What is your review of Kota Factory Season 3 (TVF Original)?

Meenal. She was just THERE, without any significant screentime. But no, I get it, makes total sense after seeing Meenal’s rank in Jee Advanced. She must’ve been studying. Studying quite diligently. And I never quite understood how Shivangi could do so well in her mocks, considering she spent most of her time with the gang and didn’t exactly study how ‘toppers’ (who study to grab a seat at AIIMS) study.

Although Jeetu Bhaiya’s dialogues felt a bit preachy at times, they were perhaps necessary to provide a certain wholesomeness to the show. The mental health arc was really well depicted. We never really think much about what a teacher as emotionally connected with his students as Jeetu Bhaiya goes through in his own moments of struggle, acting as a therapist/life coach to so many people. He blames himself for pushing a female student who initially wanted to settle for an NIT to pursue JEE Advanced, which tragically resulted in her suicide. Jeetu somewhere lives with the guilt of driving her to suicide, and throughout this season, he consistently deals with feelings of anger, frustration, numbness, and an inability to understand what he himself wants. He struggles with an identity crisis. However, as students depend on him too much, he inadvertently allows them to repeatedly violate his boundaries. Even a therapist to everybody needs a therapist for himself; this aspect has been portrayed beautifully in the show.

Those feelings that Vaibhav initially experienced on seeing his cousin-brother qualify for the IPL and everybody fawning over him before that- haven’t we all been through that? We end up comparing the 4th chapter of our lives with someone’s 10th chapter and end up feeling pangs of jealousy towards them, even though they may have also had their own struggles and moments of self-doubt. Especially when we’re in the midst of our struggle period (maybe preparing for an entrance exam or struggling with unemployment), we feel like our life has become stagnant and colourless. We feel jealous of other people and end up losing faith in ourselves, sometimes.

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The last episode hit too close to home: When everybody around you manages to exceed their own expectations, EXCEPT YOU. When you did every single thing you were told to do, did more than your body and mind were capable of doing, stayed away from home, stayed away from all the 'distractions', gave one goal every fibre of your being, followed the same routine for two years straight, and then failed to make the cut. You’re left all alone. You see the victory celebration of the few who made it, but what about people like you who also tried their best? What consolation prize do you get? Perhaps it’s the sinking feeling of loneliness, of wondering how you’ll face your parents and society now. You feel like you let everybody down, especially your parents who spent so much time and money on you, who worked so hard to give you the best facilities and sent you away to study. Vaibhav at least had Jeetu Bhaiya with him on the result day. But most of us who’ve seen failures know that sometimes even parents lose their patience and end up showing their frustration. They’re human beings, after all. But it hurts. It hurts like someone is pricking your guts with fifty needles at once. You don’t feel anything except numbness. You lose your appetite for days. You’re unable to meet eyes with your father or sit in the same room as him. Everything looks grayscale. And you know what? You never quite forget this feeling. Even after you reach college, even after you achieve great things for yourself in the future, these feelings never completely leave you—the grief, the bone-crushing loneliness, the sheer disappointment on your parents’ faces, being unable to face your own reflection in the mirror—they stick with you for a lifetime. Perhaps that’s why they say, ‘A student might leave Kota, but Kota never leaves them.

No matter how hard you work throughout your preparation period, it’s the D-Day that counts. I know everyone has their own opinions about the ending and how Vaibhav should’ve (definitely) secured a seat. But I guess what the show-makers were trying to convey is the role your temperament and calmness play on the exam day. I’ve seen the smartest people unable to perform because of anxiety or mishaps the day before or on the exam day itself. How Vaibhav could not sleep the entire night before the exam, how he reached the wrong centre, and how he didn’t enter the exam hall with a calm mindset—these are things that sometimes happen to good students, and you cannot exactly control these factors. Shit happens. It’s so sad when sincere students go through this because they did have it in them to prove their mettle in front of the world. But they just couldn’t.

Just finished watching the show and here are my immediate thoughts:

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I know JEE Mains is easier than JEE Advanced, but come on, Uday cracked it? I mean, I live for heroic comebacks, but this guy used to play games at the cyber cafe for hours while his friends would solve the JEE paper in their rooms. He made Meena take the Practice series in his place and didn’t show an ounce of sincerity throughout.

SPOILERS AHEAD.

Vartika’s success felt personal; I don’t know why. Perhaps because I’ve seen people like that around me—people who don’t always understand the concepts from the get-go. People who take their own sweet time to grasp even the so-called ‘easy’ questions that others feel shouldn’t be asked as doubts in the first place. People who hesitate to raise their hands in class because they’re scared of being judged or laughed at. But these are also the people who work the hardest on themselves, no matter how much time it takes them to understand the basics. I’ve seen such sloggers around me, and I’ve seen them achieve ranks in NEET and JEE Advanced when nobody even imagined them being capable of doing so.

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Meena is such a cutie, and I think everybody was rooting was him throughout. His financial struggles and him taking tuitions to pay his rent. This entire sequence was so wholesome and emotional, especially with Uday and Vaibhav willing to help him in every manner possible.

I personally found this season a bit underwhelming compared to S.1 and S.2, but then what do I know. I'm no film critic. I watch content solely for the vibes these days. However, I'd advise people who actually lived in Kota and experienced nothing but trauma there to skip this show, otherwise, it might be too sad and depressing for you.