Kota Factory – Season 3 Series Review

Memories of college days are part of a person’s unforgettable learning curve. Those experiences quite literally mould a ‘young adult’ into a functioning adult who can fit, survive and thrive in society. If the school adds character to a human being, college and professional studies add gravitas and dysfunction in equal measure. Kota Factory has been one of India’s most successful shows because it recreates this most important phase of an Indian adult’s life with remarkable authenticity. Where Rajkumar Hirani’s 3 Idiots had got college humour right to the T, Kota Factory’s two previous seasons have aced college emotion with flying colours. Everyone knows there’s tremendous pressure for those students who find themselves in the midst of the madness at Kota, but this show was able to add fine threads of human emotion and drama to the facts and stories which otherwise get brief mentions in sensational news articles and headlines.

Season 3 of Kota Factory brings in more of the same maturity and depth that made the previous seasons compelling. It feels a little more of the same old, but then students’ lives are plagued by monotony, too. Giving the writers (Puneet Batra, Pravin Yadav, Mahesh Chandwani, Nikita Lalwani) and director (Pratish Mehta), the benefit of the doubt, one could say that the persistent focus on preaching over pragmatism is the authentic flavour of this universe. The story still deals with the travails of students preparing for IIT entrance exams. And Jeetu Bhaiya (Jeetendra Kumar) still takes the centre stage, akin to Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society or Good Will Hunting. But there’s a new foil. Other teachers also get to share the spotlight in Season 3 and Tillotama Shome (as Pooja) and Rajesh Kumar (as Gagan sir) bring in new perspectives from the teachers / coachers’ side of the story.

The students and their fragile lives and emotions are the dramatic fulcrum on which this series hinges its major dramatic equations. Performances by Ranjan Raj, Alam Khan and Ahsaas Channa bring in a sense of new confidence to the series, while Mayur More and Revathi Pillai build on their good work from previous seasons. But the class of distinction belongs to the older characters and their performers – Jeetendra Kumar, Tillotama Shome and Rajesh Kumar who impress the audience with top-grade acting displays.

While the black-and-white visual treatment and the over-invested mentor preaching philosophy over practicality approach is not new, the series does try a small new tweak in its storytelling creative. It brings in a little more focus on to the mental health aspect of both students and teachers. The story touches upon student rivalries and competition. There’s also the quintessential plot of young love suffering at the hands of rabid ambition. The character dynamics are the proverbial strength of the 5 new episodes of this show and that’s what drives Season 3 along.

Could Season 3 of Kota Factory have done something new and created a new benchmark for Indian shows in long form entertainment? Yes. Does it do that? That’s best left to a Multiple Choice Question for the viewer. As the limitations of summarizing allow, from the critical standpoint, Kota Factory continues to be relevant to its viewers because there’s still so many layers to be explored and exposed from the world of coaching centres operating like factories creating products instead of students. At times, Season 3’s approach seems to favour melodrama over drama, but that’s what happens when character arcs conclude after their high points. In the end, its the small themes like ‘aim’ over ‘dream’, ‘IIT’ over ‘IPL’, ‘moving on’ over ‘holding back’ and ‘perseverance’ over ‘surrender’ that make this show worth watching.