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While the first two episodes are fascinating, the saga loses all its luster – it's hard to know if it's a scientific dystopia or a social dystopia.
Leila includes six episodes, the duration of which varies between 40 and 50 minutes on average. Created by Urmi Juvekar, the series – based on the novel by Prayaag Akbar – was directed by Deepa Mehta, Shanker Raman and Pavan Kumar. Huma Qureshi in the lead, Siddharth playing a notable role.
Leila for hard-to-define reasons, sets the chronology in 2047. He takes the current political situation seriously by using a fictional ground called Aryavarta headed by a Mr. Joshi, who is omnipresent, like the Big Brother of 1984 his posters everywhere. The people and children of Aryavarta are brainwashed, constantly repeating the words that are told them about the fact that Aryavarta is their mother – with an air of "Brave New World" (1945), borrowing dark streaks from The Hunger Games and V for Vendetta animated by a nationalist fervor. However, the paradox lies in the fact that the world seems to have changed little in 2047. The rickety buses and tanks are an excellent example to prove how little imaginative the authors were about the scenario. They seem to believe that the world has not left for 28 years.
Aryavarta's artistic creations annoy anyone who is fond of movies or dystopian novels. Is Aryavarta a country, a city, a state – difficult to understand because of what is exposed. What we see is largely a large city composed of several sectors, each sector of a different community, separated by high walls. Then there are the shantytowns that exist beyond the high walls, where people face misery, black rain, dust, pollution and a severe shortage of water. Moral police punish couples engaged in intercommunity marriages, abducting women and torturing them in a purity center, and Métis children are sold to childless parents with money or power.
It is about Shalini Rizwan Chowdhury (Huma Qureshi), who loses her husband, Rizwan (Rahul Khanna) and her child, Leila, her rich and happy family attacked by agents of Purification under artificial pretense that Shalini and Rizwan managed to get enough water to swim.
Shalini's difficult years lead her through the Purity Center and the Forced Labor Camp as she tries to trace her missing child, before encountering a despicable truth in the end. Siddharth plays Bhanu, whose exact official role – one of the many shortcomings of the script – is confusing, but he is widely represented as a subcontractor. Her role grows in the second half of the series, while the story unfolds under the pretext that mothers are serving the resistance, rebels attempting to reclaim the country from the clutches of Mr. Joshi.
The context is not really new. Monitoring, scarce resources, powerful people enjoying all the riches, a supreme leader imposing his will in the name of culture and hardcore nationalism, a Resistance, plots and a helpless character growing in his longing to do something – these are all themes well covered with such sagas. It is there that Leila partially succeeds in proving the Indian context (a first for Indian series lovers) and also fails.
Leila is not boring and, for a moment, the viewer is invested in what happens to Shalini and how she might get out of hell where she is banished – think The tale of the servant . But then, things get too convenient – think at Game of Thrones season 8. The climax is fragile, and at the risk of giving a SPOILER, you scratch your head and ask yourself – Is this your big plan? , Mr. Resistance?
The directors seem to be concentrating extraordinarily on Huma's Shalini, but Shalini is not the woman that history asks her. Most of the time, she is dull and sometimes completely stupid (like the female protagonist of Blacklist ). Shalini almost always seems to sneak between two lucky shots – she accidentally gets to work with a powerful engineer, ends up being loved by the number 2 Mr. Joshi, accidentally finds a child who will help her escape a difficult situation, will accidentally continue to survive in difficult situations. It almost looks like a divine provenance, or rather a convenient and sloppy handwriting. The scenario is rather vague with the way things are going badly for her, not so much by her conception, but by sheer coincidence. After a while, it becomes annoying.
It is therefore difficult to evaluate the performance of Huma. Is she inarticulate, almost exasperating, without expression, because the character requires it, or because she is supposed to feel a plethora of emotions – her husband is murdered before her eyes, her child is removed, his housekeeper now enjoys the riches that she used karma returning to give her a lesson or two – all in her and mute her to the surface.
Without the high-tech gadgets used by some officials (sophisticated projectors, laptops and screen phones) and a tattoo, like In Time that has a chip, everything is so current. It's almost as if instead of 2047, you're looking at 2019. The sets are not great; buildings and shopping centers are desolate and depressing (exaggerated even for a dystopian drama), but again, outside the world today.
The series had potential and can still be redeemed, even if it stops there. There are powerful scenes that will leave you helpless – like the one where women are forced by Guru Man – a fantasy term for the discipline of the purity center – and his squad rolling over the remains after the moral police finish their meals. . The series is capricious in its mediocrity and brilliance.
Just when you anticipate that the presence of Siddharth and his indomitable eyes have a bigger story, you are forced to confront Huma's stubborn nonchalance that is never in tune with the context / situation of his character . She is essential and yet, her character is barely fulfilled. The Bhanu of Siddharth never changes in what you can feel. The low-budget dystopian world – which almost tells you does not look at the details, but focuses only on the scenario (because seriously, in 2047, those who would still use stealthy cameras easily detectable, and why the people listen to ghazals on a gigantic stereo device) – could annoy you. Where do all the rich live in multi-storey buildings, why are the shopping centers empty, why are there so few students in the school and why the inauguration? Is the dream project of the Supreme Leader expected by a handful of guests? [19659004] These questions and many others dilute the experience of watching Leila . It starts with a promise and the first two episodes are mostly fascinating. But the saga loses its luster from there – it does not know if it should become a scientific dystopia or a social dystopia. One or the other goal is not achieved, largely thanks to a limpid central figure and a presumptuous writing that leaves halfway. On the whole, it is a dystopian drama that sometimes flickers, but which also suffers from a hasty scenario at other times.
PS: By the way, I'm glad that such a satire about the state of things has not been.
Warning: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone badociated with the series / film. TNM Editorial is independent of any business relationship that the organization may have with producers or any other member of its distribution or team.
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