Queen and people as chess pieces

Robin Wright Clare Underwood while promoting the finalsixth season of the psychopathic political show House of Cards HoC told me that when the iconic series had first dropped in 2013 the cast got invited to the Democratic Partyrsquos national convention dinnerWright was seated next to a ldquoSouthern senatorrdquo who kept telling her about how HoC was ldquoso real so accuraterdquo How accurate she asked He said ldquo99 per centrdquo Whatrsquos the one per cent not accurate she asked She thought ldquohe was going to say people donrsquot really murder kill like thathellip He said lsquoYoursquoll never be able to pass the Education Bill that fastrsquordquoHoC worked with audiences in general because it offered a sneak peek into how amoralwider politics works since we consume politicians only through excessively filtered news Actual shenanigans take place in such hallowed rarefied spaces that nobody has a clue what goes on behind those narrow domestic wallsFiction helps to join the dots Which was also the case with The West Wing 1999 while that was more the HoCrsquos idealistic opposite Although not set in the present the series Maharani 2021 was a finely detailed relatable refresher course for 1990s Bihar roughly set around two pillars of the statersquos politics for much over three decadesSohum Shah as Bheema Bharti plays a version of Lalu Prasad Yadav likewise Amit Sial as Navin Kumar channels the current CM Nitish Kumar Call them lsquofrenemiesrsquo or lsquobrothers from other mothersrsquo if you likeAmit SialBetween them is Maharani Huma Qureshi as Rani Bharti somewhat based on Rabri Devi Lalursquos illiterate housewife who takes over as state CM while the show traverses through the big events through the decademdashfrom Ranvir SenaMaoist classcaste war down to the infamous fodder scamMaharanirsquos second seasonmdashthat recently dropped on Sony LIV created by Subhash Kapoor directed by Ravindra Gautam guessing a Bihari going by two first namesmdashfeels too stretched yes with a long bulge over 10 episodes averaging 40 minutes each before the series switches genreChiefly because it isnrsquot as much a clever interspersinginterpretation of facts as it is altogether a fictional counterfactual history of the rsquo90s this time around The show is still Maharani centred on the queenmdashthe most powerful piece in chess itrsquos not the kingmdashwhile Rabri in reality became irrelevant after a point What if she hadnrsquotThis isnrsquot to say you donrsquot find enough relatable remnants of contemporaryrsquo90s desi politics that redefined Indiarsquos history even if the larger context is missing Whether that be the Rath Yatra and deaths along the way or the Mandal Commission Report for job reservations and jubilation plus protests that followedThe latter we know was a dusty file pulled out by Lalu to assist Prime Minister V P Singh in a battle with his deputy Devi Lal at the time Both Rath Yatra and lsquoMandal politicsrsquo are usually deemed by observers as ldquomasterstrokerdquoThatrsquos a reason I dislike discussing personalitybased politics especially with those supposedly in the know quite often political journalistsIt sounds like lowlevel gossip involving egos demographic equations and megalomaniacs with a fondness to exterminatescrew people overmdashrather than an engagement with anything innately realrelevant to lives theyrsquore there for In no other profession are the openly lying unscrupulous folk lauded so muchEven simple voting morphs into something muscular rather than a means to public service Election results become pure arithmetic to grab power trading legislators like horses Rate cards show up Throw money or instill fearmdashany government can fall We know too muchI suspect the future generation with adequate advancement in technology will be forced to relook at democracy itself 20th Centuryrsquos most popular political ideamdashwhen itrsquos gamed to work for no one but those with the penchant to corner huge public resources and money from taxpayersItrsquos not only the rich who pay taxes Everybody does Education would be a poor investment for politicians to carry on the way they traditionally have Health is hardly a priorityWhatrsquos the point of politics if itrsquos merely to hold on to power somehow You sense that cynicism among those in public life As you do in filmsseries depicting it Everybody is a Chanakya But Chanakya himself operated from Bihar As do everyone in Maharani Who should you even root forBheema says ldquoKursi ko paana jitna mushkil usko chhorna utna hi mushkil Itrsquos as difficult to grab power as it is to leave itrdquo His estranged wife Rani manipulates enough to stay thereNavin Kumar the dudelike Amit Sial canrsquot even compare to the Machiavellian moves of the actual Nitish Kumar whorsquos remained CM in Bihar for 17 years as we speak swornin eight separate times forming government with every possible coalition depending on the direction of the wind Bihar is decidedly still the poorest among all big Indian statesIn Maharani 2 the messianic Navin literally beats up lsquoberozgaarirsquo unemployment lsquogunda raajrsquo lawlessness lsquobhrashtacharrsquo corruption dressed like a moviestar in a television commercial before elections This is politics as showbizentertainment It doesnrsquot even seem like a parody if you observe politiciancharacters around you outside of this show Which is what makes it so depressing but true Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper