Huma Qureshi who recently entered the digital world with Netflix’s Dystopian Drama ‘Leila’ has been the talk of the town. The show marks India’s first Dystopian Drama, which deals with the horrors of humanity 30 years in future. The trailer shows, Huma Qureshi aka Shalini Rizwan Chowdhury struggling to survive after being abducted, and trying to find her daughter Leila who has been missing since the abduction.
While dystopian stories are new to India, the audience is well aware of the genre. Films like The Hunger Games, Divergent series, Maze Runner and more have already prepared the audience for anything that is to come. What sets apart Leila is a future in Aryavarta, which is highly influenced and showcases Hinduphopic undertones, and is very close to the modern society. While the show is being criticised for the Hinduphopic undertones, there are many reasons as to why skipping this show will not be a big miss for you.
Here are 5 reasons why you could skip the Netflix Adaptation of ‘Leila’ by Prayaag Akbar’s novel of the same name.
1. While the audience is well aware of what makes a good dystopian drama, Leila lacks in the appearance, world building and structure of the story. Throughout the six episodes we get a bird eye’s view while the makers causally hope we miss all the minute details, which would make it a gripping drama. We see similar vehicles, building, projectors and no drastic development in future, or a reason for the lack of changes that turned the society as such in 2047’s Aryavarta.
2. The horrifying system and future so close to our current life is supposed to bring the audience to its knees, question the system, and our current way of living is only boiled down to a few scenes with a narrow perspective. We get a glimpse of the humanity’s worse with abducted women being drugged and tortured at Purity Centre, or later sold to labour camps, which are in worse conditions.
3. Directed by Deepa Mehta, Shanker Raman and Pavan Kumar the show’s screenplay only helps the story to drag forward instead of leading it in one direction. We have dialogues which leave little to no impression post a scene. “Shudhi pariksha kyun? Kyunki pariksha humein shudh karti hai” (Why is there a purification exam? Because the exam purifies us); “I’m you, and you’re me”; “we’d be there together today if we hadn’t done this to us”.
4. The Netflix adaptation does not do much justice to what the book intents to tell. Netflix picked parts from the book for a better visual representation, which is always the case in adaptations, but it also leaves much more behind that could make Leila a truly horrifying tale.
5. Huma Qureshi does her part as much as Shalini has space to evolve in the series, while she takes on the brave face the screenplay fails her the most. Most of the time things are way too convenient for her, as if it is a divine plan and not her determination to find the truth about her missing daughter.
