Mirzapur 3 is cleverly structured—but revolting too!

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Season 3 of a huge ensemble-cast mammoth production from Excel Entertainment, Mirzapur 3, is the latest installment of an unending story of lust for power, pelf and even the flesh. Like Seasons 1(2018) and 2 (2020), there is a surfeit of sickening violence and gore and expletives (sometimes only in the subtitles, sometimes only on screen, but usually both ways!). And it is really revolting in the way the writers and directors have gone about showing all this just because there is no censorship on OTT!

The worst part of all this is the lack of confidence—that seemed all-pervading even way back in 2018 and even 2020!—in the script. Ingenious and intricately plotted with deep characters, the structural graph of the saga could have been maintained minus all the gratuitous violence and abuses. I think that the sex sequences were, perhaps, necessary for the narrative if they did want to take advantage of freedom of (s)expression that abounds on OTT, and anyway, most (!) of them are esthetically, even if graphically, shot.

Season 3 begins with the death of Munna (Divyenndu Sharma) and his now-missing father Kaleen bhaiya (Pankaj Tripathi), who is the main protagonist. With barely any white principal character in the series, Mirzapur 3 moves across a broad canvas in Uttar Pradesh, with drugs, murders, double-crosses and corruption at all levels abounding. It would be truly spoilers-ridden if I elaborated on the plot here. Suffice to say that the show ends, as it probably must, with a brief glimpse of what is to come in Season 4, as no one behaves in a predictable manner, two characters thought to be dead come up alive, and a principal character from Season 2 surfaces, to take the gritty, convoluted story ahead.

That said, I must state that the jail fight and the way Robin (Priyanshu Painyuli) is murdered are among the most brutal sequences I have ever watched on screen (unlike in the recent film, Kill, where the same kind of violence was cheer-worthy, as it was shown conducted by soldiers against criminals who deserved no mercy. But people rejected that film as well!). The Robin murder is truly repugnant for us to witness even on screen, and showing a shocked older woman puking within the scene, isn’t justification enough.

I loved the brilliance of the title-music (John Stewart Eduri) and wonder why it is changed, though not for the better, from episode 9 of the 10-episode saga. The writing, as mentioned earlier, is enticing in the way it creates anticipation, though honestly, I felt that things were moving quite languidly in the first three episodes and only picked up after that.

Quite naturally, the actors get even deeper into their characters, though at times I felt that Vijay Varma, as the surviving twin brother among Bharat and Shatrughan, was often uncomfortable. Pankaj Tripathi was barely seen but very credible in his stony stoicism.

Ali Fazal as Guddu, Shweta Tripathi as Golu and Rajesh Tailang as Ramakant just kill it, and Isha Talvar is fabulous as Chief Minister Madhuri. Anjumm Sharma is good too as the two-faced Sharad Shukla. Rasika Dugal’s angel-faced scheming is perfectly at odds with her surface sweetness, and she gets great company in Prashansa Sharma as her maid (and more). Lilliput as Dadda, Rohit Tiwari as the CM’s personal assistant and Pallav Singh as the poetic youth are other standout performers.

Since Mirzapur 3 already has a substantial fan following, here’s hoping that Season 4 continues the cracker scripting, but with all the negatives minimized.

Rating: ***

Amazon Prime Video presents Excel Entertainment’s Mirzapur 3  Created by: Karan Anshuman & Puneet Krishna  Directed by: Gurmmeet Singh  & Anand Iyer Written by: Avinash Singh Tomar, Apurva Dhar Badgaiyan  & Vijay Narayan Music: Anand Bhaskar  Starring: Pankaj Tripathi, Ali Fazal, Divyenndu Sharma, Rasika Dugal, Shweta Tripathi, Lilliput, Vijay Varma, Isha Talvar, Anjumm Sharma, Shernawaz Jijina, Meghna Malik, Harshita Shekhar Gaur, Rajesh Tailang, Sheeba Chaddha, Priyanshu Painyuli, Shaji Choudhary, Pramod Pathak, Anil George, Manu Rishi Chadha, Ayaz Khan, Prashansa Sharma, Anangsha Biswas,  Alka Amin, Neha Sargam, Rohit Tiwari, Pallav Singh, Gyan Prakash, Nitara Bhambani & others