The year is 2070, exactly 1500 years to Prophet Muhammad’s birth, peace be upon him. Let me put a writer-bucket challenge for Prayaag. But how does it matter as long as you could stoke fears of an approaching fascist Hindu nation, overriding logic, reason, decency and all this without looking into a true mirror which reflects your dishonest self? Surveillance always fails frisking is always lax, the bosses are dumb idiots as the protagonist waltz from one room to another, one computer to another, her manager an accomplice hidden in plain sight. The script is too convenient: the protagonist could will herself at 3-4 different places in a matter of a night in her quest to be at Commercial Centre in the morning. I say so because the serial lacks conviction in every next frame. Maybe this was his intention from the outset. You are turned into an icon by this system who can spot a peddler and his potential from a mile. You know exactly your audience as well as your funders, that media outlet and film critics of this ecosystem who would only unsheathe their pens in praise. It’s a free world, you have the licence of artistic freedom and the vehicle, Netflix, is free from the local censor. There is no point picking holes in Prayaag’s work. His lineage is even more interesting: Prayaag is the son of MJ Akbar and unlike his father who swung from Congress to BJP with a straight face, the son has ventured too far into the Hinduphobic drain to have any possibility of “purification” in future.

The young writer was once deputy editor of Scroll as well as a writer for Caravan, the two news outlets with the stench of Left. The serial, directed by Deepa Mehta, is based on a work of Prayaag Akbar who deserves an introduction of his own. It’s a totalitarian, repressive regime: The show begins with the lynching of a Muslim man and poops drop at every stage to establish “love jihad”, “Ghar Wapsi,” “suit-boot” persona of its authoritarian head, the degrading conditions in Doosh (Dalit) camps etc. India has been replaced by Aryavarta, as “Bharat” was known in holy Hindu texts. The clock is set in 2047, exactly 100 years since India’s independence. It’s a frontal attack with no punches pulled.

(Even the greeting-Jai Aryavarta-a la “Heil Hitler” is uncannily similar.) The serial which has Huma Qureshi as the central character is Hinduphobic and foresees India becoming a totalitarian regime, priming itself for genocide in the name of purification, a throwback to Adolf Hitler and his “purification” drive of ethnic cleansing which caused World War II.

I expect a political storm over Leila, a six-part TV serial on Netflix, the first season of which went on air last week.

Prayaag akbar leila