Leila Review: The Handmaids Tale gone wrong

Leila is a Netflix original TV show based on the book “Leila” written by Indian author Prayaag Akbar. For those of you who have read or watched “The Handmaids Tale”, to put it simply this TV series is its Indian counterpart. The TV show explores a dystopian world where the extreme right wing takes over the nation. It focuses on one woman Shalini Pathak played by Huma Qureshi and her quest to find her daughter who was taken away from her. Yes, the story does sound intriguing, different and something which would fit the Indian context quite beautifully. But the end result is a haphazard coalition of 6 episodes even after which I felt no sympathy for any of the characters.

The place where the series falters the most is in establishing this world. The world which in itself is so unique gets no screen time, so all of Shalini’s actions seem quite random as the audience does not know the stakes of this world or its contradictions. This haphazard and disjointedness of the entire series may be due to the constant change in directors (3 different directors for these episodes) but all can’t be blamed on this as the screenplay and dialogue do nothing to redeem this pitfall. The dialogue is quite clunky and a little melodramatic as well.

The second place where it falters is in its surface level approach to all the problems it is trying to depict. Agreed that the intentions of this series are in the right place but it depicts issues from discrimination against women to climate change. It almost feels as though the directors could not decide on which issue they wanted to focus on so we get religious divide, caste and class divide, gender divide, poverty and so much more that everything becomes confusing. If we compare it to the Handmaids Tale we see that, that series mainly focuses on discrimination against women and not a plethora of different things.

Its last place of faltering is the character development and music. First the characters- for 6 episodes we never even see Shalini evolve once, she does become stronger but thats it, I never saw a change in her attitude or her approach to her situation, her surroundings do not affect her which makes her so boring to see on screen. The supporting characters are also not intriguing at all Bhanu played by Siddharth is also mostly the same through all the episodes. I just wish that they would have given these characters an arc somewhere where they question themselves and their actions. The music by Aloknanda Dasgupta is also satisfactory at its best. We all remember the Sacred Games opening credits tune but here even that is boring and has no appeal what so ever.

The only thing which redeems this series somewhat is the cinematography Johan Heurlin Aidt, it is able to capture the claustrophobia, the fear of the people and the gross living conditions. This keeps you a little interested along with the Production design which is well thought out but not perfect, the costumes also are quite imaginative considering that an entirely new world is created. The acting performances are also acceptable. Huma Qureshi as Shalini Pathak extracts as much as she can from her character and does a good job although not succeeding in making us really care about her. Siddharth as Bhanu is good but he mainly has the same expression and the battle which should be going on within his mind is never showcased well enough by the script and dialogue. The actor which leaves the biggest impact according to me was Seema Biswas as Madhu who delivers her role with sheer perfection and ease.

The most absurd part about this series is that on paper it seems extremely interesting, but in the execution a lot of the tension and moral conflict is lost. We never get any insight into the characters psyche, or any cool futuristic technology. We do not even get any religious references even though it plays such an important part in the series. The worst part about it is that it could have been gripping and an extraordinary commentary on the Indian political system especially with the re-election of the right wing BJP in India.

So, if you really want to watch this TV show, well go ahead. But my advice is skip this one, maybe rewatch Stranger Things in preparation for the third season or watch Delhi Crime or Sacred Games if you want to go for something Indian. Read the book if you wish, the TV show is just a bore.