Maharani 3 is a befitting finale to a gritty series

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We have very few web series that improve with every season. And Maharani 3 is pre-eminently one of them.

The story here continues to its chilling as well as gratifying culmination as protagonist Rani Bharti (Huma Qureshi), in jail as she has been framed for the murder of her husband, Bheema Bharti (Sohum Shah), steadfastly refuses bail (up to a dramatic and well-orchestrated point). Instead, she operates from within to build a powerful support system against the caucus that had actually plotted to kill her husband and simultaneously destroy her political prospects. Rani is also battling to convince her eldest son, who has turned against her as he thinks she is his father’s murderer.

One by one, Rani begins to annihilate (politically or otherwise!) her opponents, and the eight episodes also delve on how her steadfastly loyal associates stand staunchly with Rani on her mission of vendetta. These are led by Kaveri Sridharan (Kani Kusruti), her secretary, and Satyendranath Mishra (Pramod Pathak), the chief secretary of her political party, who become much more than passive supporters.

As justified by whatever has happened, there is moral ambiguity, but the dramatic build-up and Rani’s motivations justify the happenings as there is a ruthless quest for audience gratification as well. We don’t strictly get to see much of Rani here, lengthwise, but her persona looms large in her opponents’ thoughts and actions!

The series is dominated by performances by brilliant actors who can only be described as erudite in their masterly interpretation of their characters. Huma Qureshi is, as always in this series, superlative as the unshakeable, implacable Rani. She is a vendetta machine who is doing everything only for her family and for her husband’s honor and has no real political ambition left anymore.

Pramod Pathak and Kani Kusruti too are superlative in their roles, and the coterie of Rani’s enemies, led by Amit Sial as CM Navin Kumar, Vineet Kumar as Gauri Shankar Pandey, Mohammad Aashique Hussain as Prem Kumar Chaubey, Atul Tiwari as governor Govardhan Das and Danish Iqbal as Dilshad Mirza all do magnificent work. Fabulous turns also come out of Anuja Sathe as Kirti Singh and Dibyendu Bhattacharya as Martin Ekka, who are the other main players in this solid drama.

Saurabh Bhave’s direction keeps us engrossed along with the script (each season had a different helmsman in this series created by Subhash Jolly LLb Kapoor). The dialogues may be predictable but that is only as per the situations and the lingua franca of Bihar.

In short, do not miss this series, and those who came in late may please first revisit the earlier seasons to assess how the saga concludes.

SonyLIV presents Kangra Talkies’ Maharani 3 Created by: Subhash Kapoor  Directed by: Saurabh Bhave  Written by: Subhash Kapoor, Nandan Singh & Umashankar Singh  Music: Rohit Sharma  Starring: Huma Qureshi, Amit Sial, Gauri Shankar Pandey, Pramod Pathak, Kani Kusruti, Anuja Sathe, Tanu Vidyarthi, Harish Khanna, Mohammad Aashique Hussain, Atul Tiwari, Pankaj Kashyap, Sukumar Tudu,  Danish Iqbal, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Divyashekhar Jha, Basit Ali Basu, Kumar Saurabh & others