Queen is about a semi-fictional interpretation of Jayalalithaa’s life, set in between the 60s and the 80s timeline of the late CM of Tamilnadu, the web series takes the viewer through troublesome childhood of Shakti Seshadri and how she tackles each situation in life with her abilities. The real-life characters are tweaked in the web series to give the audience the idea of real-life characters.
This web series is based on Anita Sivakumaran’s book ‘The Queen’. The webs series gives a standard disclaimer at the start to the audience that it is purely based on a work of creative fiction.
The story is centred on an interview between Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Shakti Seshadri (Ramya Krishnan) and a news presenter, Lillete (Lillete Dubey). As the interviewer asks each question to the CM, we watch Shakti reveal her entire troubled life. The story introduces teenage Shakti (portrayed by Anjana Jayaprakash) who dreams to pursue a degree, how she deals with her mother Ranganayaki (portrayed by Sonia Agarwal) who forces her to be an actress and stop pursuing studies despite being a state topper.
As she pursues her career as an actress in 20s, Shakti (Anikha Surendran) rose to stardom as an actress under the guidance of co-actor and a film idol GMR (portrayed by Indrajith Sukumaran) after being let down by a Telugu director. In her 30s, Shakti (Ramya Krishnan) then gets into politics alongside GMR and fights against odds at every phase of life.
Queen portrays a woman whos in a constant battle trying to be herself yet taking approval from others. In childhood, Ranganayaki forces her to be an actress due to their poverty. When she becomes an actress, GMR dominates her acting career by not letting her act with any other actor other than him.
Ramya Krishnan Sparkles in her screen presence as a woman who travels tough the journey in the quest for meaningful relationships. Both Anikha Surendran and Anjana Jayaprakash do justice as Shakti in the early portion of the series. The characters played by Sonia Agarwal and Indrajith Sukumaran is also memorable in the series.
Directed by National Award-winning director, Gautham Menon with Prasad Murugasan, Queen often feels like a slow-paced narrative drama as each episode ranges from 40 – 50 minutes, giving a touch of daily soap. As the story is based in the 60s to 80s, the dialogues are not period-appropriate for the 70s and 80s and feel fictional. The narrative flow of characters and approach of Gautham Menon’s earlier works is missing in Queen.
In this generation of booming web series, Queen has a different approach to the screenwriting compared to many other web series. Shakti’s journey shows us how she lives her life despite not living a life she once hoped for.
The psychological understanding of relationship and genders add value to the story. This emotional roller-coaster fictional biopic is definitely a must-watch,
Queen is now streaming on MX Player for free.
- Madhukar Bhat H 