Starring: Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Richa Chadha, Sharmin Segal, Sanjeeda Sheikh, Taha Shah Badussha, Shekhar Suman, Adhyayan Suman, Fardeen Khan
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
A glittering array of Bollywood stars that make up the line-up for this series and the sheer grandeur of the sets associated with filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali have collectively created quite the buzz around this new series on Netflix.
Mallikajaan (Koirala) is the tough-talking, hard task mistress of Heeramandi – the prime district inhabited by the tawaifs or nautch girls of Lahore in pre-Partition India. She rules over her domain of talented singers and dancers, performing for the pleasure of Indian nawabs (princes) and British colonial officers, with an iron fist, but is also fiercely protective of them. While her elder daughter Bibbo (Rao Hydari) is clearly on the path to following in her mother’s footsteps, younger daughter Alamzeb (Segal) aspires to become a poet – an ambition her mother is determined to quash to ensure harmony within her domain.
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Meanwhile, her disgruntled younger sister Waheeda (Sheikh) and protégé Lajjo (Chadha) have their own personal angst to deal with as they struggle to hold on to their princely benefactors. By the time a vengeful Fareedan (Sinha) reappears at Heeramandi to set up a rival establishment of a more modern variety to lure the British officers, the intrigue within the palatial environs of the diamond bazaar are spun into near chaos. Amid this melee and against the backdrop of the country’s independence movement gathering steam, Alamzeb finds love in Tajdar (Badussha) and is determined to break free from her destiny as a nautch girl. Will these naïve lovers succeed in their mission or does their fate have something else in store?
The extravagance of this series in the form the larger-than-life palatial sets and glittering outfits are quite the draw. Untethered from the time constraints of a Bollywood film, Bhansali has fully embraced his trademark opulence and the result is each shot being framed like a beautiful work of art.
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And, in this beauty parade, he is aided by the very punchy performances of his stunning female leads. The male actors are mostly on the peripheries of this very female-centric saga. Anyone questioning the show’s historical accuracy is missing the point because the independence movement is clearly just a very rough canvas on which Bhansali has mounted an epic tale of love, power, revenge and freedom.
The result is a diamond market with enough sparkle to lure a wide range of audiences in.