Firstly, yes I have read the book. And no, I am not going to compare the two or talk about the book is "better" than the film. I believe both are two different mediums and the story has to adapt to the medium it is being told in (and hence called adaptation)
Now, the series... well I ended the series with a lot of mixed feelings. Out of the countless thoughts to roam around my head after watching the series, these were a few points that I was able to discover about the series.
THE GOOD:
There is no question to the standard reached by the set, the art and the costume departments. It is said that recreating the time of near-past is the toughest for a set-dresser as they have to balance on a tight rope of realism because there are people who have seen the era with their life. And on the other hand, they have to fill in all the details that others might have forgotten, and do it convincingly.
Plus, it was after my watching of the series that I found about the budget restraints they had in production which made me appreciate their presentation even more.
The acting performances by the majority of the cast stole my heart. I went in with very high hopes from the cast and they all delivered the best I could have imagined. Vijay Verma specifically stole my heart with his performance in whatever small screentime he had been given. The amount of conviction he had in his character had me convinced that he is that character.
Every gazal and every piece of poetry in the film invoked emotions in me I didn't know I have. Every word spoken was poetic, every tune hummed was pure music. In short, Kavita Seth just redefined music in the visual medium.
THE BAD:
It is to be noted that these are just my views, someone who admires the art of storytelling. My motive isn't to lower the efforts. But instead, try and open the discussion about why maybe these points didn't work for me but worked for you.
I hated the casting choice of Lata. I have nothing against the actress other than the fact that her acting throughout the series felt "effort-less", not in a good way. I could not sense any emotional connection to the character by any sort. And I am sure this was because of the bland performance she had for her role.
Her performance stood entirely shallow and especially when sharing screens with the rest of the cast.
(I could go in detail about my reasons but I don't think you'd want to spend time listening to a random stranger talk about it. But if you want to know, just hit me up. I went forward and analysed a scene from the series to showcase my point of her lack of performance)
The ending felt more like a wind-up and less of a conclusion. I believe they picked up the entire ending from the book and just used it the way it was. And there is no chance of that working for a medium like a web-series. An author has the power of the readers' imagination where he expects the reader to deliberately use their imagination to build the world he is pointing at. But that isn't how films work.
I felt this abrupt wind-up ending to be off-putting because every other episode till the end was a slow journey through the story. Every story beat was described with intricacies. And then, all of it just vanished at the end.
Another reason I was not impressed by the way this story unfolded throughout the series was because of specific deliberate choices. There were storylines which didn't have enough inputs to the story to be included in the narrative and yet were put in there.
Eg: [spoilers] The scene where her "mama" tries to "approach" her. That scene had a significant role in the book and so made sense in there. But in the series, it just didn't give enough inputs to the character or the plot. I could have skipped through the scene and not missed anything in the story.
This is an obvious one and I already hear everyone talking about it. But still, here it goes, the dialogues and the dialogue delivery was just terrible. Yes, it was made for a separate audience and hence made the way it was made. But still, it felt more comical and stylized.
These were my feelings and my views to on the series A Suitable Boy. I would be happy to talk a lot more about it if you feel like.
Firstly, yes I have read the book. And no, I am not going to compare the two or talk about the book is "better" than the film. I believe both are two different mediums and the story has to adapt to the medium it is being told in (and hence called adaptation)
Now, the series... well I ended the series with a lot of mixed feelings. Out of the countless thoughts to roam around my head after watching the series, these were a few points that I was able to discover about the series.
THE GOOD:
There is no question to the standard reached by the set, the art and the costume departments. It is said that recreating the time of near-past is the toughest for a set-dresser as they have to balance on a tight rope of realism because there are people who have seen the era with their life. And on the other hand, they have to fill in all the details that others might have forgotten, and do it convincingly.
Plus, it was after my watching of the series that I found about the budget restraints they had in production which made me appreciate their presentation even more.
The acting performances by the majority of the cast stole my heart. I went in with very high hopes from the cast and they all delivered the best I could have imagined. Vijay Verma specifically stole my heart with his performance in whatever small screentime he had been given. The amount of conviction he had in his character had me convinced that he is that character.
Every gazal and every piece of poetry in the film invoked emotions in me I didn't know I have. Every word spoken was poetic, every tune hummed was pure music. In short, Kavita Seth just redefined music in the visual medium.
THE BAD:
It is to be noted that these are just my views, someone who admires the art of storytelling. My motive isn't to lower the efforts. But instead, try and open the discussion about why maybe these points didn't work for me but worked for you.
I hated the casting choice of Lata. I have nothing against the actress other than the fact that her acting throughout the series felt "effort-less", not in a good way. I could not sense any emotional connection to the character by any sort. And I am sure this was because of the bland performance she had for her role.
Her performance stood entirely shallow and especially when sharing screens with the rest of the cast.
(I could go in detail about my reasons but I don't think you'd want to spend time listening to a random stranger talk about it. But if you want to know, just hit me up. I went forward and analysed a scene from the series to showcase my point of her lack of performance)
The ending felt more like a wind-up and less of a conclusion. I believe they picked up the entire ending from the book and just used it the way it was. And there is no chance of that working for a medium like a web-series. An author has the power of the readers' imagination where he expects the reader to deliberately use their imagination to build the world he is pointing at. But that isn't how films work.
I felt this abrupt wind-up ending to be off-putting because every other episode till the end was a slow journey through the story. Every story beat was described with intricacies. And then, all of it just vanished at the end.
Another reason I was not impressed by the way this story unfolded throughout the series was because of specific deliberate choices. There were storylines which didn't have enough inputs to the story to be included in the narrative and yet were put in there.
Eg: [spoilers] The scene where her "mama" tries to "approach" her. That scene had a significant role in the book and so made sense in there. But in the series, it just didn't give enough inputs to the character or the plot. I could have skipped through the scene and not missed anything in the story.
This is an obvious one and I already hear everyone talking about it. But still, here it goes, the dialogues and the dialogue delivery was just terrible. Yes, it was made for a separate audience and hence made the way it was made. But still, it felt more comical and stylized.
These were my feelings and my views to on the series A Suitable Boy. I would be happy to talk a lot more about it if you feel like.
