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THREAD: Woke up feeling conflicted about BBC’s #ASuitableBoy so here are seem of my stream-of-consciousness thoughts for anyone interested (1/13)
I love the book: the world & cultural set it represents (upper middle-class Calcutta life) is v familiar to me.. My mum, when she married my dad, was given a copy of the book by her uni friends with the inscription “to various kinds of suitability” (ironically lol). (2/13)
I was excited to hear that the BBC were adapting it. But tbh my heart sunk a bit when I started watching. There were so many cliches (sitars, tablas, saris in the moonlight etc) it felt like the show was falling into. The acting and accents felt a bit stilted (3/13)
I can see why Andrew Davies writing the adaptation is problematic. SA people are fighting all the time to get commissioned, to get their stories told, so why should ASB go to a white writer when there are so many brilliant SA writers? (4/13)
But, Vikram Seth agreed to the adaptation on the condition that Davies was adapting it. The book's very consciously in the model of the great epic Western novels. Andrew Davies is, of course, the grandfather of these period adaptations (e.g. Pride & P, War & Peace). (5/13)
I guess Seth wanted the BBC to treat is that way. Is there anyone more Mrs Bennet than Rupa Mehra? And like W&P, ASB asks: what forces move nations? The choice of Davies as adaptor asks British audiences to consider ASB among this company: hey, this is a classic too! (6/13)
This is problematic in of itself to consider a white writer as a paragon, & ofc the definitions of what the ‘canon’ is and what ‘classics’ are tied to imperialism and patriarchy. But this links to ASB being a v ‘British’ Indian period drama representing an Anglophile set (7/13)
& a crumbling aristocracy as India awoke to life and freedom, to paraphrase Nehru. & I appreciated seeing this Englishness: particularly as that is my grandfather, and my great-grandfather, & his father before him. Representation matters, and I see my family represented. (8/13)
The ‘Asian experience’ and ‘British Asian experience’ are ofc impossible to summate, there is such a variety of languages and stories. Here, English lecture theatres & jazz music sat alongside ghazals and Holi: my experience of India has always straddles these two worlds (9/13)
I appreciated the fact that the team was largely Indian, and it was filmed in India, the smatterings of Hindi and Urdu, the sensitive direction, without a white gaze, by Mira Nair. And the fact that it was SEXY!!! And sexy on its own terms!! (10/13)
SA sexuality on TV is so often problematic - either overly exoticised (particularly femininity) or completely de-eroticised (particularly masculinity). it was refreshing to see the romanticism & sexual tension feeling complex and nuanced and also just hot lol. (11/13)
In conc altho this is the sort of adaptation that feels 20 years old, the big difference is it wouldn't have made 20 years ago. It shouldn't have taken so long. I enjoyed it, but the question is now we've got this, the 'brown P&P' (to use crude language), where is the... (12/13)
'brown I May Destroy You' or Fleabag or Normal People? how do we ensure commissioners & producers open the gates for contemporary South Asian work too? Work that represents the complexity of British South Asian experience, & set stories IN THE UK?? (13/13) (one more coming soz)
So in conc I enjoyed the ep & and am looking forward to seeing the rest. Punditry over. Ps. For any producers reading this I am available to direct/make both lavish period dramas and edgy contemporary stuff, I've made lots of plays and am a fast learner thanks 
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Addendum: this is a massive shame, I would have LOVED to have seen @Tanika_Gupta's version (from http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/a-suitable-boy-bbc)
