Finally, the makers of Kota Factory have listened to the criticisms of previous and built Season 3 beyond nostalgic gaze and gyaan.
The Viral Fever is a successful production house catering to all age groups triggering viewers with feel good nostalgia and motivation– sometimes necessary motivation, sometimes preachy romanticisation. The very popular among these are Pitchers, Kota Factory, Aspirants. However, season 3 seems to have been made after proper revision of previous seasons and after taking all the criticism seriously and improved on it– just like an ideal student of ideal Jeethu Bhaiya.
JEE MAINS EXAM- the “Winter is Coming” moment of Kota Factory has finally arrived in Season 3. There was a looming doubt (rightfully) in Season 2 when the story seemed to have moved away from the students and focused entirely on Jeethu Bhaiya. It isn’t a shocker to assume that Kota Factory is in fact about Jeethu Bhaiya. Maybe that was true when it was still Season 2. But, not anymore. In Season 3, the focal point is not Jeethu Bhaiya, but still, surprisingly, despite being the centre, there is more depth to the characters.
Out of all characters, namely Balmukund Meena, Vaibhav Pande, Varthika Ratawal, Uday Gupta, Shivangi Ranawat, Meenal Parekh. Balmukund Meena and Uday Gupta got the space to make us understand them better. But, they just expanded what we already knew about them. It didn’t reveal anything new to us. The expansion itself is a little bit of an effort to make us understand better what the creators have learnt from previous series. For example, take Varthika Ratawal’s reaction to Vaibhav’s alpha male ego of feeling superior by making others feel inferior. She talks of the importance of being equals in a relationship and how the hierarchical nature of teacher-student makes it unequal among friend-lovers. Vaibhav deals with it maturely, as expected. The effort to correct the mistakes of not exploring class and gender in previous seasons is evident when Meena’s financial plight was suddenly made clear. We understand that it is inevitable to face financial hurdles at some point, but that point being the third season might not be a coincidence.
The commentary-gaze in Season 3 is less. In this season, we get more to look inside, the insides of characters. Season 1 was more about the milieu of Kota. The season 2 was more about Jeethendra Kumar, aka Jeethu Bhaiya. This season we get less commentary on the Kota things: the corporate nature of education, poaching of teachers etc. We get to see the intent of Jeethu Bhaiya in actions and the consequences of those actions. This is where we could peek into Jeethu Bhaiya, but very less is revealed about him. We still don’t know neither the back story nor the “personal story”. BUT, you feel you know more about him now.
The new addition to the show, Tilothama Shome as Pooja, is not a disposable just-smiley-gazing character like Kavya in Season 2. Pooja ma’am becomes Pooja didi. Gagan sir is still a practical pragmatic man in the room balancing the unavoidable practical compromises that corporate profit-mongering institutes have taught him to make an institute “successful” and the ideal aims of Aimers Institute. The balancing act of didi and sir has become a necessity, as we see the mental toll that ‘Agony Aunt’ had to take for the sake of students.
Kota Factory is not a perfect show. It still has its flaws. A few were corrected. A few were not. Perhaps, a few were necessary in the process of being an IIT-an. The productivity-madness is still intact. The makers can’t be blamed for this. The examination system itself is so competitive that you are not just competing with just the rank but also every minute “wasted”. We can’t push our morality on this. Toxic Competitive races that celebrates rankers like demi-gods in Kota don’t have space and ‘time’ for our morality. They had to do it.
The series which began motivating students to become IIT-ians, through crude sponsorship and plu-ins from Unacademy in Season 1. is now trying to motivate the teacher fraternity, if not the whole education system. (Wait, that too is on). But, the motivation is very subtle. Jeethu Bhaiya doesn’t give long lectures on it. Rather he shows the mental agony of being ‘attached’ to the students and tries to do only his ‘responsibility’. He tries to downgrade from Bhaiyya to sir. He was taking more weight than he could lift. But, the question is, “shouldn’t he?” After all, he is trying to make life better for everyone. The response is, “at what cost?”
There are also a few unanswered loose ends as well. Why did the Maheswari empire entirely disappear from Season 3? What happened to the date Jeethu Bhaiya went in season 2? Why did he become angry by the mention of the date? Was the connection with students the alone reason for him to see a therapist? We have no answers for these. The show is perfect without these answers too. This is what happens when you are too attached to the show like Jeethu Bhaiya is attached to students. Let us too take a break and enjoy the show.
There is no update on Season 4 yet. Mostly, there might not be one. And, it need not to be. But, if it comes, of course we will definitely watch it.
Kota Factory is now streaming on Netflix.
