Cast: Huma Qureshi, Vipin Sharma, Shweta Basu Prasad, Shardul Bhardwaj, Kani Kusruti, Rajeshwari Sachdev, Amit Sial, Pramod Pathak
Director: Puneet Prakash
Created by: Subhash Kapoor
Stars : 2.5
After three gripping seasons that traced Rani Bharti’s journey from a reluctant homemaker to Bihar’s formidable Chief Minister, Maharani Season 4 on SonyLIV attempts to expand her political universe beyond Patna’s dusty corridors into the gleaming halls of Delhi power. The stakes are higher, the tone darker, and the ambition grander but somewhere along the way, the sharpness that once defined this political saga gets slightly diluted in the din of too much dialoguebaazi.
This time, creator Subhash Kapoor and director Puneet Prakash open the show on a much larger scale Bihar, Delhi, and even glimpses of international landscapes (thanks to Rani’s son in London). The shift feels natural; Rani Bharti (Huma Qureshi, in excellent form) has outgrown state politics and is now flirting with national ambition. Her battle with the suave but manipulative Prime Minister Joshi (Vipin Sharma) sets the season’s tone: a power tussle where gender, class, and political pedigree collide.
However, what could’ve been a tight, thrilling narrative sometimes gets weighed down by the show’s desire to cover too much ground from family feuds to ideological clashes to the eternal tug-of-war between ethics and expediency.
Huma Qureshi remains the soul of Maharani. Her Rani Bharti has matured she’s no longer the unsure woman of Season 1 but a leader aware of both her strength and her scars. Qureshi brings nuance to every glare, silence, and speech, ensuring that even when the writing meanders, the character stays compelling.
Vipin Sharma, as PM Joshi, is a perfect foil urbane, manipulative, and chillingly self-assured. Their confrontations, both public and private, crackle with political subtext and gendered tension.
Shweta Basu Prasad steps into the limelight as Rani’s daughter Roshni, a smooth-talking, English-educated successor whose transformation from reluctant heir to emerging leader feels believable and affecting. Shardul Bhardwaj as the rebellious son Jai brings the fire; his emotional volatility adds both conflict and tragedy to the Bharti household.
Kani Kusruti, as Rani’s ever-faithful secretary Kaveri, finally gets her moment torn between loyalty and ambition, she represents the moral complexity that the show has always excelled at depicting.
Maharani 4 doesn’t shy away from mirroring real-world politics — election rhetoric, family succession debates, and the familiar “double-engine sarkar” jibes all find their way in. But while the earlier seasons balanced subtle satire with layered storytelling, this one leans more heavily on real-life parallels. The metaphors are louder, the jabs more obvious. It’s engaging, yes, but sometimes feels like an editorial rather than a drama.
Still, there are moments of brilliance — Rani’s televised rejection of Joshi’s alliance offer is one of the most powerful scenes of the series, both visually and politically. And a late-episode confrontation between Roshni and Jai, echoing their parents’ ideological divide, gives the show a personal depth it sorely needs.
The production design has never looked better, the Delhi sequences bring cinematic polish, contrasting with the earthy tones of Bihar politics. The background score, however, is overused, and the pacing in the middle episodes suffers from bloat. The writing team could have benefitted from tighter editing brevity, as one reviewer rightly put it, is the need of the hour.
Maharani Season 4 is not the series at its peak, but it remains one of the few Indian political dramas that understand the emotional undercurrents of power — motherhood, legacy, betrayal, and the cost of ambition. Huma Qureshi carries the show effortlessly, and while the plot occasionally fumbles, it never loses its relevance.
The final scene Rani Bharti standing before a map of India, eyes fixed on Delhi says it all. The queen of Bihar isn’t done yet.