Maharani 4 Review: Huma Qureshi Brings Bihar Politics To New Delhi, Mirroring Mood Of The Nation

In Maharani 4, it's like history repeating itself. What helps the Huma Qureshi-fronted series are sharp performances that add an additional layer of messy interpersonal relationships to this unending game of political chess.

Just yesterday, Bihar started voting in its 2025 Assembly Elections, achieving the highest-ever voter turnout of 64.66% in the first phase, and the timing of the series arriving on Sony LIV couldn't have been better, especially if you were looking for more drama in the reel Bihar too.

Maharani 4 picks from where the last season left: a time leap from the early 2000s to the current day. Huma Qureshi is back in top form and as Rani Bharti on the throne as the Bihar Chief Minister after she sends Navin Kumar (Amit Sial) and other murderers of her husband and former chief minister Bheema Bharti (Soham Shah) to jail.

With her rivals in prison, who still try to run a parallel government from behind the bars, there are new enemies that start rearing their head as Rani Bharti becomes more ambitious, confident, and even independent in her approach to rule Bihar, something that doesn't go down well with her long-serving secretary Kaveri (Kani Kusruti).

One of those is Vipin Sharma's PM Joshi, a well-travelled and educated bachelor prime minister who besides being adept at guarding his high chair with jugaad is all about good looks, good looks, and good looks. That he has a bastard son from his partner Gayatri of many years is an open secret.

When West Bengal Chief Minister Manik Da and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Sundaraja break off from Joshi's party as allies, the PM reaches out to Rani Bharti for her support and dangles the promise of what their "double-engine ki sarkar" can do for Bihar. But, Rani Bharti outrightly rejects the PM's proposal and that too on national television, a revenge for not allotting the special status to Bihar despite years of grovelling.

This is perhaps the most desh darshan that Maharani makers have taken the viewers on combining all four seasons. They lead us out of Bihar and take us to Delhi, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Jammu Kashmir, literally, east, west, north, and south, in no particular order.

For political courtesy, she meets Joshi at his palatial PM residence. Both political leaders, who have their finger on the pulse, years of ground-level experience, and big, fat egos, lock horns. Needless to say but the meeting doesn't end well. Rani Bharti then announces her plans to sit on the Delhi throne as the next Prime Minister.

But there's also trouble brewing for Rani Bharti from inside her party and home. Her party, the Rashtriya Janata Samajwadi Party, is now divided into two factions: the Old Guard, headed by the Bhishma pitamah-esque and Rani Bharti's wingman Mishra ji (Pramod Pathak), and the Young Turks, led by her hot-headed who is often high on ganja but well-connected son Jai Prakash Bharti, played by a phenomenal Shardul Bharadwaj (Eeb Allay Ooo!).

So, who does Rani Bharti trust with Bihar's kursi? She chooses her confident, polished, and English-speaking daughter Roshni Bharti whom she calls the state's new Rani Bharti. Bihar's new ray of hope, who didn't see it coming, smokes a one-off cigarette to steady her nerves before her first big speech in the state assembly. Shweta Basu Prasad delivers a measured and refined performance as Roshni Bharti, who isn't afraid to show her claws when the time comes, be it family or outsiders.

Surya, the youngest child of Rani and Bheema Bharti, wants to lead a quiet life away in London from the dirty politics in his homeland Bihar. Darsheel Safary, in an extended guest appearance in the show, as Surya doesn't plan on returning to Bihar.

There are also attempts to poach Kaveri by Joshi's party, trying to break Rani Bharti's inner circle from outside, sensing her ever-loyal secretary's dissatisfaction and unhappiness over her madam going the family-first way.

The scale is bigger, the stakes are higher, the cast is larger, but the season feels longer, even though it gets more engaging with new players with new shades and a larger commentary on the current political landscape of India.

There is the "No Hindi, No PM" remark directed at the never-ending language debate in the country. Terms like jumlas, parivarwaad, and merit are thrown around to show Rani Bharti that she's going down the same road as her dead husband Bheema Bharti. There's also a subplot of the politics and business nexus whose eventual failing leads to the twist that everyone saw coming.

In a defining moment in Maharani 4, siblings Roshni and Jai tell each other that they remind one another of their parents. Roshni is like Rani Bharti and Jai Prakash Bharti (only name like the original JP) like Bheema Bharti. Both warn each other about the dangers of turning into their parents, and this too after a tender brother-sister moment earlier in the series, making it a great piece of acting.

After all the nation trotting, Maharani 4 ends up back in Bihar, setting up another season that will be haunted by Jai Prakash Bharti's words: "Personal is political, now political is personal".

Also Read | Maharani 4 Trailer: Huma Qureshi AKA Rani Bharti Takes On Prime Minister For Bihar Ka Vikas