When SonyLIV released the trailer of Huma Qureshi starrer Maharani a week ago, it was clear that we were about to witness something special. The show, also featuring a host of talented actors like Sohum Shah, Vineet Kumar, Amit Sial, Pramod Pathak and Kani Kusruti, had the perfect amount of hype and anticipation behind it. Well, guess what? It was all worth it, and more.
Set in the political turmoil of late nineties Bihar, Maharani perfectly captures the reality on the ground - that the state’s politics is based around the idea of caste, and the players on the field are mostly male and patriarchal.
The show starts with Bheema Bharti (Sohum Shah) having recently won the state elections and being chosen by the party high command as the obvious choice for CM, much to the chagrin of Navin Kumar (once a friend of Bheema, but now a political rival within the same party, played by Amit Sial). His dutiful wife, Rani Bharti, lives in the village with their three young kids, raising them, as well as handling all the domestic chores like managing the kitchen, bathing and milking their cows, selling the milk in the local haat, making dung cakes, etc.
Rani’s world turns upside down when there’s an attempt on Bheema’s life which leaves him critically injured and unfit to lead the party. While his own party leaders are scheming to use this as an opportunity to get rid of him as the CM, Bheema shocks the state by appointing his illiterate wife Rani Bharti, as his successor. This throws a wrench in the political machinery, and sets up the main narrative.
Although initially reluctant to lead the state as CM, Rani Bharti eventually gets the hang of things, thanks to Bheema’s right hand man, Mishra (Pramod Pathak) and ex-Patna DM and now Officer on Special Duty, Kaveri (played brilliantly by Kani Kusruti - what a talent she is!). But she’s still a CM in a world that expects women to mostly make chai at home, and leave the politics to the men. But then, when you’re a queen, you can’t really play a pawn, can you?
Maharani is one of those rare shows where everything comes together so well to give us a finished product, that it would not be a stretch to say the show is truly a sum of the talent of its cast, crew and writers. And true to the title of the show, Huma Qureshi is leading from the front, with her terrific portrayal of Rani Bharti.
We must also talk about how the show brilliantly exposes how women are often not taken seriously even in power positions. There’s a scene in a hospital, where Kaveri, the DM is asking a cop about the lapse in security, that led to Bheema Bharti’s shooting, but he responds to her in a cavalier manner, almost dismissing what she has to say, but as soon as Mishra barges in, he straightens up. Even the CM Rani Bharti is mocked behind her back, when her party members compare her to a cow.
But like we said, this is one queen that’s here to slay, and stay in our hearts and minds.
All episodes of Maharani are currently streaming on SonyLIV.
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