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Queen Web Series Review: Ramya Krishnan, A Force To Reckon With!
Queen depicts the life of a beautiful actress who goes on to become a courageous politician in a world of men only to triumph at every turn of her life.
Available:
MX
Player
No
of
episodes:
Season
1/
11
episodes
Duration:
45-52
mins
Language:
English-Tamil,
Hindi
(Dubbed)
Story: The web series revolves around a bright child Shakthi Seshadri who becomes the state topper at the age of 15 but soon has to give up on college due to financial conditions. While working in the film industry, she garners a lot of fame and then enters politics. The show shares the story of betrayals Shakthi faced at every phase of her life but still triumphs as she becomes the youngest Chief Minister of a state.
Disclaimer: This review is based on the first six episodes of Season 1 of the MX original show 'Queen' starring Ramya Krishnan in the titular role.
Review: Ramya Krishnan's 'Queen' has been highly talked about due to her character Shakthi Sheshadri's resemblance to the late Tamil Nadu Cheif Minister J Jayalalithaa. However, listed under historic fiction, the makers have confessed to drawing inspiration from real-life events. The show is the story of a courageous woman, Shakthi who at the age of 40, during an interview, looks back to the events in her life and opens up about the difficult and harsh situations she faced. Throughout the show, she goes on to prove, how even in a man's world she was more than capable to rule, 'Give me a spear, give me a knife and I will show you I can hunt too. - Shakti Sheshadri '
The first episode starts with an interview where we are introduced to Shakthi as the fearless, beautiful, intelligent and youngest Chief Minister. Played by Ramya Krishnan the character has an immediate impact on the screen. We are slowly taken into flashbacks from her childhood, as a young film star, her days of fame to how she joined politics. Shakthi reveals who the most important people and relationships in her life were and how they affected her. At the age of 14, she aims to become the school's Best Outgoing Student and goes on to become the state stopper in Class 10. She then has to give up on her dream of becoming a lawyer due to financial problems, joins the film industry and quickly gains fame. Since her dream is to study ahead, even after working in films, Shakthi pursues the option only to give it up for the first love of her life, GMR, who is also responsible for bringing her into politics.
The show includes many undertones about the society, its expectations, and the social issues faced by women back in 80s. We see Shakthi struggling to study on a daily basis, having to face discrimination for being part of the film industry and looked down upon for being well-read and an educated woman. Though it affects the decisions in her life, she still gets smitten by emotions like love, ego, and pride. The character's guts to accept, she thrives on ego and lives for it caught me off guard. The rawness of her character is exactly what keeps it fresh. Other than Ramya Krishnan, Anikha Surendran and Anjana Jayaprakash, who have played Shakthi at different ages, have managed to catch the emotions, just right.
Indrajith Sukumaran as GMR and Sonia Agarwal as Ranganayaki (Shakthi's mother) have been given some of the strongest scenes, they have been the most influential in driving the story ahead too. As for the screenplay, dialogues, and costume design, at times, it feels like the show is losing grip on its time and era. While the overall cinematography remains sepia for the most part, it is harder to accept the drastic change as the era shifts to the 1970s. Every episode that lasts for about an hour, feels like a movie long enough to make you forget what was at the start of it, however, writer Reshma Ghatala and directors Gautham Vasudev Menon and Prasath Murugesan, keep you hooked on until the last minute of the episode, only to drop a bomb and make you want to click on the next one immediately.
Overall, even though the show feels slow, it has the pull to keep you going, thanks to good acting and some intense scenes. If you don't mind reading subtitles, then to get the best experience, I would suggest watching the English- Tamil version. While the dubbed Hindi version is just as effective, the dialogues seem more powerful in spoken language.
