The BBC’s six-part adaptation of Vikram Seth’s 1993 tome ‘A Suitable Boy’ that began on Sunday night put off some for its slow pace, but many applauded the effort that marks something of a milestone for the broadcaster: no white figure in a historic India series.

The series also reflects a feat by writer Andrew Davies to condense over 1,300 pages and nearly 6 lakh words into a script played out over six hour-long episodes. The lavishly produced series shot entirely in India is set in the 1950s but it is only now that Britain is ready a series with an all-non-white cast on mainstream television.

The British raj in India has been a major theme in British films and television in recent years and decades, depicting a certain narrative of the colonial project, but the Britain of 2020 is considered more receptive to non-white themes, actors and performances.

Most critics in British news outlets gave it a thumbs-up, so did Indophile Britons. But some took to social media even as the first episode was on air to express disappointment with its pace, acting and what seemed like a lack of connect with its content.

Wrote Chitra Ramaswamy in The Guardian: “This may be the first Indian period drama of its kind in British TV history, but it remains an India that a British audience is used to seeing…It was a different time, and in spirit and tone A Suitable Boy is like a period drama from then. Except – and I guess this is the point – it would never have been made 20 years ago”.

Starring Tabu, Ishan Khattar and Tanya Maniktala, the drama is directed by Mira Nair. One Twitter user posted a screen-grab of a watch worn by one of the actors, adding: “(That) watch doesn’t exactly look as if it belongs in 1951, does it”.

Writer William Dalryimple tweeted: “Very, very, very good opening episode…lots of brave decisions & pitch perfect in a million ways. I watched with a room of people, half of whom knew India well & half of whom did not. All loved it. Tabu especially magnetic. A hit!”

For Ed Cumming of The Independent, the first episode was “Bright and comprehensible, but an orange-filtered fantasy version of India.”

He wrote: “For all its good intentions, this is still an orange-filtered fantasy version of India, where the characters speak English with the same mannered Indian accents and nobody can do anything without a sitar twanging”.

“While they can’t resist the hoary old attractions of trains and temples – there’s even a Holi festival thrown in – they build a semi-plausible world with a clear story. In this strange year, escaping to a made-up place will suit plenty of viewers just fine”.

Gushed Christopher Stevens in the Daily Mail in a review titled ‘Scandal, spice and splendour… it’s like an Indian Dynasty’: “There has never been a TV drama quite so kaleidoscopic”, while Anita Singh of The Daily Telegraph wrote: “Andrew Davies has stripped away all the fat from Vikram Seth’s enormous novel and left us with a gorgeous TV drama”.

The series, announced in 2017, tells the story of university student Lata (Maniktala), coming of age in north India in 1951 at the same time as the country is carving out its own identity as an independent nation and is about to go to the polls for its first general election.

Torn between duty to her family and the excitement of romance, Lata embarks on a journey of love, desire and heartache as three very different suitors vie for her hand. Her choice plays out against the tumultuous political backdrop of India in the 1950s.