The law of diminishing marginal utility catches up with Aarya. In its third season, the Disney+Hotstar series continues to remain watchable mostly because of the usually fiery and fabulous Sushmita Sen slaying in the title role. But even as the stakes rise for Aarya, both personally and professionally — as well as for the series in general — the writing somehow falls short of the measured mix of drama and subtlety that the first two seasons had delivered impeccably.

Only four episodes of Season 3 are for viewing now, with Disney+Hotstar following its tried-and-tested (read: frustrating for the viewer) policy of dropping its titles in a staggered format, Criminal Justice to The Night Manager, Aakhri Sach to The Freelancer. While the approach has worked in some instances, it has come a cropper in others. In the case of Aarya, I would have preferred a binge-watch, especially because of the manner in which Episode 4 ends on a heightened note. But to be honest, the season as a whole, or rather whatever has been made available so far, huffs and puffs to keep up with the powerfully written and enacted mid-season climax.

That is possibly because the latest season sacrifices its inherent core of internalised drama for a more in-your-face gore-meets-guts template that alters the DNA of both Aarya and the show. But while Sushmita — that glorious image of her in a bathrobe by the pool, puffing on a cigar like a bawse and unflinchingly delivering orders to torture and kill remains indelible — organically embraces the new turn that the character takes, the eponymous series somewhat struggles with the change.

When we left Aarya at the end of Season 2 about two years ago, she had picked up the gun to kill her biological father, surprising herself with the ease with which she pulled the trigger. In the new season, Aarya transitions from a vulnerable mother to a fierce and often conscience-less don, but all that she does is in service of protecting her three children, and whatever is left of her family, including her estranged mother (played by Sohaila Kapur) and close friend Maya (played by Maya Sarao).

Aided by new confidante Sampath (Vishwajeet Pradhan) — Daulat (Sikandar Kher) is no longer her trusted lieutenant, though the character’s return in the second half of Season 3 is imperative — Aarya plunges deep into the afeem business, brokering a deal with the Russian mafia, taking on the might of the Machiavellian Nalini Sahiba (Ila Arun is a new entrant) and staving off a new nemesis in the form of Sooraj (Indraneil Sengupta), out to bring Aarya and her family to their knees for killing his wife Nandini.

Nandini’s (Charu Shankar) death in Season 2 was purely accidental, but Sooraj is having none of it, his desire for revenge prompting him to go all out and attack Aarya on all fronts, both personal and professional. But what makes this turn in the story — which remains the primary focus of the first half of Season 3, ending with the death of a key character — engaging is that the conflict is more between two parents (Sooraj’s moist eyes and his desire to know what happened to his wife in her last moments humanises him even when he carries out the most dastardly actions) representing good and evil or rather evil and the lesser-evil.

Most of the four episodes, taking place over a few days, unfold at a frenetic pace but the writing — Anu Singh Choudhury works with Khushboo Agarwal Raj and Amit Raj — isn’t quite what it used to be. Aarya no longer remains Aarya, with the perfect balance between family and crime that the show achieved in the first two seasons now acquiring the DNA of the dime-a-dozen bloody hinterland dramas that clutter the Indian streaming space.

Characters are given very little space to breathe, forget about coming into their own. Aarya’s children — played by Viren Vazirani, Virti Vaghani and Pratyaksh Panwar — continue to remain important pieces on the chessboard as does Vikas Kumar as the doggedly resilient ACP Khan, but the show’s alacrity to bump off key characters or reduce them to the fringes proves to be its undoing, especially in this season. Another major sore point is the overuse of the background score, which seems to be a plug to heighten the tautness and tension when the writing falls short.

Despite all of this, Aarya doesn’t slip off the watchable radar, and that has a lot to do with Sushmita Sen’s formidable yet tender enactment of the character. Sushmita is Aarya, Aarya is Sushmita and that is what will make me return to the series again, even if nothing else does.
What did you think of Part 1 of Season 3 of Aarya? Tell t2@abp.in