Kota Factory 3 Review: Jeetu Bhaiya's satya, peak pressure to crack IIT-JEE make Season 3 of 'Kota Factory' gloomier

Kota Factory Season 3 cast: Tillotama Shome joins the cast of director Pratish Mehta's 'Kota Factory' on Netflix this season. (Image via Instagram/Netflix)

(Contains mention of suicide)

Jeetu Bhaiya (Jitendra Kumar) of 'Kota Factory' on Netflix is the archetype of the great teacher—competent as well as caring. At the end of Season 2 of 'Kota Factory', which released in September 2021, we saw Jeetu Bhaiya's worst fear realized when a student committed suicide. Season 3 begins with Jeetu Bhaiya coming to terms with this satya (truth).

For the uninitiated, 'Kota Factory' is set in Kota, Rajasthan, which has become famous/infamous as a centre of IIT-JEE preparations. The story revolves around IIT aspirants Vaibhav (Mayur More), Balmukund Meena (Ranjan Raj) and Uday (Alam Khan); and their physics teacher-cum-mentor Jeetu Bhaiya.

As another student Meenal (Urvi Singh) says early in the show, Jeetu Bhaiya solves all problems—academic, non-academic, financial, romantic—for students. In Season 3, Jeetu Bhaiya revisits this equation with students and his responsibility towards them and towards himself even as Vaibhav, Meena, Uday et al hurtle towards their joint entrance exam (JEE).

This season, Tillotama Shome has joined the cast as chemistry teacher Pooja didi. Shome is excellent as Pooja Agarwal, a reasonable foil to Jeetu Bhaiya's volatility in 'Kota Factory 3'.

Show Overview

Midway through Season 3 of 'Kota Factory', one of the main protagonists of the show—JEE aspirant Balmukund Meena—tells his friends that the colour seems to have drained from his life. Everything seems black-and-white. Of course, 'Kota Factory' has been shot in black-and-white since the first season which dropped online in April-May 2019. The difference is that in the first two seasons, the series began in colour and the audience saw it drain out of the screen as the students got sucked into the "factory" of IIT preparation. Here, we begin in this black-and-white state—with Meena, Uday, Vaibhav and Vaibhav's girlfriend Vartika (Revathi Pillai) set to write their JEE exams in a few months.

Calendars and clocks are a perpetual presence in Season 3 as the exams approach. Pressure builds up, as date sheets are announced, discussed and denounced as being unfair. Jeetu Bhaiya has his own internal battles to fight, and a mouldy patch on his ceiling becomes an external reminder of the mental battles he's engaged with this season.

'Kota Factory 3' is different from the first two seasons in a few respects. There's a lot less time devoted to showing the students just being young adults, as the exam date approaches. There's more focus on the teachers' turmoil. And the 5-episode season seems to say that if Kota is a factory to mass produce successful engineering and medical college candidates, then the pressures of this factory affect the good teachers too.

As things come to a head, the music in 'Kota Factory 3' reflects this shift and the growing pressure to produce results, too. From the friendship anthem "banaa hai yaroon se mera jahan" (my world is enriched by my friends) of the first two seasons, the refrain now is:

"Niraashayen, mein tumse na daroonga

Mayoosee, mein tumse na daroonga

Jo bhi hoga... mein ladd loonga

(I won't be deterred by disappointments and negativity; whatever happens, I'll fight my way through)"

Whatever else might be different about Season 3, Jeetu Bhaiya's Jeetuisms have stayed consistent. In 'Kota Factory 3', he (and the writers of the show, of course) finds ways to package his education philosophy in pithy one-liners. Case in point: Jeet ki tayyari nahi, tayyari hi jeet hai (The preparation for success is the victory we must seek).

Plot

Season 2 ended with a diligent student committing suicide. This takes a toll on Jeetu Bhaiya's mental health as he wonders again how he can have the greatest positive impact on students.

In Season 3, Vaibhav, Uday, Vartika, Meena, Shivangi (Ahsaas Channa) accelerate their JEE and NEET prep. Meena and Vaibhav aim for 4x speed, solve more test papers and check back with Jeetu Bhaiya for motivation and method.

Jeetu Bhaiya is struggling, and Jitender Kumar does a great job of showing it. The writing by Puneet Batra, Pravin Yadav, Manish Chandwani and Nikita Lalwani is wonderfully balanced, as Rajesh Kumar as Gagan sir and Tillotama Shome as Pooja didi become foils for Jeetu's outbursts.

Season 3, however, seems to expect viewers to know something of these characters and the story. To be sure, if you have not seen the first two seasons of 'Kota Factory', you can still follow the story. But it is harder to care much about the fate of the students, teachers and institutes if you haven't seen them stumbling their way through life, math and money problems and the exceptions in organic chemistry in the previous seasons.

'Kota Factory' is by no means the only show to look at the business of education and the effects of entrance-exam pressure on students. But it has perhaps been among the more positive in terms of outlook. Despite the engagement with suicide and depression, Season 3 holds on to that positivity, albeit in a gloomier version of what we saw in Seasons 1 and 2.

Performance

Tillotama Shome is a great addition to the latest season of 'Kota Factory', created by Raghav Subbu and Saurabh Khanna, and directed this season by Pratish Mehta.

The original background score by Arpit Mehta and Simran Hora sets the tone, cuing greater pressure than in previous seasons when there was still some breathing room for the teens to just be teens.

We also see more of Rajesh Kumar as Gagan Sir this season. His towering frame and concern offer just what the doctor ordered - in a season where the focus is split half-and-half between teachers and students in Kota, he offers a great counter to Jeetu's education philosophy.

Don't miss Gopi Bhalla's turn as "uncle on scooter" this season. It's a tiny part, but it's sort of thing that restores your faith in humanity and reinforces a claim that the students in the show make often—Kota is a vibe.

Trailer

Netflix announced the release date for Kota Factory 3 through a math problem. The promotions, too, had Jeetu Bhaiya gently guiding us to prepare for June 20.

A week ahead of release, Netflix dropped the official trailer of Kota Factory 3. There are some big shifts coming up this season. Watch the trailer here:

Kota Factory 3 released on Netflix on June 20.