Maharani Season 2 Review: A worthy improvement, and a lot more fun

The new season tightens the screws as Huma Qureshi’s Rani Bharti consolidates her reign as Bihar CM
Maharani Season 2 Review: A worthy improvement, and a lot more fun

A politician peels eggs in a dark parking lot. Then, turning around, he proceeds to rape and murder a young woman as her partner, who’d affronted the politician minutes ago by grabbing his collar, helplessly watches. You’d presume the worst is over, but wait for it. Two contrasting manoeuvers—one to put the rapist behind bars the other to cover up his crimes — get under way. Suddenly, there’s a shootout, and the witness is killed. The politician walks.

Maharani is back. Created by Subhash Kapoor, the series, streaming on SonyLIV, offers a long and lacerating look at the politics of Bihar: particularly, the impunity and self-interest with which all players operate. I’d enjoyed the first season while finding stretches of it supremely dull. Well, not anymore. Season 2 tightens the screws as Rani Bharti (Huma Qureshi) consolidates her reign as Bihar CM, even has her husband, Bheema (Soham Shah), retaliates from jail.

Cast: Huma Qureshi, Soham Shah, Amit Sial, Pramod Pathak, Kani Kusruti, Vineet Kumar, Dibyendu Bhattacharya

Streaming: SonyLIV

Rani has grown. She’s no more the coy, second-string amateur we once knew. She exudes considerable grit and confidence as she stamps her authority over her underlings. Plonked on the CM’s chair, one knee pulled up, she doles out orders instead of receiving them. The new season props her up as a crusader, someone who bats for women’s rights and decries ‘goonda raj’. Her bid to clean up her party puts her in the crosshairs of Bheema and his cronies. But there are also opponents—like the stoically ambitious Navin Kumar (Amit Sial)—to fret about.

The inspiration for Maharani is an open secret: The Rabri Devi-Lalu Prasad Yadav combine that defined Bihar in the 1990s. Subhash and his writers, ever reluctant to tell names, continue fictionalising real-world churns. Thus, ‘Mandal Commission’ becomes ‘Verma Commission’, ‘I-PAC’ (though founded much later) becomes ‘I-ACT’. Words like ‘mitr’, ‘walkout’, ‘votebank’, ‘andhbhakti’ and ‘chronology’ are skillfully peppered throughout the screenplay. Unlike the recent Laal Singh Chaddha, which treats historical events as background wallpaper, Maharani at least communicates its politics to a discerning audience. Anyone still shaken up by the Ram Navami violence earlier this year will find an eerie parallel in episode 6, where orchestrated clashes break out between opposed groups.

Reviewing the first season of Maharani, I’d criticised the makers for not actually filming in Bihar. I’ll repeat myself here. As far as long-form production goes, there could be better (and more logistically prudent) reasons to shoot outside the state. But to claim to portray the socio-political realities of a place while ignoring its visual diversity is a bit absurd. One of the characters in the show keeps harping on about how Bihar always surprises you. Well, why not visit it then?

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