'A Suitable Boy' book was published in 1993 by Vikram Seth.
It's setup is of 1950s when India got free from British rule recently. It
showed how people were trying to adjust in the new environment. The people were
stuck between twin forces i.e. tradition and modernity which were opposite to
each other. This showed a world full of people looking inward and outward,
having one foot in the past and one in the present.
Andrew Davies has done the screenplay adaptation of A
Suitable Boy. He previously has done many adaptations including Leo Tolstoy's
'War and Peace' (2016) and Victor Hugo's 'Les Miserables' (2017). These
adaptations have been done for BBC so the characters are shown speaking
English.
The story revolves around Lata, a college student. Her mother
wishes her to marry a suitable boy. She also has three suitors namely Amit,
Haresh Khanna, and Kabir Durrani. The other side of the story revolves around
her brother-in-law, Maan, who has an affair with an older Muslim woman Saeeda.
We can see caste and religion based politics, capitalism, socialism,
industrialization, fall of grace of the landed gentry, and other sundry
concerns of young India. This series doesn't show India directly as a land of
heat, dust, strange odors and snake charmers but gives a hint about all these
indirectly. When we watch the series, we can relate it to Jane Austen's
heroines as Lata shuttles between her suitors. Whereas Maan is stuck between
love and infatuation. Lata is at first shown averse to the idea of marriage but
then grows to consider it after feeling the need of a companion.
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