‘Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar’ series review: Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s dazzling soap opera

Heeramandi thrives on opulent otherworldliness from starting to finish. It’s as if Sanjay Leela Bhansali, directing his first streaming series, is all of the extra insistent we miss the large display. In Lahore, a courtesan, Mallikajaan, crestfallen and cornered by destiny, weeps earlier than a hearth, tossing items of valuable jewelry into the sickly flames. The total mansion is wreathed in ghostly shadows. When a voice calls out and a curtain is parted, we catch sight of the haveli throughout, its indoors abuzz and aglow with revelry and laughter. It is a bewitching second within the series, conveying extra by its interaction of sunshine and darkish than any plot flip or poetic phrase.

There is quite a lot of poetry in Heermandi. As at all times — and definitely inspired by the setting and time interval, pre-Independence India — Bhansali telegraphs his adulation for the Sufi and Urdu greats. The tune that asserts the arrival of spring, ‘Sakal Ban,’ flows from an Amir Khusrow poem, and there are mentions of Ghalib, Mir, Zafar and Niyazi. One of the principal characters, Alamzeb (Sharmin Sehgal), is an aspiring poetess, very like Rekha in Umrao Jaan (1981). There are clusters of dialog nearly indistinguishable from verse. “I will serve you couplets for breakfast and poems for lunch,” Alamzeb forewarns her betrothed. She would possibly as effectively be addressing the viewer.

Alamzeb is the daughter of Mallikajaan (Manisha Koirala), madam of Shahi Mahal, an elite brothel within the pleasure district of Lahore, Heera Mandi. Mallikajaan has one other daughter, Bibbo (Aditi Rao Hydari), an acclaimed songstress cum revolutionary spy. It’s the 1940s, with resistance in opposition to the Raj gaining power. The unctuous nawabs serve their overseas overlords for titles and safety. But it’s the courtesans who actually name the tunes, shielding their patron’s secrets and techniques and, every so often, main them to smash.

(L to R) Manisha Koirala as Mallikajaan, Jayati Bhatia in ‘Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar.’
| Photo Credit:
Megha Chattani/Netflix

A set of dramatic flashbacks units the series in movement. Mallikajaan, it transpires, has secrets and techniques of her personal — a ghastly crime in her previous, buried and hushed with assistance from the debauched nawab Zulfikar (Shekhar Suman). Once unearthed, it touches off an influence battle between her and Fareedan (Sonakshi Sinha), a rival courtesan who embeds herself in Heera Mandi and units about ruffling outdated and new feathers.

The plot activates Fareedan’s elaborate schemes for revenge, an awkwardly burgeoning romance — between Alamzeb and a rebellious younger nawab, Tajdar (Taaha Shah) — and the agitation of the revolutionaries. The evil police superintendent, Cartwright (Jason Shah), hovers round, digging for skeletons. Bhansali and his writers take time bringing the a number of strands collectively. Despite the stainless sights and sounds on provide, it turns into a protracted wait. It doesn’t assist that the thrilling political backdrop of the period is painted in broad strokes (there isn’t any point out of the Muslim League and the demand for a separate Pakistan state).

Heera Mandi, an actual neighbourhood in Lahore, was established in Mughal instances, with its courtesans amassing appreciable wealth and affect down the ages. There is an enchanting historical past of tawaifs contributing to the liberty battle (Bibbo’s character, as an example, seems modelled on Azizun Bai, a Kanpur courtesan who fought in opposition to the British through the 1857 revolt). Yet, in calling our consideration to those unsung heroes, Bhansali and his writers are likely to go emotionally overboard, drawing well-meaning but awkward parallels between the characters and India underneath British rule. Mallikajaan is taunted by Zulfikar for practising ‘divide and rule’. We are like birds in a gilded cage, Bibbo says, very like India — a golden fowl in an imperial cage. In a surreal sequence, a funeral assembly transforms into an impromptu freedom tune, atawaif’s emancipation through loss of life likened to a nation gaining ‘azaadi’.

In Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022), the eponymous heroine performed by Alia Bhatt advocated for the dignity of intercourse staff in ‘60s Mumbai. The dancers and singers in Heeramandi are frequently accused of sex work — the show, gracefully, doesn’t elide this facet of courtesan life. Mallikajaan runs a good ship however stands up for her personal in public. In courtroom, she defends the excessive social standing — as centres of refinement and tradition — that the kothas loved. Even Fareedan, on the peak of her villainy, responds with solidarity and concern for her friends.

Filmed on an enormous price range, Heeramandi is gorgeous to behold. For its lighting methods and sheer compositional wizardry, the series is a winner (the 4 cinematographers are Sudeep Chatterjee, Mahesh Limaye, Huenstang Mohapatra, and Ragul Dharuman). Bhansali additionally pays heart-on-sleeve tributes to classics like Mughal-E-Azam and Pakeezah — the pirouetting dancers on rooftops may belong in Kamal Amrohi’s movie — and there’s a passing nod to KL Saigal, who played the first Hindi Devdas onscreen, a legacy continued by Dilip Kumar and later Shah Rukh Khan in Bhansali’s personal 2002 movie.

Sharmin Segal as Alam, Taha Shah Badussha as Tajdar in ‘Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar’
| Photo Credit:
Shamim Ansari/Netflix

Fardeen Khan exudes kohl-eyed menace because the nawab Wali Mohammed, whereas Koirala surrenders physique and soul to Mallikajaan, teasing scraps of humanity from an overblown half. Nivedita Bhargava and Jayati Bhatia are pleasant as a pair of gabby attendants, Satto and Phatto. Richa Chadha, working her excessive and hearty laughter, will get too short-lived a job. The series may have caught with seasoned performers like Chadha and Sanjeeda Sheikh; as an alternative, it’s the central lovers, flatly performed by Segal and Shah, who occupy a bulk of the runtime. For its closing episodes, Heermandi enters a realm of gothic abstraction that’s Bhansali’s mark. In the fiery last scene, the ladies of Heera Mandi descend upon the streets, a sea of torch-bearing protesters storming a fort. It’s Bhansali boldly reversing the tip of Padmaavat (2018), the place hordes of ghoonghat-clad ladies strode right into a pit of fireside, singing not of freedom.

Heeramandi is at the moment streaming on Netflix