City of Dreams season 2 review: Director Nagesh Kukunoor amps up the drama, politicking, corruption in new instalment

If the battle lines were drawn in the first season of City of Dreams (Disney+ Hotstar, 2019), in the second season, the political drama within and around the Gaekwad family expands from being just a battle of the sexes to a battle of the exes as well. After eliminating her brother from her path and her father recovering from an assassination attempt, Poornima Gaekwad (Priya Bapat) is now the interim Chief Minister of Maharashtra. She’s troubled by visions of her murdered brother Ashish and occupied the chair for three months. With elections imminent, it’s time for her father Ameya Rao Gaekwad (Atul Kulkarni) to pull out every dirty trick he has up his sleeve. This includes releasing ghosts of Poornima’s past romantic affairs. Another power broker, the ‘ruthless’ Ramnik bhai (Shishir Sharma) is ready to use Poornima’s bisexuality to land the lucrative Mumbai Metro railway contract. Some of the old players return – such as the loyal accountant Purushottam (Sandeep Kulkarni), the honeytrap Asha (Flora Saini), the brutalising Karnataka based don Jagan (Sushant Singh) and of course erstwhile chief minister Jagdish Gurav (Sachin Pilgaonkar) and policeman turned politician Wasim Khan (Eijaz Khan) who have joined forces with Poornima to form their own formidable troika. Among the new characters are an idealist youth leader turned aspiring politician Mahesh (Adinath Kothare), Arvind (Ankur Rathee), the arrogant heir to a construction company and his fiancée Tanya (Shriyam Bhagnani), who proves the old adage that you should never judge a book by its cover. Director Nagesh Kukunoor and co-writer Rohit Banawlikar amp up the drama, politicking and corruption, overloading the season with sub-plots and a detailed contest between the wounded former party chief now baying for payback, and a comeback, his upright but inexperienced cub whose guile and smarts cannot always smooth over the cracks in her armour. The chess metaphor is used literally – there are pawns, a king, queen, knights and rooks. Some are dispensable, while others will be victims. The scaled-up second season continues to be set mainly in boardrooms, warehouses and living rooms. The locations might be intimate but the story falls prey to excess as it consciously strides towards 10 episodes of 40 minutes each. The writers lob in crisis after scandal after trouble which the actors have a good whack at with fine performances that evoke compassion. Leading from the front are Priya Bapat and Atul Kulkarni, followed by Sandeep Kulkarni’s Purushottam, Bhagnani’s Tanya, Kothare’s Mahesh, Khan’s Wasim and Pilgaonkar’s Gurav – each one caught in the high stakes game of power between a warring man and his daughter who will always be second best in her father’s eyes. City of Dreams season 2 streams on Disney+ Hotstar. Rating: **1/2