Dystopian Imaginary and Urban Spaces: A Reading of the Text and Screen Adaptation of Prayaag Akbar’s Leila

Abstract

Prayaag Akbar’s Leila (2017) is a dystopian novel which underscores the Anthropocene and the resilience needed to navigate a dystopian landscape created by human agency. Leila is set in a future mirroring our contemporary reality, plagued by environmental degradation, systematic discrimination, climate change and constant surveillance. This paper is an attempt to study how Akbar builds upon known elements, akin to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, creating an exaggerated reality that pushes boundaries without crossing them. At the heart of this dystopian state, a totalitarian regime called the Purity Council, is a mother’s quest to find her daughter. Shalini, the protagonist, persists in her search for her missing daughter Leila, resisting authority and thus becoming a metaphor for resilience and courage in a dehumanizing system. The non-linear narrative reveals the circumstances which lead to Shalini’s separation from her young daughter. The paper will attempt a thematic study of the novel with the aim of uncovering the urban space that is transformed and repurposed to further the concept of purity and extremism. The novel stresses on climate change and its impact on human behaviour, where resource scarcity can exacerbate already existing inequalities and create monsters out of men. The paper will also attempt to analyse the 2019 screen adaptation of the novel by Netflix and discuss how this multi-layered narrative provides a commentary on the challenges of the Anthropocene in an Indian context. Leila will compel us to think that the hypothetical future reality is not much different from our present. For a story that extrapolates today’s polarised society into a horrific reality, this looks very much like our own.