Maharani: Brilliant Tale Of Bihar Politics In The 1990s
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-05-31 11:11:26
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
The scale and sweep of Maharani (streaming on SonyLIV) required that the series was well-written, got the milieu right, the settings were perfect, fact and fiction blended well and above all, the actors chosen got into the skin of the roles assigned to them to make them believable. It is to the credit of writer/creator Subhash Kapoor and director Karan Sharma that apart from some hiccups, they manage to pull off the almost impossible task with success to make Maharani one of the best web series in recent times.
The only genuine negative charge that can be made against Maharani is that it is over plotted - too many things are thrown at the viewer at the same time. Caste wars, a scheming state governor, a shady mukhia of a rogue army and his gun-toting protege, the chief minister and his wife, a godman who has everyone in his hold, a DGP who heads operations himself, a finance secretary who acts like a sleuth to uncover scams, an opposition leader who will move heaven and earth to unseat the chief minister and political leaders who mouth profanities and change colours at the drop of a hat. But isn't that what Bihar politics is all about? And when one is showing the happenings of the 1990's, one of the most turbulent times in the state's history, there were plots by the dozen every month and each plot came with many twists.
Although Maharani is 'inspired' by the Lalu Prasad-Rabri Devi development and the fodder scam in Bihar, the similarity ends there. The makers have fictionalized the events to show that Rani Devi takes firm control of the post and does not even spare her husband Bheema Babu when his name crops up in the seed scam. She is honest, which is a fault in Bihar. As she slowly unravels the mystery behind why the people of Bihar only have swar (voice) and not swarg (heaven) (as her husband forcefully tells her) and how the money is looted from the treasury, she finds herself in a position when even her husband does not want her to proceed against those who tried to assassinate him or sack the minister whose department has swindled Rs 958 crore from the treasury. The way she pushes back the opposition's attempt to unseat her and the way she brings the culprits to book shows how she becomes Maharani from just being Rani, an uneducated and illiterate housewife.
Huma Qureshi straddles Maharani like a colossus in a dream role. She is so believable that you cannot take your eyes off her. She is vulnerable, foolish, wise, protective, weak, strong, undecided and decisive at different times as per the demands of the story but brilliant at all times. Amit Syal as the scheming Navin babu, the opposition leader who is after the chief minister's chair, is equally brilliant. The scene where he rains blows with his shoes on a hapless Prem Kumar is excellent and Syal pulls it off with conviction. So is Soham Shah as the incapacitated chief minister who is surprised by his wife's actions. Pramod Pathak as Mishraji and Kani Kusruti as Kaveri deserve a special mention for their roles. So does Inaamul Haq as Pervez Alam and Mohammed Ashiq Hussain as Prem Kumar. All the other actors do excellent justice to their roles to make this series one of the best in recent times. The only thing that jars is why the powerful Mishraji, the political henchman of Bheema Babu, disappears midway in the series and leaves Rani to her own devices even when she was meant to be a goongi gudiya who would do their bidding?
