''Leila'' is an Indian

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

-language dystopian

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

web series directed by Deepa Mehta, Shanker Raman and Pawan Kumar. Based on the 2017 eponymous novel by Prayaag Akbar, ''Leila'' follows the story of Shalini, who tries to find her missing daughter in a totalitarian regime in the near future. Written by

Urmi Juvekar Urmi Juvekar is an Indian screenwriter and documentary filmmaker best known for writing the screenplays of '' Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!'' (2008), ''I Am'' (2010) and ''Shanghai'' (2012). Early life She pursued a bachelor's degree in Social Work fr ...

, it stars Huma Qureshi, Siddharth, Rahul Khanna, Sanjay Suri and

Arif Zakaria Arif Zakaria (born 11 November 1966) is an Indian actor. He has had roles in many films, beginning with his debut film ''Darmiyaan'' (1997), ''1947 Earth'' (1998), ''Dance like a man'' (2004), and biographical projects '' Mardana'' and the contr ...

. A teaser was launched on 8 March. The six-episode series premiered on 14 June 2019 on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

. The show was praised by critics, but has also received criticism from Hindutva hardliners for "hurting religious sentiments" of Hindus.

Cast

* Huma Qureshi as Shalini * Siddharth as Bhanu * Leysha Mange as Leila * Seema Biswas as Madhu * Rahul Khanna as Rizwan Chaudhary * Sanjay Suri as Joshiji *

as Guru Ma *Ashwath Bhatt as Mr. Dixit *Indu Sharma as Mrs. Dixit * Pallavi Batra as Kanika *Anupam Bhattacharya as Mohan * Akash Khurana as Mr. Rao * Jagjeet Sandhu as Rakesh *Prasanna Soni as Ashish * Neha Mahajan as Pooja * Adarsh Gourav as Naz Chaudhary

Production

In February 2018,

announced that an original series will be made on the dystopian fiction novel '' Leila'' by Prayaag Akbar, with Urmi Juvekar serving as the writer and executive producer. In November, it was announced that Deepa Mehta along with Pawan Kumar and Shanker Raman, will be directing the series. To prepare for the role of Shalini, Qureshi went through physical training. The principal photography of ''Leila'' began in October 2018 in Delhi. It was finished in February 2019.

Episodes

Season 1

Reception

Rohan Naahar of ''

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia. It was founded by Sunder Singh Ly ...

'' gave the show a 4/5 and said of it "What the show cannot achieve in terms of streamlined storytelling, it more than makes up for with the sheer audacity of its ideas, and for having the bravery of following through on them." He also said that the show's YouTube trailer was dislike bombed by individuals calling the show " Hinduphobic". Soumya Rao of '' Scroll.in'' said that "In heNetflix series, the future isn’t very different from the present" and elaborated that "Although Leila is set in the distant future, there are unmistakable allusions to the present. Dissenters are branded as traitors, intellectuals are attacked and the Repeaters have unchecked powers." Hiba Bég of ''

The Quint ''The Quint'' is an English and Hindi language Indian general news and opinion website founded by Raghav Bahl and Ritu Kapur after their exit from Network18. The publication's journalists have won three Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism A ...

'' rated the show a 4/5 and said "‘Leila’ Is a Show That Will Force You to Re-Think Everything".

References

External links

* {{Netflix original ended series (2019–present) Hindi-language Netflix original programming 2019 Indian television series debuts Television shows based on Indian novels Dystopian television series Hinduism in pop culture-related controversies Works about totalitarianism Indian television series distributed by Netflix