Hi Friends,
MAHARANI is one of the latest web series launched on Sony Liv Online Platform on 28-May-2021 featuring Huma Qureshi, Sohum Shah, Amit Sial, Pramod Pathak, Atul Tiwari, Vineet Kumar and various others in an action-packed Indian Political Drama featuring Bihar State as the background and its related problems based on caste and creed. It's one of the states where everyone thinks he is the Kingmaker of the government and can make or break the whole legislative assembly of the state along with a substantial amount of say in the Parliament of the Indian Government.
The series has 10 episodes and the names of each episode come from Quotes from Sant Kabir Das and are written and created by Subhash Kapoor whom we famously know from the Jolly LLB movie series. He has captured the nuisances of the Bihar state quite well and focussed on the various problems the state faces. The timelines showcased is inspired by the real-life events when Lalu Prasad Yadav made his wife Rabri Devi the Chief Minister of the state. Huma Qureshi has acted really well and Amit Sial is the one who rises above all with his constant fight to be the state CM and trying hard missing it at every moment by a small margin. Karan Sharma is the director of the web series.
Rani Bharti is well supported by her Secretary Kaveri Sridharan played by Kani Kasruti. There are a lot of special moments between her as she tries to teach Rani how to sign and raises her confidence and helps her along the way. Similarly, Sohum's character CM Bheema Bharti is supported by Satyendranath Mishra played by Pramod Pathak and a lot of camaraderie is being shown between them too. They grow and fall together as a team. Amit Sial played Navin Kumar a leader who is in the ruling party but leaves to join the opposition party after having some differences with CM Bheema Bharti. It's being showcased that Bheema and Navin used to be classmates in college and both come from different caste structures and Bheema winning the race to woo the Governors and other important top leaders in a better way. Underlying all the drama, there is an investigation into the Chara Ghotala or Fodder Scam being led by Parvez Alam played by Inaalmulhuq.
Some funny characters are also introduced in the series played by Vineet Kumar as Gauri Shankar Pandey and Mohammad Aashiq Hussain as Prem Kumar Chaubey. There was no need for the Baba or Ashram kind in the later part of the series which seems out of place as the character didn't get enough build-up and we have already seen a great performance of Bobby Deol so this was looking all fake and not required. Just to complete the background story it is introduced and I think it could have been omitted by the editor or could be shown as some other politician negotiating the deals out of all the kingmakers.
It's a story of a housewife coming out of age and taking the top position of Chief Minister of the state and then learning the ropes of the trade despite her limited education. She follows her heart and takes all decisions towards correcting the wrong into right and making bold decisions along the way. She goes against what society thinks about her and creates a path that is rightful in her own mind despite fighting an internal battle of wife, mother, power, fame and continues to take responsibility towards the poor and needy of the state. The best thing is they didn't try to copy-paste the setup completely from real-life events and the oratory style of Shri Lalu Prasad Yadav which really brings in the director's unique way and style of storytelling.
It's really something you can binge-watch as you would want to know more about the state, how a homemaker entered the politics and took the charge of things in her hands and learned her way to really deserve the top spot and remain there for a long time. Some of the scenes showcased are really difficult to digest between the Naxalites vanishing the whole village to prove a point to the government and the political parties supporting their activities by providing them money and ammunition. Also, as told earlier in Politics there are no relationships of blood but of loyalty to the chair and the kingmaker controls the whole money and fame game so here there is a big twist that will keep you engaged in the background story in the last two episodes. Overall, it's a must-visit show on Sony Liv and I totally loved watching the same after another one on the platform named Scam 1992. There are a lot of dialogues but the best I remember is ''Haathi chale bazaar aur kutta bhaunke hazaar'' meaning Elephant walking to the market and thousands of dogs barking at him.
RATING 4/5
