City Of Dreams Remains A Riveting Political  Saga In Season 3

City  Of  Dreams Season 3(Disney+ Hotstar)

Rating:****

Seldom, if ever, does  a series remain constantly watchable  and relevant  even as it hops skips  and jumps  from season to season.

City Of  Dreams produced  by Applause Entertainment  has done it!  Now in its third instalment, the political drama  about a powerful family of  politicians  and  the internecine power-play  within the family dynamics,remains  thoroughly engaging.

Although sprawling into nine episodes the space given to  Nagesh Kukunoor and his co-director Ranjeet Jha, is  never abused. Moreover the non-linear editing(by Farooq Hundekar) is conceptually a  winner, as it ensures we remain  invested  even when the characters  dither in their power dynamics.

 The plot is piping-hot from the first episode  where  somnambulant cop Wasim Khan(Eijaaz Khan, constantly conferring  a capricious  comportment on his character)  tracks down the political heir-apparent Poornima  Gaekwad  to  a S & M den in Bangkok. When  Wasim finds  Poornima, she is  suicidal wreck. Her  healing process takes time.No hurry. There is plenty of  time here.

As  the grieving mother  delirious with guilt for her only son’s death, Priya Bapat is as riveting the third time around as she was  in  the  first two seasons.Her emotive strength sublimates  the  character . Ms Bapat gives to the mother’s grief a sense of  irreversible doom.This woman won’t stop at anything to atone for her  family’s guilt.

Atul Kukrani as  Poornima’s  unscrupulously  ambitious father Ameya  Rao Gaekwad who won’t stop at anything to gain the power throne,is one of the most  complex political characters  we have seen on the digital platform. He is selfserving and nakedly so. There is a brilliant lengthy sequence where after sex, Ameya is shown the mirror by his  ambitious  but not ruthless mistress(played with remarkable restrain and understanding by Divya Seth).

Here we see Kulkarni’s  ugly character  crumble in shame  and then pick up the pieces of his smacked ego before leaving the bedroom.The  mix of  the bedroom and boardroom makes for a heady concoction . City Of Dreams shows up the nightmare  of power politics without tripping over the  sordid machinations  of  the characters.

No one, not even the grieving mother  Poornima, plays  the victim card here.Every character is a hungry for  power, none  more so   than Jagdish (Sachin Pilgaonkar) who is a doting father-figure one minute  and selfserving creep  the  next.There is one sequence where exposes his fangs before his wife,which could have been handled with more tact.

Overall there is  a likeable  unpredictability  in the  plot’s  buildup to its impressively constructed climax. I never  thought  I would say this. But I am actually looking forward  to  the fourth season.