However I do know it is one of the longest novels ever written and a highly respected work.
Published in 1993, Seth's epic story set in post-partition India was a huge success and last year made the BBC Arts list of the 100 most influential novels.
So there was some excitement when the BBC commissioned Welsh screenwriter Andrew Davies to adapt it into a six part miniseries, with the Indian American film director Mira Nair helming.
With acclaimed adaptations of classic novels like 'Pride and Prejudice,' 'Vanity Fair,' 'Bleak House,' 'War and Peace' and 'Les Miserables' under his belt, Davies' has been one of the most respected and in demand television dramatists.
Nair not only won the Cannes Film Festival's Camera d'Or for her 1988 Oscar nominated, Hindi language crime drama debut 'Salaam Bombay' but picked up the Berlin Film Festival's Golden Lion in 2001 for 'Monsoon Wedding' and also adapted the 'Kama Sutra' for the big screen.
With such pedigree, you would think it reasonable to assume 'A Suitable Boy' would entertain, stimulate and amuse.
So why does the six part adaptation feel as bland and boring as a supermarket meal?
Working with an entirely Indian cast who most Western audiences will have never seen before, Nair follows the fortunes of the Mehra and Kapoor families in 1951 India.
The miniseries is bookended with weddings and at the start we see the two families come together for the union of Rasika Dugal's Savita Mehra and Gagan Dev Riar's mathematician Pran Kapoor.
However the main preoccupation of Seth's tale is the love life of Tanya Makitala's Lata Mehra which plays out against the sectarian strife between Hindus and Muslims living in India following partition and the creation of Pakistan.
Initially Lata, a bright literature student at Berhampur University, falls in love with Danesh Razvi's fellow student Kabir Durrani.
The lovers often meet at dawn and go for romantic walks and boat trips.
However their love is clandestine, as Kabir is a Muslim and is opposed by the Mehra matriarch, Mahira Kakkar's Rupa when she eventually finds out about it.
Rupa is determined to interfere in choosing a husband for Lata and packs her off to Calcutta to keep her away from the heartbroken Kabir.
They stay with her pompous Anglophile son, Vivek Gomber's Arun and his family and his flighty wife, Shahana Goswami's Meenakshi Chatterji takes it upon herself to help find her sister-in-law a suitable husband.
She tries to set Lata up with her brother, Mikhail Sen's renowned poet Amit Chatterji who is immediately charmed by Lata.
However Rupa is not a fan of Meenakshi or the Chatterjis and does her utmost to discourage a relationship.
Rupa arranges a visit to Lucknow where it is suggested that Namit Das' shoe factory fireman Haresh Khanna might be a good prospect and she sets up a meeting between him and Lata.
Meenakshi is also having an extra marrital affair with a friend of her husband, Randeep Hooda's Billy Irani.
However Lata finds her heart pulled in three directions as Kabir, Amit and Haresh vie for her affection.
Meanwhile Savita's father-in-law, Ram Kapoor's Minister of State for Revenue Mahesh Kapoor is having family problems of his own.
His relationship with his son, Ishaan Khatter's Maan Kapoor becomes strained over the young man's libertine lifestyle.
While his father juggles the demands of constituents and tries to douse the flames of sectarian tension being fanned by a local noble who wants to build a temple opposite the Mosque, Maan falls for Tabu's celebrated singer Saeeda Bai.
Infatuated with Saeeda, he woos her but their romance is complicated by the fact that she is a Muslim and is also the courtesan of the local noble.
When Mahesh learns of the affair, he confronts his intoxicated son about his involvement with Saeeda and sends him away to the countryside.
However Maan will not give up easily.
Mahesh also feels the strain of working hard to avoid sectarian conflict and prevent the more extreme elements of Nehru's Congress Party from encouraging it.
He works hard with a Muslim landowner friend, Aamir Bashir's Nawab of Baitar to keep the peace.
But he is also unaware that the friendship between Maan and the Nawar of Baitar's son, Shubham Saraf's Firoz Khan is such that his son even risks his own life to save his Muslim friend during sectarian disturbances on the streets of Berhampur.
Davies hints that the bond between Firoz and Maan is something slightly more than just a bromance.
However Firoz develops an interest in Saeeda's sister, Joyeeta Dutta's Tasneem who has also charmed her morose, married Urdu teacher, Vijay Varna's Rasheed.
Epic in scale, history and ambition, Davies would seem to be the perfect choice to adapt Seth's meaty novel.
However for much of the miniseries, the dialogue feels flat and stiff.
Nair also seems off the boil and oddly constrained, hardly showing any appetite to bring her cinematic sensibility to the small screen.
Nair and Davies' adaptation dips its toe into the political complexities of post-partition India but really doesn't want to plunge into those waters, focussing mostly instead on affairs of the heart.
But this bleaching out of the political context is ultimately to the detriment of the series.
Imagine 'Doctor Zhivago' with only occasional passing references to the Russian Revolution or 'Les Miserables' dialling down its rebel storyline and you get a sense of just how frustratingly safe Nair and Davies' play it.
This tendency to play things safe is the miniseries' biggest weakness.
Even when you think 'A Suitable Boy' is about to come to life, it regularly lets go of those moments and ambles along, occasionally veering into racy soap opera territory, with a bedroom scene here and half nudity there.
It is hard to pinpoint exactly why adapting Seth's novel seems beyond Nair and Davies' undoubted abilities.
However the lack of vitality prives a real problem for the cast who mostly struggle to make a real impression.
Makitala and Khatter are engaging presences but too often they are overwhelmed by the skittishness that infects this adaptation.
The same is true for Kakkar.
However some members of the cast manage to make their mark.
Durrani and Das are effective as two of Lata's lovelorn suitors.
Ram Kapoor is strong as a father weighed down by domestic and political woes.
Tabu weaves an enigmatic spell as Saeeda, while Varna engages our sympathy as the tortured Rasheed.
'A Suitable Boy,' however, seems like a typical Sunday night BBC1 drama and that is all the more surprising and disappointing, given Nair and Davies' involvement.
The moments of dramatic spectacle and intense romance never really materialise in a miniseries that lacks ambition.
'A Suitable Boy' seems too afraid to embrace the true spirit of an historical epic.
One can only hope Seth's novel one day gets another screen version willing to take on its scale, passion and ambition instead of this half-arsed adaptation.
('A Suitable Boy' was broadcast on BBC1 between July 26-August 24, 2020)
Comments
Post a Comment