The profession of politics got dirtier and it’s a known fact that morals and ethics have become needles in a haystack that are hard to find. The Season 1 of City of Dreams bared the dirty face of politics which has seen the attempt on the life of the Maharashtra Chief Minister Ameya Rao Gaikwad which has catapulted his young and inexperienced daughter Poornima Gaikwad to usurp the power after several twists. https://snooper-scope.in/city-of-dreams-s2-from-july-30-on-disneyhotstar/
The Season 2 streaming now on Disney+Hotstar got more convoluted with the struggle for power reaching despicable levels.
Story
Poornima Gaikwad (Priya Bapat) as the Chief Minister of the State has to tread the thorny path with her trusted aide Wasim Khan (Eijaz Khan) and Jagdish Gurav (Sachin Pilgaonkar) becoming her eyes and ears in her journey that becomes a test for her endurance levels.
Ameya Gaikwad (Atul Kulkarni), the wounded tiger was waiting for an opportunity to dethrone Poornima and regain his lost position. And poor Poornima has to face not one but many skeletons that kept tumbling down from the closets questioning her darker past which continues to haunt her. She also has to face the hatred of her son in this context while her detractors are ready to pounce on her to settle their scores with Gaikwad family.
How the encounter specialist turned right hand of Poornima and Gurav can stop the wicked strategies of Ameya to clinch the power from his daughter who was now smarter, sharper, and learned the tricks of the political game is the remaining story of City of Dreams Season 2.
Performances
Undoubtedly and indisputably, it’s Priya Bapat who captivates with her towering performance. Her stature, composure, body language, and the way she displayed the swag that comes with the power were outstanding. Her eyes convey a lot rather than her dialogues which was her main asset and she has used them perfectly to present many feelings with awesome precision. Her challenge scene with her father was the highlight of the whole series that showcases her impeccable talent.
Eijaz Khan had a long outing and he, as a politician who wants to do some good on the behalf of Poornima and as a troubleshooter, was extraordinary in both shades. Some of his scenes with his daughter Fatima (Moukthika Sharma) have come out very well. Moukthika too on the other hand looked cute and lovely in those scenes.
Atul Kulkarni, what was left there to write about this phenomenon? His specialty lies in his portrayal of any character however difficult it was with great involvement, ease, and authenticity that everyone forgets Atul and starts seeing the character only. Such was his potential and as Ameya Gaikwad, he made everyone speechless with yet another milestone performance that has no parallels.
Sachin Pilgaonkar is another actor who can impress with his acting skills which he was doing for ages and as Jagdish Gurav he proved once again that he was matchless.
There were some other noteworthy performances again from Sandeep Kulkarni who reprised the role of Purushottam, Addinatha M Kothare who was introduced in this season as firebrand politician Mahesh Aravle who had an interesting connection with Ameya Rao and Poornima, Arvind Mehta as Ankur Rathee, boy he looked quite hot, Sushant Singh as the fiery Jagan Hejmadi and Shishir Sharma as Ramnik Bhai stand in top five for their brilliant performances among all others
These were followed by Geetika Tyagi as fearless reporter Shireen Ali who had less screen time but plays a critical role in turning the story and Flora Saini as Asha who too plays the important character that leads to the climax despite limited screen presence.
Behind the scenes
The director and writer Nagesh Kukunoor along with co-writer Rohit Banawlikar has made Season 2 more absorbing with a multilayered storyline and introduced key characters that added more fillip to the narrative. The screenplay was slick and the strategies and counter-strategies were presented effectively with a tinge of underlying human emotions.
When coming to the negatives, the track of Tanya-Arvind was stretched and could have been made shorter. The last two episodes were more cinematic and the climax was a bit disappointing as that wow element was missing in the end. Nagesh has somewhat seems to have lost his grip on the narrative once it has reached the final episodes after building the right tempo till the 8th episode in this 10-episode series.
The background score by Tapas Relia sounded good on ears and contributed a lot to jazz up the proceedings on the screen.
The photography of Sangram Giri was brighter with colours and the gradient matching perfectly with the theme.
Final Verdict
The Season 2 of City of Dreams was a compelling power struggle that exposed the dirty side of politics proving that there are no permanent friends or foes in politics for the umpteenth time.
The power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely as shown in the City of Dreams S2 which is truly a Mayanagari, where anything can happen but for a price. Do we have another season?
https://www.hotstar.com/in/tv/city-of-dreams/1260004642
