Mirzapur Season 3 Review: A gritty, gory, explosive third season starts shaky but soon finds its ground

Mirzapur 3 Review

Mirzapur 3 Review, Controversial opinion alert:

I don’t think it is entirely possible for us to watch a show without biases. When the second season of Mirzapur premiered in 2020, we were deep into a global pandemic. The watchtime of an average OTT consumer was high. Come 2024, we are now in a recession-hit, post-inflation world where many of us are experiencing burnout. In such  a scenario, devoting ten long hours to a TV show seems like a herculean task.

In the first few episodes of Mirzapur, you might struggle a little trying to remember the  characters—who betrayed whom, how did their loyalty switch and who all ended up dead. For that reason alone, the first two episodes might test your patience. The show does pick up pace from the third episode onwards and gets gritty real quick. New characters are introduced, some old are shot dead. Yes, there’s plenty of bloodshed this time around.

Mirzapur Season 3: Plot

The third season of Mirzapur begins with the funeral of Munna Tripathi (Divyendu). His wife, a former widow, is now widowed again as she performs his last rites. Played by an earnest Isha Talwar, Madhuri Yadav prances through corridors of power in a white saree. She uses her
husband’s death to garner support for her party and bring down the opposition, Meanwhile, Guddu Pandit (played by a towering Ali Fazal) tries to convince his father Ramakant Pandit to not turn himself over to the cops. Ramakanth had shot a police officer last season to save his son from an encounter. The former lawyer-turned-convict follows his morals and
principles. He voluntarily turns himself in to the police and despite Guddu’s repeated requests, refuses to walk away from the police custody.

Sheeba Chaddha is Vasudha Pandit. She too stands firmly by her husband’s side and refuses to seek protection of her son, who she sarcastically calls “Purvanchal ka Baahubali”. Dimpy (Harshita Shekhar Gaur), Guddu’s sister, has possibly the most satisfying character arcs after Sharad Shukla (Anjum Sharma).

Mirzapur Season 3: Performances

Dimpy decides to walk on the same path of righteousness as her father. Much like her parents, she doesn’t have a high opinion of her brother, Guddu. Meanwhile, Golu (short for Gajgamini Gupta, played by Shweta Tripathi) takes over the Tripathi estate. Beena (Rasika Dugal) and
Golu are now bhabis. Babu Ji may be dead, but the National Geographic-style commentary on the state-of-affairs is very much present (yes, it is overbearing still).
As Guddu, Golu, Beena live under the same roof, cracks begin to appear between them. A steamy romance brews between Guddu and Golu. The two hit the gym together and lift heavy weights. Elsewhere, Sharad Sharma is keeping Kaleen bhaiya (Pankaj Tripathi) in a secret location. As Golu repeatedly urges Guddu to be more diplomatic in his approach and forge a
good relationship with Baahubalis of UP, Guddu refuses to budge. His lust for power drives him insane.

Mirzapur Season 3: Writing And Direction

After the events of last season, Lala ji (Anil George) is now under police custody. Golu and Guddu try to use his network via his daughter Shabhnam (Shernavaz Jijina).. Vijay Varma plays Shatrughan Tyagi. He had killed his brother in the previous season when his father discovered his affair with Golu. Tyagi goes through an identity crisis of sorts—he cannot figure out if he is Shatrughan or Bharat. He lives a double life as Saloni’s (Neha Sargam) husband and as a heartbroken Romeo who wants to avenge his brother’s death by killing Golu.

Meanwhile, JP Yadav (Pramod Pathak), the disgraced politician who was framed for being involved in a sex racket last season, recruits Zarina (Anangsha Biswas) to bring down Madhuri Yadav’s government. There are also a couple of new characters—a man skilled at sniper shootouts who calls Mirzapur ‘Mexico’ and an offensive, stereotypical gay character who plays Yadav’s masseur.

Mirzapur Season 3: Writing

The first couple episodes of this season might test your patience. The writing is a little shaky, pace is slow but I assume this was done on purpose since the show is out after a four-year wait (and viewers might just need more time to recall all characters).

Beena, who stayed in an abusive Tripathi household is on the lookout for a safe space–one where she isn’t exploited sexually. Beena finds this safe space with Guddu and Golu, but is eventually forced to seek help from Madhuri. Shweta’s masochist pleasure arc is almost entirely abandoned this season as romance brews between her and Guddu.

Mirzapur Season 3: What Works, What Doesn’t

For starters, I couldn’t wrap my head around the unnecessary violence this season. This is the week when both Kill and Mirzapur—two of the most violent shows and films—are releasing simultaneously. While the former portrays violence as a means for the protagonist to seek revenge, the latter is violence for violence’s sake.

Chopped heads, oozing blood, and graphic shots of guts seem unnecessary. The curse words are also a force-fit. It seems like the showrunners are still trying to pander to the 2018 OTT audience who are pleasantly surprised when they hear characters cursing on-screen.

As I said in the beginning of the review, the world has changed since Mirzapur first premiered. While its contemporary Sacred Games (2018) ended on a high-note in 2019, Mirzapur continues to be an unnecessarily long, overcooked series which hits multiple roadblocks in the form of episodes which aren’t as engaging.

No spoilers, but the end of the season is, frankly, underwhelming. At what point does Mirzapur stop being a novelty and turn into a multi-crore web-series where more seasons are mass- produced just to appeal to the show’s fanbase?

Through the course of 10 episodes, we see characters switch loyalties, switch them back as the battle for Mirzapur’s gaddi heats up. Anjum Sharma as Sharad is the dark horse of the show. He is impressive, well-spoken and knows how to win people over as Guddu sabotages himself with
his bloodlust.

Kaleen bhaiya fans be warned, Pankaj Tripathi has minimal screen time this time.

Mirzapur season 3 is impressive. But what worries this critic is the endgame. How many more characters will be introduced till the show becomes stale? With ten episodes in season three, the point of saturation comes pretty soon.

You might just want to take a break from the Purvanchal and Juanpur gang members. If you are in for a somewhat laborious but mostly engaging weekend binge, Mirzapur season 3 is just the show for you.

Rating: 3/5 stars

Mirzapur Season 3 is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.