When you read the words “Netflix limited drama series about addiction, obsession, trauma, and chess”, the first adjective which springs to mind is probably not “

 coming-of-age novel of the same name, absolutely demands the use of “thrilling”. Anchored by a magnetic lead performance and bolstered by world-class acting, marvellous visual language, a teleplay that’s never less than gripping, and an admirable willingness to embrace contradiction and ambiguity, it’s one of the year’s best series. While not without flaws, it is, in short, a triumph. And it is satisfying not just as a compelling period drama, a character study, and a feast for the eyes. It’s also at its heart, a sports movie wrapped up in the vestments of a prestige TV series. Ask yourself this: When is the last time you fist-pumped the air over chess? Isn’t that something you deserve?

) will earn quite a few fist-pumps as people discover Frank and co-creator 

’s excellent series. We meet Beth as an eight-year-old when she’s left impossibly unharmed—physically, at least—by the car crash that kills her mother. Her father’s not in the picture, so Beth finds herself at a Christian school for orphans. While there, she develops three things: a friendship with Jolene (newcomer Moses Ingram), a passion for chess, and a physical and emotional dependence on the little green tranquillisers fed to the children until they’re outlawed by the state. When she finally leaves the school, she’s got those last two things packed in her suitcase alongside a bunch of 

, and no small amount of self-loathing. But it’s the game that drives her, sending her both to the heights of the competitive chess world and, increasingly, to her hoard of pills and the oblivion offered by alcohol.

Playing Beth from 15 onward, Taylor-Joy gives the kind of performance that only becomes more riveting the longer you sit with it. It’s a turn of both intoxicating glamour and precious little vanity, internal without ever being closed-off, heartbreakingly vulnerable and sharply funny, often at once. Much of the story hinges on when and how Beth is alone and sometimes she’s most alone when surrounded by people. Taylor-Joy’s performance is particularly remarkable in these moments.

Scott Frank’s largely excellent teleplays do occasionally stumble, particularly when it comes to 

. The latter is a shortcoming shared with Frank’s “Godless”—both have their hearts in the right place, but are perhaps not as thoughtful or insightful when it comes to physical intimacy, love, and the realities of a patriarchal society as they believe themselves to be.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of The Jamia Review or its members.

THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT

I’m sure if you have a Netflix account, you would’ve come across a ‘trending’ series called 

. The show follows the lives of Indian individuals trying to get married through a matchmaker based in Mumbai, 

. Indian Matchmaking is regressive in terms of a lot of aspects, be it the blatant colourism, casteism or the misogynistic views of Sima herself, but at the same time, many have found it undeniably binge-watchable.

For me, after finishing the show, a sort of guilt manifested in my head. The fact that I had enjoyed the humour and looked past the controversial aspects of Indian Matchmaking was something that kept bothering me. It was only some time after watching the Indian Matchmaking that I discovered this was not Sima’s first stint with acting. 

 was released in 2017 and was received widely in a number of film festivals. This documentary looked at matchmaking too, but this time without the comedy and with its focus on three women struggling to cope with the pervasive pressure to find a husband. Interestingly, the 

 of Indian Matchmaking and the co-director of A Suitable Girl is the same person – 

The film that was shot over three years, shows a 30-year-old Dipti in New Delhi who spends her days and nights searching for a husband with the aid of her doting parents, to little avail, a situation that one dating-service employee blames on her weight, which causes her great dismay. While Dipti cries for a spouse, 25-year-old Ritu from Mumbai is more concerned with her career at Ernst & Young than a wedding, which disturbs her “marriage consultant” mother, Seema. As for Amrita, her carefree life of partying and dancing in Delhi is coming to a sudden end due to her impending nuptials to a man who promises to allow her to continue working, once they relocate 400 miles north, to his remote hometown.

For all three, marriage is expected from peers, parents and acquaintances — a social obligation to which they must conform, lest they be thought of as having “something wrong” with them. In ‘A Suitable Girl’ marriage is presented as a form of slavery, where a woman is forced to abandon her home to assume a deferential position in her husband’s residence. 

 editorialise their position not through narration or sound bites but through revealing closeups of each of their three subjects. In those images, especially at Ritu and Dipti’s weddings (which are set to a mournful piano), the sorrowful eyes of both the brides and their mothers speak volumes about the way in which, for so many Indian women, their preordained futures are ones of meek servitude.

“A Suitable Girl” proves to be a somber lament for a part of the world still clinging to its restrictive past, at great cost to its female population.

A SUITABLE GIRL

If you are an urban Indian woman, odds are that you’ve been asked at some point to refrain from touching or staining or entering spaces while on your period. This is such a normalised phenomenon, that most Indian women will not blink at it.

 is burdened with the task of unfurling centuries of social conditioning, oppression, misinformation and ignorance associated with menstruation.

 and produced under Netflix, this 2018 documentary short film is all about Indian women leading a quiet sexual revolution. The film stars 

Arunachalam Muruganantham, Shabana Khan, Gouri Choudari, Ajeya,

e, is saddled with the task of depicting eons of cultural conditioning and social awakening in just 24 minutes. As is the drawback with topics covered in this format, it looks like a neat highlights trailer that is designed to make our heads join the dots. Craft-wise, it is nothing remarkable, at least in context of the world it represents. By focusing on a cross-section of women from a 

 outside New Delhi, the documentary goes about chronicling the introduction and novelty of the 

 story, but from the lens of those it should have been told: 

, the man who invented the low-cost pad machine, but only for a fleeting moment. 

 presents us with a series of carefully placed interviews, of both men and women, who essentially travel to the heart of the problem/s that come by virtue of being born a woman. Ladies have to walk inside farmlands, or cover long distances during late evenings to dispose off used clothes (makeshift sanitary napkins).

 lies in its ability to pack in its 25-minute runtime the three-part narrative structure. Not only is the film an introspection on the social issues and taboos existing in rural India, it also presents to us a solution to the problem. With more men helping out their female companions at the factory, no longer shying away from participating in the project, the film ends on a hopeful note.

. Perhaps, with baby steps towards the right direction, period would only be used to end a sentence, and not to put an end to a woman’s ambitions, education and liberty.

TRANSFORMING A TABOO INTO A CAUSE

Having started her career working under directors like 

, Purohit realized that she wasn’t going to get a ‘

’ anytime soon, so she decided to move on to casting and later production. She started working with Sony TV as an executive producer for shows like 

. But doing this didn’t make the cut for Purohit, and she moved back to film and worked for UTV Motion Pictures. It was here, at UTV, which would proceed to create some great movies of the late 2000s, that Purohit understood her qualities of filtering through loads of contents and digging into the procedure of which director would be most appropriate for a specific story, amassing the production and remaining with the film through its exhausting yet compensating passage, from word to screen.

 in its starting years where she
produced a number of films in languages apart from Hindi, which won her few nominations for National Film Awards. Post this she moved to NFDC (2010) as a consultant where she worked for the Film Bazaar. In late 2010, Purohit joined 

 (Mahindra Group). She worked for the collaboration with the 

. Purohit spent several years at the Sundance India Lab and was instrumental in raising projects like 

After a successful association with them, Aparna went on to produce a film based talk show 

 for EPIC television. In the winter of 2015, Purohit received a phone call asking her whether she would be interested in a position to head creative development. It was 

’ and worked with multiple directors, namely – 

. This series got a lot of positive reviews and some constructive criticism as well.

The industry soon started to respond enthusiastically as Purohit weaved
beautiful stories into the screenplay and won the hearts of not just Indian
Prime viewers but of those all around the world. 

, the latter was also criticized. Purohit has made her way through the film industry, learning through her diverse experiences working with the heavy weights of the film and media industry.

JMI Alumni Aparna Purohit: Leading Amazon Prime’s Indian Content

 is an attempt to bring to light the plight and exodus of 

 in 1990 and their insurmountable strength and courage in the face of adversity. A film can hardly be detached in the times its been released in. With the whole world knowing about the longest Internet shutdown in the history of I

 has been disconnected for many 100’s of days, to date.

, has been depicted in a narrative that tries to steer clear of any political drama but one which is personal and focuses on the loss of people’s lives, home and their dignity. 

 couple, whose lives are simple and whose love stands the test of time, war and conflict. Although simple, a film can never bury the politics of history under the garb of ‘love and hope’. While directing the movie in tricky and so called ‘politically correct’ way, 

 fails to bring the untold facet of the horrific evacuation of the 

Articles by Khushi Raizada

THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT

A SUITABLE GIRL

TRANSFORMING A TABOO INTO A CAUSE

JMI Alumni Aparna Purohit: Leading Amazon Prime’s Indian Content

Shikara: Hope in the face of War & Conflict?

THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT

A SUITABLE GIRL

TRANSFORMING A TABOO INTO A CAUSE

JMI Alumni Aparna Purohit: Leading Amazon Prime’s Indian Content

Shikara: Hope in the face of War & Conflict?