Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Leila’ on Netflix, an Ambitious Thriller Set in a Near-Future Indian Dystopia

Netflix series Leila opens with a heck of a subtitle, underscoring that the show is a work of fiction and does not intend “to portray any religion or religious sentiments.” That might seem odd to American ears, but in India, the series is pointedly political in its portrayal of authoritarianism, segregation and patriarchical power. Those of us who’ve seen the terrifying fictional future portrayed in The Handmaid’s Tale will immediately note Leila‘s thematic similarities.

LEILA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: An inverted shot of Shalini Pathak (Huma Qureshi) and her young daughter Leila (Leysha Mange), standing next to a pool. A subtitle explains that Mr. Joshi is the leader of their nation, Aryavarta, which is divided by class and religion.

The Gist: It’s 2047. India is a dystopia. Clean air and water are in short supply. The rich have both, and the poor are desperate. Shalini stands poolside as her husband, Rizwan Chowdhury (Rahul Khanna), swims with Leila. Men break into their house, chastising them for wasting water. They club Rizwan and leave him to die in the pool. Shalini is dragged out and thrown in a car. As for Leila? We don’t know what happens to her.

Two years pass. Shalini is in a “women’s welfare center,” where residents are forced to wear blood-red robes, take numbing drugs and, supposedly, earn their freedom by passing a “purity test.” All Shalini wants to do is see her daughter again. She maintains her clarity by pretending to swallow her pills, and watches as other women are punished for disobeying: One is forced to marry a dog. Another has her baby taken away in a cage when authorities learn the child is of mixed race — just like Shalini’s daughter. She sometimes sees hallucinations of her Muslim husband, who comforts her during difficult moments, telling her Leila is safe with her grandparents.

The day comes for Shalini’s purity test. Guru Ma (Arif Zakaria) orders her to kill a fellow inmate with the push of a button. She blanches — and fails the test. He sentences her to labor camp, and says she’ll never see her family again. On the way to her life of grueling toil, her bus is caught in a riot in the Aryavarta slums. The mob tips over the vehicle, and Shalini runs free, into the pollution and chaos.

Our Take: Leila is well-directed, the set design is convincingly grim and its ambition is readily apparent. Yet, curiously, this debut episode feels dramatically flat, most noticeably during scenes depicting the appalling oppressiveness of Shalini’s existence. Sure, we sympathize with the principal characters in a broad sense, but don’t quite feel the immense longing Shalini must feel, having her family and freedom so brutally taken from her.

The first episode feels overstuffed, the narrative working in as much world-building as possible, at the expense of character. In the wake of The Handmaid’s Tale and Alfonso Cuaron’s cinema masterpiece Children of Men, it often feels rote and derivative. And yet, our concern for Sharini, and the greater Indian society, is still substantial. You’ll wish director Deepa Mehta had set the hook deeper, and it doesn’t have the guttural shock that courses through similar stories of despots and their servants. But you may feel compelled to watch the next episode anyway.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: A wide shot shows the slums of Aryavarta beneath grim, polluted skies, as citizens riot, fighting over water.

Sleeper Star: Qureshi hasn’t been asked to stretch herself too much yet, but so far, she has the makings of a strong, charismatic anchor for the series.

Most Pilot-y Line: “Hail Aryavarta” is repeated dozens of times in this episode, the forced mantra of the oppressed. It absolutely echoes the haunting “Under his eye” of The Handmaid’s Tale.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Leila cultivates just enough suspense to awaken our curiosity. You’ll likely want to see what happens next.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream Leila on Netflix