{"id":4830,"date":"2016-07-09T00:37:21","date_gmt":"2016-07-08T19:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4830"},"modified":"2026-07-17T21:18:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T15:48:32","slug":"leila-review-netflix-huma-quereshi-praayag-akbar-deepa-mehta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=4830","title":{"rendered":"Leila Review: A Tedious Netflix Series that is Neither Political Commentary Nor Dystopian Drama"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span class=\"dropcap\">A<\/span>t this point, Netflix\u2019s strategy when it comes to making an original Indian series is highly unoriginal. Unlike Amazon, which has so far experimented with fresh ideas \u2014 a hinterland gangster saga (<\/p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mirzapur<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">), a cricket drama (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Inside Edge<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">), a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/pop-culture\/netflix-you-stalkers-millennials\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">stalker<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> tragicomedy (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pushpavalli)<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a social commentary series (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Laakhon Mein Ek<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">), and a glossy snapshot of affluent India\u2019s obsession with weddings (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/admin.arre.co.in\/pop-culture\/made-in-heaven-review-zoya-akhtar-reema-kagti-indian-weddings\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Made in Heaven<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) \u2014 most of Netflix\u2019s big-ticket Indian series have only been book adaptations.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s a gamble that has paid off in the past with <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sacred Games<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which didn\u2019t just make its source material more accessible, but also broadened the scope for imaginative <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/bollywood\/hrishikesh-mukherjees-gol-maal\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">filmmaking<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Yet since then, the streaming giant is visibly stuck in a loop of replicating that formula by adapting stories to suit the socio-cultural specificity of the country\u2019s milieu. The trouble starts when that effort shows. Last year\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Selection Day<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, an insipid adaptation that was at odds with its origins \u2014 an Aravind Adiga novel bursting with small-town flavour \u2014 was proof of this strategy\u2019s shortcomings. This week\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leila<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, adapted from Prayaag Akbar\u2019s debut <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/pop-culture\/prayaag-akbar-leila-upper-caste-privilege\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">dystopian novel<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and co-directed by Deepa Mehta, Shanker Raman, and Pawan Kumar, continues in similar terrain. The show\u2019s confused messaging and uneven narrative make it neither biting political commentary nor a worthy candidate for the dystopian genre.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The dissonance with Akbar\u2019s imagination of a dystopian future is evidenced from the first episode itself. Set in 2047, where communities live segregated behind walled structures under a totalitarian regime that abducts and brainwashes at will, the story revolves around an upper-class Hindu woman\u2019s search for the daughter who was separated from her when she was forcibly taken to a \u201cpurity camp\u201d. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leila\u2019s <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pilot, written and directed by Deepa Mehta, reduces the expansive length and breadth of this <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/technology\/from-the-jetsons-to-black-mirror-when-did-the-future-go-from-utopia-to-dystopia\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">dystopian<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> universe to mere information on its opening title slates. Unlike<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a comparison that the show frequently evokes with its muted production design and maroon uniforms<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Leila<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> doesn\u2019t prioritise explaining the transformation of its physical world or at the very least, expanding on it. This decision, not only takes away from the specific curiosity that the foreign world of<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Leila<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> can evoke, but also betrays a hurried arrogance on the part of the show\u2019s makers. <\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instead of &#8220;seeing&#8221; the distinctiveness of this new world, we are left to glean from the text on screen that <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leila\u2019s<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> universe is set in \u201cAryavarta\u201d (a term used in <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/%C4%80ry%C4%81varta\">ancient Hindu texts<\/a> to denote parts of an Aryan subcontinent) whose leader Dr Joshi (Sanjay Suri) is the architect behind this segregation: Cities are divided into sectors with unscalable walls here and each sector has one community that is free to practice their beliefs. The next slate informs us that clean water has now become a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/humour\/rath-luxury-yatra-service-politicians-2019\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">luxury<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span>\n<blockquote class=\"quote--center\"> <em>Leila\u2019<\/em>s biggest drawback is that its world-building, even with the predictable flashbacks, can\u2019t stand on its own.<\/blockquote>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This bare approach of \u201ctelling\u201d instead of \u201cshowing\u201d is taken forward in the opening sequence where <em>Leila\u2019s<\/em> elite <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/politics\/asifa-rape-kashmir-kathua-murder-hindutva\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hindu<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> protagonist, Shalini (a sincere Huma Qureshi), her Muslim husband, Riz (Rahul Khanna) and their three-year-old daughter are interrupted by a group of goons during an afternoon swim inside their house. Riz\u2019s brutal murder and Shalini\u2019s abduction happens indoors, a deviation from the book, where it unfolds in a public setting. Instead of setting the tone for the series, this version infantilises its premise, making Shalini\u2019s tragedy seem like an outcome of a personal grudge, and not an extension of a terrifying new reality.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From then, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leila<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> fast-forwards two years (as opposed to the 16-year-separation between mother and daughter in the book): Shalini, now a ghost of her former self, is one of the many women who live at the Shram Kendra as punishment for marrying outside her community. The daily schedule of these <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/gender\/world-needs-more-difficult-women-tanushree-dutta\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">women<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> includes polishing shoes of the military-style security forces, lining up to take a pill supposed to numb their emotions, and snitching on each other to be shortlisted for the \u201cpurity test\u201d, their get-out card from the camp.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mehta dedicates the first episode to following the lives of these imprisoned women, which is essentially a mindless montage of female suffering porn: There\u2019s a suicide, two murders, a forced abortion, a mother who is separated from her baby, a woman being punished for rebelling by being married off to a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/animals\/agony-seeing-dog-age\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">dog<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and another being made to roll over half-eaten plates of food. Almost all of these scenarios are played up for shock value and add very little to our understanding of this world\u2019s new social order. For instance, the imprisoned women live under the supervision of two transgender officers but it is unclear what hierarchy they occupy in Aryavarta. In another scene, two women break out into a fight while lining up for their daily bath and the word \u201cdoosh\u201d is yelled out. From the reaction that the term receives, it is understood that the term is a slur, but there&#8217;s no accompanying context.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leila\u2019s<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> biggest drawback: Its world-building, even with the predictable flashbacks, can\u2019t stand on its own. Without any familiarity with Akbar\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/pov\/netflix-books-readers-block\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">novel<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the series, that sacrifices complexity for presentation, becomes an incoherent mess. The proceedings of almost every episode, packed to the brim with too many themes, raise a hundred-odd questions. And throughout its six-episode run, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leila <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">isn\u2019t equipped to answer most of them, engaging with its ideas on a superficial level and relying a little too wholeheartedly on its audiences already being aware of the templates of the dystopian genre. As a result, the stakes in the show<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">are at an all-time low, aided by laborious storytelling, inefficient direction, and stilted dialogues.\u00a0<\/span>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-50916\" src=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1560755206.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"837\" height=\"407\" \/>\n<figcaption>\n<p>Deepa Mehta dedicates the first episode of <em>Leila<\/em> to following the lives of these imprisoned women, which is essentially a mindless montage of female suffering porn.<\/p>\n<p>Netflix<\/p>\n<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Moreover, it\u2019s hard to remain invested in a show whose physical universe doesn\u2019t come across as dystopian at all. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leila\u2019s<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> identifiers of the future \u2014 gated communities, social inequality, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/earth\/meghalayan-age-water-crisis\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">water shortages<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, garbage dumps, Hindu extremism, and an attack on female reproductive rights \u2014 aren\u2019t as shocking for these are troubles that play out in present-day India with alarming regularity. Take for example, the third episode where goons raid an activist\u2019s house, accuse him of spreading politics, throw away his books, and brand him a traitor. It\u2019s a scene that is less futuristic and more a reflection of real life, mirroring events of last year, where intellectuals across the country were put behind bars. <\/span>\n\n<i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leila\u2019s<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> dystopia then, is hardly convincing, for it doesn\u2019t escalate the horrors of the present; it just blindly presents a version of them. In doing so, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leila<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> offers hardly anything new about the depravity of the future that hasn\u2019t already been documented by paranoid headlines, disturbing real-life events, or say, your imagination. It\u2019s a stark contrast to the clarity that last year\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ghoul<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 arguably Netflix\u2019s most original outing \u2014 brought to its version of dystopia. A fact that is even more surprising given Patrick Graham, who created <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ghoul<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, is also one of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leila<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019s co-writers.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even when <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leila <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">manages to pick up after its first three episodes, the show&#8217;s existence still remains pointless, mainly because its embellishments \u2014 including a political conspiracy, no less \u2014 sacrifice the very essence of the politics of Akbar\u2019s book. His imagination of a hyper-segregated, intolerant state in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leila<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> wasn\u2019t an indictment on any particular religion or ideology, training its lens instead on the excesses of a secular state endorsing homogeneity. Its TV adaptation however, chooses to discard that nuance, and stubbornly present it as a comment on the unchecked superiority of a specific <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/social-commentary\/azaadi-gully-boy-kanhaiya-kumar\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ideology<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The result of this indefensible deviation is a dull, generic series that squanders its chance to predict the future in its greed to replicate the present. Netflix&#8217;s <em>Leila, <\/em>ultimately begs one question: Why adapt a book when you mount the adaptation on disregarding its contents?\u00a0<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s hard to remain invested in a show whose physical universe doesn\u2019t come across as dystopian at all. Leila\u2019s identifiers of the future \u2014 social inequality, water shortages, and extremism \u2014 aren\u2019t as shocking for these are troubles that play out in present-day India with alarming regularity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":4833,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[8471,8465,1341,8472],"class_list":["post-4830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop-culture","tag-dystopian-drama","tag-leila","tag-netflix","tag-series-review"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Leila Review: A Tedious Netflix Series that is Neither Political Commentary Nor Dystopian Drama<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It\u2019s hard to remain invested in a show whose physical universe doesn\u2019t come across as dystopian at all. 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Leila\u2019s identifiers of the future \u2014 social inequality, water shortages, and extremism \u2014 aren\u2019t as shocking for these are troubles that play out in present-day India with alarming regularity.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Poulomi Das\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=4830#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=4830\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Poulomi Das\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7cc6b159b4669ddf75eae5f2b536d679\"},\"headline\":\"Leila Review: A Tedious Netflix Series that is Neither Political Commentary Nor Dystopian Drama\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-08T19:07:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-17T15:48:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=4830\"},\"wordCount\":1359,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=4830#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1560658141.png\",\"keywords\":[\"dystopian drama\",\"Leila\",\"Netflix\",\"Series review\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Pop Culture\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=4830\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=4830\",\"name\":\"Leila Review: A Tedious Netflix Series that is Neither Political Commentary Nor Dystopian Drama\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=4830#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=4830#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1560658141.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-08T19:07:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-17T15:48:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7cc6b159b4669ddf75eae5f2b536d679\"},\"description\":\"It\u2019s hard to remain invested in a show whose physical universe doesn\u2019t come across as dystopian at all. 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Leila\u2019s identifiers of the future \u2014 social inequality, water shortages, and extremism \u2014 aren\u2019t as shocking for these are troubles that play out in present-day India with alarming regularity.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4830","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Leila Review: A Tedious Netflix Series that is Neither Political Commentary Nor Dystopian Drama","og_description":"It\u2019s hard to remain invested in a show whose physical universe doesn\u2019t come across as dystopian at all. 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Leila\u2019s identifiers of the future \u2014 social inequality, water shortages, and extremism \u2014 aren\u2019t as shocking for these are troubles that play out in present-day India with alarming regularity.","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Poulomi Das","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4830#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4830"},"author":{"name":"Poulomi Das","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/7cc6b159b4669ddf75eae5f2b536d679"},"headline":"Leila Review: A Tedious Netflix Series that is Neither Political Commentary Nor Dystopian Drama","datePublished":"2016-07-08T19:07:21+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-17T15:48:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4830"},"wordCount":1359,"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4830#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1560658141.png","keywords":["dystopian drama","Leila","Netflix","Series review"],"articleSection":["Pop Culture"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4830","url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4830","name":"Leila Review: A Tedious Netflix Series that is Neither Political Commentary Nor Dystopian Drama","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4830#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4830#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1560658141.png","datePublished":"2016-07-08T19:07:21+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-17T15:48:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/7cc6b159b4669ddf75eae5f2b536d679"},"description":"It\u2019s hard to remain invested in a show whose physical universe doesn\u2019t come across as dystopian at all. 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