 "Maharani Season 2: Clever writing in misandrist politics")
When the first season of _Maharani_ streamed a year ago, we Biharis watched it with a detached bemusement. After all, this ‘Jungle Raj’ that Laloo Yadav and his better(?) half Rabri Devi unleashed on Bihar, was a sting of the past, and hence endurable as nightmarish nostalgia.
How were we to know that just a year later, the Laloo factor would be back in Bihar? Watching season 2 of Maharani, there is no comfort of distance: the anarchy that the show so scrupulously describes as part of Bihar’s past, is back in our state. This time, there is no Rabri Devi in Indian politics and Laloo Yadav is very unwell. This time, it’s the son, perpetrating a glaring nepo-aura that Bollywood is trying hard to shun.
Maharani Season 2 gave me the creeps. It begins with the rape and murder of a young ‘Miss Patna’ by a sleazy politician named Dulari; her strangulated body is discovered in a car. This incident, known as the Shilpi Jain murder case, actually happened in Bihar in July 1999. The matter was hushed up. But most people of Bihar suspected someone very close to Laloo Yadav of the dirty deed. In the serial, the raped and murdered girl’s boyfriend lives. In real politics, both were murdered.
Incidentally, why must debauched vile rapist-politician look a certain way? Why are all the truly evil characters in the series of a particular skin tone? That’s not fair at all!
The clever writing in season 2 negotiates the reign of terror during Laloo-doppelganger Bheema Bharti( Sohum Shah )’s regime even when he is in jail. Soham is calm and authentic. His beard is not .
Leaning towards a creative freedom that many would find questionable, the serial portrays the doppelganger Rabri Devi as the Bihar’s saviour. Huma Qureshi ’s Rani Bharti is righteous and courageous. She takes on the mafia might of her incarcerated husband and even emerges a winner. This is nothing but wishy-washy wishful thinking. But that’s okay: we need hope for Bihar.
Huma Qureshi tried hard to look hopeful. She seems to have acquired prosthetic assistance to look like a female politician from Bihar who takes over the State’s chief ministership after her corrupt husband goes to jail. The girth is meant to augment her worth as a woman who won’t be taken for granted. But like her ‘Bihari’ accent, Ms Qureshi’s characterization slips and in out of Rani Bharati’s skin, depending on the writing, some of which is discernibly sloppy. Sometimes, we see Rani Bharti slipping into her domestic role, feeding her children, meeting political allies after keeping them waiting for hours (“it’s not like you men who slip on a lungi and that’s it, we women have to prepare”), kneading dough while discussing political manoeuvrings with her calm secretary-cum-confidante Kaveri, played by the wonderful Malayalam actress Kani Kusruti, who steals every scene from Qureshi.
It’s interesting to see the women characters being fleshed out with such kind contours, while the men are projected mostly as casualties of misandry. Not only Qureshi and Kusruti, but also Anuja Sathe, who plays Bheema Bharti’s mistress, and Neha Chauhan, who plays the tech-savvy media advisor to CM candidate Navin Kumar(played by the brilliant Amit Sial, with a rare mix of dormant ambition and unpredictable irony).
My favourite sequence is between Neha Chauhan and Vineet Kumar (cast as the sleaziest power broker on this side of Harvey Weinstein) where the veteran politician claims he had warned Mrs India Gandhi against the Emergency on an email in 1975.
Subhash Kapoor and Nandan Singh’s writing is largely on the ball, Ravindranath Gautam directs with pugilistic passion for his characters, and the actors are quick on the uptake. What brings the series’ watchability down is the length. I am sorry I am not happy investing ten hours of my precious time on these opportunists and scumbags.
Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
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