29 May,2021 06:58 AM IST | Mumbai | Mayank Shekhar
A still from Maharani
Given her latest outing and her stupendous debut with Gangs of Wasseypur (2012), actor Huma Qureshi should legitimately be designated an honorary native of Bihar-Jharkhand.
Which is sweet, given that Delhi-ite Qureshi (as she told me recently) had never even visited Bihar-Jharkhand, besides a pit stop in Patna once. Presuming this is before she became an actor.
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I'm hyphenating two states here, because the series Maharani - production-wise, carefully designed - is set in the politics of late '90s Bihar, when Jharkhand was part of it. It's not like saying UP-Bihar, the way metropolitans hyphenate 45 crore people into the same thing!
Huma plays an uneducated/illiterate homemaker, who goes on to replace her husband as the chief minister of Bihar. That the - albeit fictionalised - inspiration for Huma's character Rani Bharti, is Lalu Prasad Yadav's wife, Rabri Devi, is obvious. To what extent can you further draw parallels between the two? Little.
That 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 doubt!
The falling deck of cards in the show's 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 god-man as the political puppeteer, reminds you somewhat of Scam 1992 - the best thing to come out of SonyLIV, until, I'm guessing, this show itself!
What are we looking at here, really? Politics, of course. Which is India's national sport, with one of its grand playfields being the legislature of Bihar. More so in the timeframe this series is set in.
If you consider a definite change in levers of powers taking place - from central leaderships and upper-caste leaders, to regional charisma, and lower-deck pushbacks: "Swar diya hai, swarg nahin," in Lalu's words, repeated here, by the leading man, Bheema (Sohum Shah).
But this isn't some juvenile crappola about bumbling crooks for politicians playing dress-up (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 (Bihar).
First is the class-war in the state, merging into a caste-war of sorts, between the militant, upper-caste Ranvir Sena (called Veer Sena here) at one end, and the gun-toting Maoists on the other. The series of events sufficiently match reality.
Second is the fodder scam (called seed scam here), bizarre even by Bihar standards, that got unearthed during this time - when animals, their feed, medicines, and their subsequent deaths, were all imagined on paper, while crores of public money were siphoned off!
It might be a little odd to see the top-most bureaucrats of the state - the DGP in one instance; and the finance secretary, no less, in the other - individually fighting both menaces, risking their lives, like energetic, jaanbaaz heroes.
Still, helps that the writers, and director (Karan Sharma) know their newspapers/records of the time - in order to imagine the cow-belt politics well. The show's 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 drafted/crafted work.
As 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 chooda-dahi! This level of heart-warming accuracy automatically flows into actors as well, always.
Which is such a generational relief/shift for audiences, who've grown up on the parody of Bihari netas on screen. Shown as buffoons alone, in the âaiyaashi ka den', spouting "aye, gurbak" type random expletives, with paan and lust dripping from their lips.
Here's a slight issue though - with mixing fact that liberally with fiction, or faction. Or counter-factual history, as it were. No matter what happens on the screen then, it sets you thinking way too much about whether it would/could, 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 show.
Which 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 I've seen on screen - of late, or ever.
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