Akka

In this age of remakes and adaptations and loose inspirations, I automatically nurse a soft spot for originality. The moment I see a period production that’s not based on pre-existing mythology, literature, movies or true events, it’s like discovering a rare (and soon-to-be-extinct) animal or an uninhabited new island at the corner of the earth. The heart rate shoots up. The mind hopes. You mean world-building is the actual building of a world without blueprints? The characters and rules are conceived from scratch? The fiction is imagined out of thin air? Backstories are created? How is that possible?

Netflix’s new drama Akka, featuring Keerthy Suresh and Radhika Apte in the lead, has a promising premise. Directed by Dharmaraj Shetty, the five-episode series is set in a fictitious town called Pernuru in South India, which has a matriarchal society. Ruled for hundreds of years by women, the men in this small district are often sidelined and are not given any decision-making power. Set in the 1980s, the district is divided in three villages- each governed by a sister and her daughter, with the eldest sister ruling the district with a tight noose. The group of women gangster live and rule with aplomb untill their peace is disrupted by an outsider from the city who wants to break the tyrany and establish her own rule. While the premise of a fictitious world ruled by women is a great story to tell, coupled with solid performances from leads, the series leaves you with conflicting feelings.