'Maharani' Web Review: Jiya ho Bihar’s lalas!

MaharaniOn SonyLIVCreator Subhash KapoorDir Karan SharmaCast Huma Qureshi Sohum Shah Amit SialRating 355Given her latest outing and her stupendous debut with Gangs of Wasseypur 2012 actor Huma Qureshi should legitimately be designated an honorary native of BiharJharkhandWhich is sweet given that Delhiite Qureshi as she told me recently had never even visited BiharJharkhand besides a pit stop in Patna once Presuming this is before she became an actorWatch the trailer of MaharaniIrsquom hyphenating two states here because the series Maharani mdash productionwise carefully designed mdash is set in the politics of late rsquo90s Bihar when Jharkhand was part of it Itrsquos not like saying UPBihar the way metropolitans hyphenate 45 crore people into the same thingHuma plays an uneducatedilliterate homemaker who goes on to replace her husband as the chief minister of Bihar That the mdash albeit fictionalised mdash inspiration for Humarsquos character Rani Bharti is Lalu Prasad Yadavrsquos wife Rabri Devi is obvious To what extent can you further draw parallels between the two LittleThat the suave cunning Naveen Kumar played by the cracker of an actor Amit Sial on the other hand appears way more Nitish Kumar the current Bihar CM is beyond doubtThe falling deck of cards in the showrsquos opening credits is equally an ode to the ultimate political drama House of Cards Likewise the intermixing of ghotala scandal gormint state and a bearded godman as the political puppeteer reminds you somewhat of Scam 1992 mdash the best thing to come out of SonyLIV until Irsquom guessing this show itselfWhat are we looking at here really Politics of course Which is Indiarsquos national sport with one of its grand playfields being the legislature of Bihar More so in the timeframe this series is set inIf you consider a definite change in levers of powers taking place mdash from central leaderships and uppercaste leaders to regional charisma and lowerdeck pushbacks ldquoSwar diya hai swarg nahinrdquo in Lalursquos words repeated here by the leading man Bheema Sohum ShahBut this isnrsquot some juvenile crappola about bumbling crooks for politicians playing dressup Tandav The series uses the backdrop adequately to shine a light on two events of contemporary history that defined the period end of century and the place BiharFirst is the classwar in the state merging into a castewar of sorts between the militant uppercaste Ranvir Sena called Veer Sena here at one end and the guntoting Maoists on the other The series of events sufficiently match realitySecond is the fodder scam called seed scam here bizarre even by Bihar standards that got unearthed during this time mdash when animals their feed medicines and their subsequent deaths were all imagined on paper while crores of public money were siphoned offIt might be a little odd to see the topmost bureaucrats of the state mdash the DGP in one instance and the finance secretary no less in the other mdash individually fighting both menaces risking their lives like energetic jaanbaaz heroesStill helps that the writers and director Karan Sharma know their newspapersrecords of the time mdash in order to imagine the cowbelt politics well The showrsquos created by Subhash Kapoor Jolly LLB His last release Madam Chief Minister 2021 was similarly a thriller set in UP politics with a biopic of Mayawati at its centre Maharani is a much superior smarter and patiently draftedcrafted workAs for Bihar itself it helps further that the makers know their districts Chaibasa from Saharsa their festivals Makar Sakranti from Chhath their food Maldah mangoes from choodadahi This level of heartwarming accuracy automatically flows into actors as well alwaysWhich is such a generational reliefshift for audiences whorsquove grown up on the parody of Bihari netas on screen Shown as buffoons alone in the lsquoaiyaashi ka denrsquo spouting ldquoaye gurbakrdquo type random expletives with paan and lust dripping from their lipsHerersquos a slight issue though mdash with mixing fact that liberally with fiction or faction Or counterfactual history as it were No matter what happens on the screen then it sets you thinking way too much about whether it wouldcould in life too The space between reality as we know it and just a story as imagined with grains of truth is too blurred for suspension of disbelief I see that as a problem with this showWhich is otherwise closer to works of Prakash Jha than Anurag Kashyap if you may More Apaharan than GoW More journalistic than plain fantasy Certainly more authentically Bihar politics than anything Irsquove seen on screen mdash of late or everAlso readSohum Shah Anybody files case against OTT as it is vulnerable

'Maharani' Web Review: Jiya ho Bihar’s lalas!

Maharani
On: SonyLIV
Creator: Subhash Kapoor
Dir: Karan Sharma
Cast: Huma Qureshi, Sohum Shah, Amit Sial
Rating: 3.5/5

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Home / Entertainment / Web Series / Article / 'Maharani' Web Review: Jiya ho Bihar’s lalas!

'Maharani' Web Review: Jiya ho Bihar’s lalas!

MaharaniOn: SonyLIVCreator: Subhash KapoorDir: Karan SharmaCast: Huma Qureshi, Sohum Shah, Amit SialRating: 3.5/5

Trending Stories

Latest Photos

Latest Videos

Latest Web Stories

Mid-Day Fast

Maharani
On: SonyLIV
Creator: Subhash Kapoor
Dir: Karan Sharma
Cast: Huma Qureshi, Sohum Shah, Amit Sial
Rating: 3.5/5