Kota Factory Season 3 Review: Jitendra’s Jeetu Bhaiya Makes Dilemmas Of Teachers Feel Seen In This Slow-Paced Show!
Kota Factory Season 3 Review: Jitendra Kumar AKA Jeetu Bhaiya is back in a new season of Kota Factory and this time it's a deeper dive into the lives of Kota students, teachers and their relationship. Read our review here!
3 / 5
Kota Factory S3 Review: With the onset of a series like Kota Factory, the viewers were made aware of all the struggles and challenges young JEE aspirants go through in Kota! After the success of the first two seasons, the makers are back with a third instalment of the web show directed by Raghav Subbu. The series witnesses the return of everyone’s favourite Jeetu Bhaiya (Jitendra Kumar) and his students Vaibhav (Mayur More), Meena (Ranjan Raj), Uday (Alam Khan) and Vartika (Revathi Pillai). Tillotama Shome also joined the new season as a chemistry teacher. The five-episode series is a deeper dive into the world of Kota, teacher-student relationships, mental health, success and preparation, but most importantly, there’s also a lesson on parenting! While the cast was just flawless with their performances, a stretched storyline kept bothering me at times. Here’s what I think of Kota Factory season 3!
Plot
Kota Factory season 3 is divided into five episodes. Each episode revolves around the preparation of the JEE students, which BTW gets more intense because the exam dates are near. However, this season also sheds light on Jeetu Bhaiya’s mental health and dilemmas when it comes to fulfilling his role as the favourite physics teacher in Kota. The beginning of the third season continues by showing the strong friendship shared between the lead characters of Vaibhav (Mayur More), Meena (Ranjaj Raj), Uday (Alam Khan), Vartika (Revathi Pillai) and Shivangi (Ahsaas Channa). However, Jeetu Bhaiya is absent from his institute Aimers which bothers the students. The series moves forward by showing Jeetu Bhaiya’s serious struggle with mental health that rose from the constant thought of losing students to suicide. The plot in Kota Factory season 3 has many stories running simultaneously. Vaibhav and Vartika’s romantic relationship is also explored in this season while keeping it very relevant to their age. Through Uday’s character, Kota Factory season 3 sheds light on parenting and instilling values in children. Through Meena’s character, the struggles of a student working hard while balancing principles even through moments of crisis feel quite hard-hitting. Overall, this season, the web show highlights conversation around some silent battles that students in Kota go through and even the teachers. The final episode of this series is written exceptionally well, as it takes a realistic approach to show the life of a JEE aspirant and a teacher who wishes to do something revolutionary for his students!
What Works?
These Characters And Performances, without a doubt!
Talking about Jitendra Kumar’s character as Jeetu Bhaiya, the actor lives his role throughout. And that’s something that the actor has maintained in all three seasons. Jitendra Kumar is very convincing when it comes to portraying his character’s internal battle throughout the series. The constant to and from between getting attached to the students and maintaining a formal teacher-student bond with them comes out exceptionally well. The actor has some very hard-hitting dialogues in the new season which left me with the thought, ‘yahi toh satya hai’! Jitendra Kumar’s expression in situations where he is not delivering any dialogue says a thousand words and that’s when you know that he is the perfect fit for this role!
Mayur More’s Vaibhav evolves in this season, personally as well as a student who aims to get into IIT. His character matures into a more understanding boyfriend and a responsible student who finds himself capable enough to make hard decisions by the end of the season. Mayur More brings individuality to this role and is brilliant in his performance. How can I not talk about a monologue scene that Mayur More pulls off effortlessly? In this scene, he makes people hear the voices of thousands of JEE aspirants who must be facing the same kind of pressure. Mayur delivers the monologue with conviction and in an emotionally low phase too, the actor’s performance is a class apart!
Ranjan Raj’s Meena is a sweetheart. The actor is so fine with his art that he makes you sad about not having a friend like Meena in your life. Ranjan Raj’s tone and way of delivering dialogues in Kota Factory season 3 is to be praised, but his body language is so powerful in delivering the emotions of his character. Bow down to this star who was born to be an actor!
Tillotama Shome’s character as Pooja Ma’am is small but quite impactful, well, not just on Jeetu Bhaiya but also on the students. The actor brings a sense of maturity to this role and smoothly fits into the world of Kota Factory! Her character’s journey from Pooja Ma’am to Pooja Didi is something worth watching!
Themes
Kota Factory season 3 deals with some very critical themes that maybe are not talked about much, or I would say, not given much attention to. In the constant rat race to secure high ranks in JEE, parents and even teachers forget that the students are just 15-16-year-old teenagers who also deal with problems like insecurity and infatuations. Jeetu Bhatiya has a very hard-hitting dialogue stating this fact and the Kota Factory season 3 focuses on bringing out these unspoken battles through all the characters. In this, the story has also been told from the teacher’s point of view, and not any ordinary teacher. A teacher who wants to understand and help students navigate a way through the struggles in Kota but also goes through a whirlwind of emotions for not being able to do enough. The issue of mental health and the significance of counselling for dealing with it was also blended well into the storyline. Through the story of Uday Gupta, some important problems around parenting were also raised, and well, instead of making it sound preachy, it was more like a normal conversation that should happen once between every teacher and parents.
What Doesn’t Work?
The storytelling seems stretched in the five seasons of Kota Factor 3. Some classroom scenes in the plot seemed unnecessary and it moreover made the series slow, and that in turn ended up making me lose attention. The black and white screen was more impactful in this case as it made me see the slow pace of the series more distinctly! Characters like Vartika (Revathi Pillai) and Shivangi (Ahsaas Channa) did not have much to do in this season which is a bit sad. The actors did well with whatever little they were given to do but I was looking forward to seeing them have a more impactful role this season. At times, the fact that this series is trying to convey too much, all at the same time also irked me!
Verdict
Kota Factory season 3 continues to impress us with its unique attempt to bring out the less-talked-about conversations to the forefront when it comes to the life of students in Kota. The lead characters like Jeetu Bhaiya and Vaibhav have a more evolved role to play in this season, even for a small part like Tillotama’s, the writers made sure that it’s impactful. However, the series forgets to put some light on other characters which could have made the storytelling more interesting and engaging! Nevertheless, Kota Factory season 3 is a web show worthy of your time if you are ready to overlook drawbacks and shift your focus to some grave issues that students in our country continue to face while you read this! It’s streaming on Netflix!
First Published: June 20, 2024 4:49 PM
