Leila review: A convincing portrait of dystopia



[ad_1]

  Leila Review
Leila Review: The powerful sum of Leila is more than her uneven parts. Khurana, Sanjay Suri
Leila Directors: Deepa Mehta, Raman Shanker, Pawan Kumar
Leila Note: Three Stars

This is a near future, not too much of a thing. years now. The air of the planet has become harmful, the water has disappeared and the rain is viscous and black, more cursed than the manna of the sky.

In the land of Aryavarta, live the affluent (manicured and gated enclaves, high walls, guards and dogs), and the destitute (dirty slums, tanker trucks and poverty). The only currency that can save you is your purity quotient: the pure will survive and prosper, the "doosh" or "dooshit" will be forever servile and the "mishrit" (mixed blood) will be erased.

Inspired by the harrowing novel by Prayaag Akbar, Leila, the new Netflix series, which began airing on Friday, offers a frightening portrait of dystopia both compelling and disgusting.

The series derives in a radical way from the book. Some works; the others are not so effective. The book is slower, more ruminative, more affecting; it covers a longer duration. The six episodes of Season 1 give off an almost dark thriller sensation.

This may be a deliberate choice of executive creative producer Deepa Mehta, who shares the credits of making the six episodes of season one with Shankar Ramen and Pawan Kumar, and the writers' team . But the feeling of apprehension and discomfort that characterizes this future time and place is real, gives the impression that they might be around the corner, that it may be where we will meet sooner rather than later.

And despite his problems, he remains the strong point of Leila, who takes his name from a lost girl, and the long and exhausting and heartbreaking search that his mother, Shalini Rizwan Chaudhary (Qureshi), undertakes to find , to find it.

The double-barreled name augurs problems. She speaks of a volunteer woman who married for love (the pure name of "lust") and who was so in love that she forgot that her husband's religion was not hers. A child born of a Hindu-Muslim union will not be tolerated in Aryavarta, where the discreetly sinister figure of Joshiji (Suri) dominates everyone.

It took me a while to get into the series. The initial words remind you, in a disconcerting way, of the story of The Handmaid's Tale, in which Shalini is forced to meet with "fallen women like her", waiting for Guru's attention. Ma (Zakaria). And then, once Shalini is moved along the chain, lowered to the gates of hell, the plot begins to get denser. And take it.

Qureshi's face is so close that you learn the outline. But her Shalini, despite some bumps, is still at the rendezvous, she focuses on the return of her daughter without fault. Seema Biswas, who presents herself as a compatriot who may be hiding a secret, shows how much she is an actress: she does not have to act as if she belonged to a labor camp; she is right. In comparison, Siddharth deflates. There are delicate threads hanging down; Some English-Hindi uses do not sound right.

But the powerful sum of Leila is more than its unequal parts. This brings us to a time when we will all live in "our" communities, carefully dissected by religion, clbad and caste. Overflights high in the air will connect the sparkling towers, and the weak and defenseless will crawl on the ground, boiling rebels. Where the women will breed to order and where only the birth Arya can breathe clean air.

The resonances are clear, even if they are submerged in a fast thriller-like approach. Red is replaced by saffron red, but there is no doubt about who and who are the guardians like Joshiji, and where they come from.

The people of Delhi will recognize many points in the series. The failed Nehru Place market, lost in a tangle of computer stores, had long been in the dark side. And the mountain of garbage that stands on the outskirts of the capital is a spectacle straight out of purgatory. Future? Dystopia is here.

[ad_2]
Source link