There are five stages of dealing with sorrow, says Poornima Gaikwad as she struggles to overcome the death of her son.
Poornima (Priya Bapat) does eventually vanquish her problems and bounces back in the third season of 'City of Dreams'. But we audience, unfortunately, never overcome the overwhelming experience we had in Season 1 and 2. Season 3 works as a standalone chapter but it is not a patch on its illustrious first two seasons.
The first two seasons were a gripping political thriller full of surprises and shocks.
This time the story is pretty simple. Resemblance to contemporary socio-political conditions in Maharashtra is pardoned.
As the characters and premise are already well-established, the story picks up from where it ended last time. Poornima, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, has disappeared and Inspector Wasim Khan has been entrusted with the task of tracing and getting her back. The Gaikwads still rule the roost and Gaurav (Sachin) and Vibhaji (Divya Seth) keep on hatching conspiracies to unseat them.
Two new characters are introduced this time, agoraphobic media baron Adarsh Singh (Ranvijay Singh) and his loquacious, lackey news anchor Kas (Girish Sharma). They do not add anything substantial to the already slow-paced narrative but keep the viewers engaged.
This time more than the story it is the performances that win our hearts with Priya Bapat coming tops.
She has excelled herself this time. Her transformation from a broken, distraught mother to a self-confident Chief Minister is the highlight of the show. She effectively conveys the pain of a mother who has lost her son through listless eyes and a straight face. And when she Is back in her element her eyes sparkle with confidence. Even her costumes compliment the transformation well.
Similarly, Atul Kulkarni as an ageing and repenting politician who has lost everything and is understanding the meaning of a Pyrrhic victory at the fag end of his life is terrific. The third slot undoubtedly goes to Sachin as the vily Gaurav Kaka who forever has to be content with playing second fiddle to the Gaikwads.
Elijah Khan as the cop is impressive but doesn't get much to do in the nine episodes we have this time.
The entire drug track thrown in seems to be a filler. But the romance between Danny and Angie is fun to watch, albeit overstretched.
Forget the third, at times even second seasons do not live up to the expectations set by the first season.
A good background score, matured acting, balanced direction by Nagesh Kukunoor and a story revolving around the deadly cocktail of power, politics and people in Season 3 keeps our interest alive but doesn't give us an edge-of-the-seat experience. To cut a long story short, it's less gritty and hence less gripping.
This time it seems all tracks have coalesced well and met their logical conclusion. Scores have been settled for once and all. So, let's hope the story ends here as there isn't much to look forward to, unlike the first two seasons.
Title: City of Dreams, Season 3
OTT: Disney+ Hotstar
Director: Nagesh Kukunoor
Cast: Priya Bapat, Sachin, Atul Kulkarni
