Envoy Score: 3/5
MX Player’s Queen is a multilingual web series depicting the fascinating journey of Shakthi Seshadri who went onto play an important role in Indian politics. This so called biopic of the renowned Puratchi Thalaivi (Revolutionary Leader) late Jayalalithaa, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu is truly inspiring. However, certain cinematic liberties have been taken.
The Story
The whole story of Queen is narrated by an older Shakthi Seshadri (Ramya Krishnan) in an interview with Lilette Dubey. It starts with her school days. Though she is a bright and first rank holder in school, it gets difficult for Shakthi to pursue higher studies. Owing to a financial crunch, Renganayaki (Sonia Aggarwal) Shakthi’s mother who is a small time actress forces her daughter to accept a film offer.
With the entry of famous actor GMR (Indrajith Sukumaran), the life of 17 year old Shakthi (Anjana Jayaprakash) takes a turn, catapulting her to the position of top heroine. The sparks continue to fly between the two. Being wiser, GMR distances himself from Shakthi due to his political ambitions. However, he cannot shy away from promoting and protecting her in one way or another. Nevertheless, Shakthi gets wrecked and left with a broken heart.
In the future, Shakthi finds love in Chaitanya Reddy (Vamsi Krishna), a director who reciprocates her feelings. After a period of courtship they finally decide to get married. But destiny says otherwise, and Shakthi is left distraught yet again.
The latter part of story dwells on GMR’s cruise to power and how Shakthi embraces politics to carry forward his mantle.. All those scenes invariably leave a mark for their upright austerity.
Performances
Anikha essays the role of young Shakthi with great maturity. She is brilliant in the scene at her friend’s engagement function when she gets offended. The expressions shown by her are awesome.
Ramya Krishnan does well to portray the role of Shakthi Seshadri with steel like will power and charismatic presence. Vamsi also does well as an understandable lover who stands by Shakthi to keep her happy.
Positives
This is the first plunge by award winning director Gautham Vasudev Menon and Ramya Krishnan onto the web series band wagon and they both have done a laudable job. Gautham Menon and Prasath Murugesan, have managed to present the story in a convincing and honest way.
Menon is excellent in all those unobtrusive shots and those vivid close ups capturing facial expressions which make a stunning impact on the viewers.
Reshma Ghatala has translated the original story by Anita Sivakumaran into an effective screenplay. She deserves all the appreciation for her splendid adaptation.
Negatives
Except some lengthy romantic scenes which should have been trimmed down and the interview aspect which haltered the flow, Queen does not really have many flaws.
Worth it?
To see history unfold in its full glory is an amazing experience. The beauty of Queen lies in its authenticity of characters and the way they imbibe the story to create magic on screen. Watch this for the iron lady who created history with her struggles, battles and victories.
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