A Suitable Boy review: Netflix brings in fabulous supporting cast, but is it enough?

Writers and filmmakers, even 207 years later, are still trying to recreate Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice. And failing. When I purchased my copy of A Suitable Boy from Dymocks in Hong Kong, The book was populated by many interesting characters but it was written for an audience that was clearly ‘not Indian’. After all, we Indians don’t need another reminder how families choose the grooms for their daughter, how families reject girls their ‘raja beta’ has fallen in love with…From Mr. And Mrs 55 to Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya and everything in between has disapproving families standing in the way of love. Hollywood had Humphrey Bogart persuading his brother to reject Sabrina.

We’ve loved Elizabeth Bennet for her wit, clarity of purpose and flashing eyes. We loved the destructive passion of Catherine Linton and even Devdas. Why then would I care whom Lata married in the end? She is unable to decide between passion and practicality, she goes to University, but is she educated?

Netflix India makes Hindi the automatic language of choice when you begin to watch Mira Nair’s A Suitable Boy. Ten minutes into dialog like, ‘Tum kitni dilchasp ho!’ and you think something is wrong because it looks more like those South blockbusters dubbed for TV. Thankfully one has watched so many foreign language shows, I automatically pause the show and select the ‘original language’ for the series: English.

That done, I begin to watch the show and am instantly transported to a world where everybody sounds like they’re related to Apu from The Simpsons. You’re frustrated and angry and close your eyes forgetting to pause the show. You think you’ve been transported into a world of bobbleheads who speak as if they were nodding their heads in the Indian affirmative.

Has the BBC or Mira Nair not heard Nehru and other prominent Indians of that time speak? I understand that the average Indian does bring a little bit of the colloquial in their vocabulary and a local accent when they speak English. I know we don’t speak ‘Downton Abbey’ English but we don’t speak in that ‘Indian English’ either.

I cannot say definitely that the production is meant to make the BBC audience feel, ‘Oh look, the natives are trying to be civilised!’ but I cannot deny it either. I am outraged enough to wonder if they asked the cast to take the TOEFL when they signed up to act.

That brings me to the actor Tabu, who plays the divine Saeeda Bai with so much ease you wish she gets a spin off series: a poet lover for every season… When she speaks Urdu, it feels so natural and wonderful and civilised that I wish again that the show had been shot originally in Hindi.

You fall in love with her exactly as Maan Kapoor does, hanging on to her every song, wanting to be as close to her as possible… So passionate, you wish she did not have other commitments and would want to be with only you. Maan Kapoor is played by a powerhouse of talent - Ishaan Khatter - incandescent in his love and luminous even in his banishment to the village.

Maan and Rasheed are sent off to the village. Everything from ‘What are you reading?’ in the train to how their friendship grows is so brilliant you forget silly things like this show is supposed to be about Lata and her three suitors and her managing mum.

It is so easy to do that because the gorgeous Vijay Varma plays Rasheed. Everything he does, from his encounter with Tasneem to teaching Maan and then losing his all is simply unmissable. Of course it helps to have Vijay Raaz of the crusty voice play the father.who tells Maan the values of his little feudal life. Alas there should have been more of Rasheed’s father than this six part ‘How to choose the most excruciatingly boring man to marry’ show.

The scene where Maan’s father, the politician Mahesh Kapoor (played faultlessly by Ram Kapoor) and Rasheed’s father sit on charpois and talk about fathers and sons is one of the best scenes in the entire show.

Ram Kapoor’s wife is played with a quiet dignity by Geeta Agarwal Sharma (You remember her as Milkha Singh’s mother in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag). I loved her picking flowers for puja placing the Harsingar flowers on a leaf (Harsingar or Parijaat or Shiuli), her love for Maan… Her character is like most mothers: comforting, caring and a quiet presence.

Both Maan and Lata (aah yes, the annoying protagonist) have best friends that are just another reason to watch this show. Nawaabzada Firoz Khan is played by Shubham Saraf and he’s Maan’s best friend and you will love how their friendship is shown in the show.

I am sure you will want to text a hello to your best friend as I did because you realise that your friendship may not be as dramatic as theirs but the value and the love is real. Malati played by Sharwari Deshpande, on the other hand has a tougher role. She not only has to be a sounding board for Lata but also a guide and counselor.

I am sure Malati wanted to roll her eyes several times and would have wanted to beat up her best friend for being so indecisive about everything. At one point I thought Malati would ask Lata if she had fallen head first as a baby. Also, grateful that Malati is the only character who does not speak in a stilted Apu English.

Shahana Goswami and Ananya Sen play Meenakshi Chatterji and Kakoli Chatterji and they are simply marvelous. Meenakshi handles her husband and her lover with an ease all women watching will be filled with envy. The two sisters are a treat to watch.

Rasika Duggal plays Savita Mehra Kapoor who just makes life easy for her younger sister Lata by protecting her when the mother is being rough. In the scene where she’s comforting Lata - "I’m going to end up becoming mother" - Rasika Duggal just outshines the heroine.

Before I tell you about how vapid the main characters are, I would like to doff my hat to Manoj Pahwa who is just perfect as the obnoxious Raja of Marh, Vinay Pathak as the mean politician and Ranveer Shorey as Waris. Lata’s villainous uncle who has a couple of lines to speak and a scene with Lata manages to impress more than Lata does in the acting department.

Speaking of acting, Lata Mehra just has to look saucer-eyed at everything, and simper at her three suitors. Her first is dashing, sporty and passionate and of course unsuitable because he’s of the wrong religion (the book mentions an ailing mother, but it’s ignored in the series).

Lata’s second suitor is a poet from a privileged background (the book tells us about his conflict with his father, but the show only has a passing reference). Her last (and in my opinion, the dullest of the three) is an earnest lad who works for a living (loved how he catches Pran Kapoor’s boast about London!). There is a flash of brilliance where Lata is told, she needs to find a purpose and marriage is not necessarily ‘it’. But she makes a choice you want to scream at.

Lata’s mother who has orchestrated it all has a wonderful dialog that quietly shows us that managing Indian mothers win in the end. She tells Lata, ‘Looks like you found my place.’

I shudder to think what Lata’s children will grow up to be. But thankfully there will not be that spin off. Mira Nair’s art department has done a fantastic job in creating Saeeda bai’s home. It’s how you’d want your dream home to be.

From the jhoola to the star table to Saeeda bai’s Paandaan and from the folding doors to the fountain in the inner courtyard, everything is marvelous. From how Saeeda offers paan to Maan and how the Raja kicks the Ghalibnama, the show transports you to a different way of life. And yes, you do yearn to get your hands on the beautiful hardbound copy of Hardy’s Woodlanders. The detailing is amazing.

Nawab sahab’s palace in the country is stunning to behold, and when we see it through Maan’s eyes, you have the same gobsmacked expression as well. The volatile political landscape after independence is predictable but well done. The costumes are exquisite and the music sublime. If only we didn’t have to watch the managing mother and that vapid woman choose one from among her silly suitors. What makes her so eligible?

Perhaps they’ll shoot the next big show in Hindi and subtitle it in English. The fabulous ensemble cast saves A Suitable Boy and makes you forgive the wholly unsuitable language related slight.

Manisha Lakhe Is A Poet, Film Critic, Traveller, Founder Of Caferati — An Online Writer’s Forum, Hosts Mumbai’s Oldest Open Mic, And Teaches Advertising, Films And Communication.