Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
An Indian summer of love...
All you need to know about new TV period drama A Suitable Boy Austen meets Bollywood in this tale of family & political turmoil
Starring 110 actors, the series breaks ground with its all-indian cast and is the BBC’S first historical drama to feature no white characters.
Three years in the making, it was shot on location for three months. Director Mira Nair said: “We had to recreate this atmosphere of crumbling aristocracy, rather than spiffing it up.” She said they took great care in every detail of this rapidly changing world. Shots include the Ganges river, bustling markets and cities, old temples and the natural landscape.
IT is a truth universally acknowledged that Sunday nights are hugely inferior without a gritty period drama. So fans will be thrilled that the muchanticipated adaptation of Vikram Seth’s classic, and weighty, 1993 novel, A Suitable Boy, lands on BBC on Sunday.
The coming of age story, set in India after the 1947 partition, features saris and headscarves in place of corsets and bonnets, but can expect the usual brooding men, headstrong women, troubled romances and sumptuous sets.
A host of Bollywood greats star in this monumental tale of love, family and political turbulence. Here is everything you need to know about the show.
A Suitable Boy is on one of the longest books in English, so Andrew Davies had to adapt nearly 1,500 pages of text into six hours of telly. He says: “The process was pretty difficult as there is so much story in the novel. I concentrated on the two characters of Lata and Maan and restricted myself to the aspects of the story that they concern.”
Vikram Seth only agreed to do the show if Davies, right, did the adaptation. Vikram said: “It was with some anxiety that I agreed to my book being put on screen, but I’m glad I did. I feel that my story is in safe yet inspiring hands.”
Director Mira Nair auditioned more than 500 actresses for the role of Lata before she met Tanya Maniktala, who she picked because she had a “sweetness” and was like a “dewdrop” yet to discover the world.
It opens with a big, colourful wedding celebration filled with music, dozens of people and Bollywood-style dancing. This is the India we have seen on screen before – stunning saris, flowers everywhere, jewels and henna, rituals steeped in tradition.
But this family saga goes much deeper, exploring a lesser-known Indian life and culture at a troubling time in the country’s history. With some familiar Jane Austen-esque themes.
In minutes, the mother of the bride sets the tone for the six-part drama. She’s at her eldest daughter’s wedding, but her attention has shifted to her younger daughter, Lata.
“You too will marry a boy I choose,” she snaps. Teenage Lata rolls her eyes and mutters: “I don’t think I ever want to get married.”
Well, that won’t do at all, will it?
Her mother must find her a suitable boy. Set in the 1950s in the fictional city of Brahmpur, the focus is on university student
Lata, who shows flashes of rebellion and a yearning for her own independence. Then, of course, she meets a handsome young man in the library. Will he be suitable? Certainly not. He is Muslim and she is Hindu.
The story also follows Lata’s frivolous brother-in-law, Maan, who is infatuated with a decidedly unsuitable “woman of repute”.
On the streets, there is violence and turmoil as India’s first election looms. Watch out for stunning sets and costumes, gripping themes of family, love, war and tradition, with plenty of humour and joy.
As period dramas go, this is a most suitable Sunday night fix.