hour long. I really liked it and I was transported back to the early fifties' India. Mira Nair has done a fabulous job. Hats off to her. This period drama almost looked perfect in all respects. All the actors looked their part and everyone really performed well. Loved Tanya Maniktala as Lata, especially her beautiful eyes. If you have not watched this web series then please watch it on Netflix if possible. However I have only one complaint. There should have been more cultural references to the films, music, theatre, literature and even cricket of those days.

Tanya Maniktala as Lata Mehra has done a superb job. She has acted with such ease and comfort. She seems to be a natural actress. Tabu as Saeeda Bai is flawless. Ishaan Khatter as Maan Kapoor is a delight to watch. He woos the audience with his carefree ways and also holds his fort in the serious scenes. Rasika Dugal as Savita Kapoor is awesome. Mahira Kakkar as Rupa Mehra is okay. Ram Kapoor as Mahesh Kapoor is fascinating. Gagan Dev Riar as Pran Kapoor, Vivek Gomber as Arun Mehra, Vivaan Shah as Varun Mehra, Shahana Goswami as Meenakshi Mehra, Mikhail Sen as Amit Chatterji, Thomas Weinhappel as Hans, Namit Das as Haresh Khanna, Danesh Razvi as Kabir Durrani, Joyeeta Dutta as Tasneem, Sharvari Deshpande as Malati, Shujaat Khan as Ustad Majeed Khan, Shubham Saraf as Nawabzada Firoz Khan, Randeep Hooda as Billy Irani, Aamir Bashir as Nawab of Baitar, Ranvir Shorey as Waris, Vijay Varma as Rasheed, Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Kishen Chand Seth, Vinay Pathak as L.N. Agrawal and Manoj Pahwa as Raja Of Marh are all very good in this series.

However in the end the way Lata chose her husband seemed a bit hurried. She took so long to make up her mind to choose the perfect husband for her and then suddenly chose her husband in an instant. I was not happy with this ending. I would have loved it if she had finally chosen Kabir Durrani as her husband. I would have loved to see their marriage. The fact that she was Hindu and he was Muslim should not have mattered in the matters of love...

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