The fictionalized political and underworld landscape of Uttar Pradesh has started heating up once again as Amazon Studios’ massively popular crime drama Mirzapur returns with its third season after four long years, bringing all the guns, guts, and glory fans could have asked for. Much like the first season, the second one ended on a cliffhanger, as Guddu and Golu took their revenge by killing Munna Tripathi and grievously injured Kaleen Bhaiya, and in the process, took the throne of Mirzapur for themselves. Kaleen’s wife, Beena, had conspired with Golu and Guddu to end the reign of the Tripathi family and killed Kaleen’s father, the patriarch of the family, Bauji. The CM of the state, Surya Pratap, had died after meeting an accident, leaving his daughter, Madhuri (Munna’s widow), the prime seat of the state, while his brother, J. P. Yadav, who aspired to become the next CM, met his downfall in sex scandal. Sharad Shukla, son of Kaleen’s rival, the late Rati Shankar Shukla, used to be Munna’s accomplice, and he decided to save Kaleen Bhaiya from his near-death situation for personal leverage.Â
The third season of Mirzapur handles a myriad of issues at once but struggles to find a singular thread to tie them all together. The major problem that arises in the context of the overarching narrative is the fact that the plot moves very little by the finale of the season, content with shuffling the positions on the proverbial chess board of power.Â
Spoilers Ahead
Family Ties and the Seat of Purvanchal
Grieving over the death of her husband, CM Madhuri plans to wreck the throne of Mirzapur by taking down Guddu Pandit and his accomplices. Meanwhile, Shatrughan Tyagi, the younger of the Tyagi twins, who’d killed his elder brother, Bharat, during the previous season, finds it difficult to continue impersonating Bharat, both in family and business life. Sharad Shukla, with the help of Dadda Tyagi and Shatrughan (impersonating Bharat), is trying to help Kaleen recuperate from his injuries in Siwan, as he wishes to use his influence to gain the throne of Mirzapur and avenge his father. On the other hand, Guddu’s father, the straight-arrow lawyer Ratikant Pathak, has surrendered himself to the police for killing SSP Maurya in the previous season and is unwilling to defend himself despite having a strong alibi and evidence in his favor, much to his family’s dismay. Instead, as he goes to prison while awaiting his hearing, he decides to fight for the unjustly sentenced prisoners and has occasional run-ins with opium kingpin Rauf Lala.
The Golu-Guddu partnership is match made in heaven with their brain-brawn dynamics, which not only allows the duo to keep absolute control over Mirzapur but also helps them build enough street cred in the entire Purvanchal area (Eastern Zone) of Uttar Pradesh as well. Even though Beena lives a good life with Guddu and Golu and occasionally advises them as well, her only allegiance is to herself and her newborn son. Golu searches for Kaleen to eliminate the threat posed by him once and for all, which will also strengthen her and Guddu’s claim over Purvanchal. However, for them to get the formal acknowledgement of their control of Purvanchal, votes from other dons of eastern districts are necessary under the presiding control of the consigliere of Western UP’s chief don (who acts as a neutral mediator), and in the council, the don of Jaunpur, Sharad Shukla, poses a formidable challenge to Guddu’s claim. However, Guddu finds an opportunity to bolster his position after CM Madhuri’s attempt to kill him using hitmen miserably backfires and uses it to full effect. Madhuri also faces trouble in the cabinet as HM Shukla continues to oppose her decisions. In Guddu’s absence, the jack of all trades, Robin, looks after his girlfriend Dimpy Pathak’s family as if they were his own.
Golu Gets Abducted, and Guddu Loses His Grip, Big Time
As Kaleen Bhaiya gradually heals, both physically and mentally, Sharad and his mother Shakuntala give him a place in their family, in the hopes of gaining the seat of Mirzapur. Whoever controls the opium trade controls the flow of power in Purvanchal, and Sharad approaches Rauf Lala to get access to his dealers. However, Lala’s daughter Shabnam decides to approach her old flame, Guddu, with the opium deal for her own safety and takes him to Nepal to negotiate with the dealers. Shatrughan still holds a grudge against Golu for rejecting him in the past, lures her into his family seat at Siwan in the guise of leading her to Kaleen, and manages to abduct her after killing her accompanying gang members. As Guddu returns after securing the opium deal, Golu’s loss affects him immensely, and situation take a worse turn after he starts abusing substances after getting influenced by Beena’s words. As he suspects Sharad to be the abductor, an all-out war between Jaunpur and Mirzapur almost takes place, and in the heat of the moment, Guddu reveals his deal with Lala. As the opposition party tries to libel Madhuri and her late father, she decides to put Zarina, J. P. Yadav’s mistress, in a stronger political position to get to her uncle. J. P. Yadav is revealed to have absconded to Varanasi, living away from the political scene, and later opposition leaders approach him to seek help in toppling Madhuri’s government.
Sharad has Lala killed in the prison, and in search of Golu, Guddu starts eliminating other smaller dons, especially the ones who opposed him in council. Sharad and Shatrughan (impersonating Bharat) go through a falling out as the latter continues to have a hard time leading a dual life. However, a captive Golu detects Shatrughan’s ruse right away and tries to use his insecurity to get herself free. Beena calls Madhuri and lies about being Guddu’s hostage, and she does the same by calling Shakuntala as well. Meanwhile, a burnt corpse is misidentified as Golu, which leads to her father Parshuram committing suicide in grief and sending Guddu completely over the edge. Guddu reaches out to his father, Ramakant, for counsel, but even he has become too jaded by reality to help him. Eventually, Ramakant decided to defend his case in court, but CM Madhuri altered witnesses and changed the judge to manipulate the verdict of the court for the sole reason of pinning down Guddu. When all hope seems lost, Robin reveals that Ramakant requested Guddu’s case files from him and was willing to cooperate with SSP Maurya in apprehending his own son, until the superintendent decided to orchestrate a fake encounter, which triggered Ramakant into killing him to protect his son. This provides Ramakant a new lease on life, but Guddu is furious, as he mistakenly considers this Robin’s ploy to divide the family even further. Later, as Guddu confronts Robin at the Pandit household, he unwittingly and brutally kills him in front of his mother and Dimpy.
Did Kaleen Bhaiya Finally Get His Revenge?
In the aftermath of the heinous incident, Guddu surrenders himself to the authorities and gets brutally beaten by the prisoners on Madhuri’s command. Madhuri also brings Beena and her son to her care, not knowing that she was a former accomplice of Guddu and Golu and was equally responsible for Munna’s death. Golu finally gets a chance to free herself after Bharat’s wife, Saloni, tails Shatrughan and finds the place where he had held Golu. As Shatrughan unwittingly shoots Saloni and gets distracted, an injured Golu breaks free. Meanwhile, Dimpy obtains crucial case files on Guddu from her father and finds out that Sharad was responsible for ex-CM/Madhuri’s father, Surya Pratap’s murder. As she presents the evidence to Madhuri, she tries to give Sharad a chance and see whether he comes clean about his past actions. Instead, she learns from Sharad that he aims to take over Mirzapur with Kaleen Bhaiya’s help, whom he was sheltering all along, and the CM decides to pay Kaleen Bhaiya a visit.
Without beating around the bush, Madhuri clarifies to Kaleen that if he wishes to see his remaining family alive, he must do as directed and refrain from giving away the seat of Mirzapur to Sharad. During the final council meeting of the Purvanchal dons, Kaleen appears to crown Sharad as his successor for the throne of Purvanchal, only to betray and kill him, all the present dons, and the western UP don’s consigliere with the police’s help. To complete his revenge, Kaleen Bhaiya goes to kill Guddu as well, but it is revealed that he has broken free from the prison. We learn that Golu was conspiring with J.P. Yadav, HM Shukla, and other political opponents of Madhuri and orchestrating Guddu’s prison break. As the third season ends, Guddu and Golu are reunited, and once again, Mirzapur is back under Kaleen Bhaiya’s control. We are back to square one all over, as the fourth season will focus on an all-out war not only for the throne of Mirzapur but for the entire state of Uttar Pradesh as well.
In the mid-credit scene, Beena’s housemaid, Radhiya, is seen approaching Maqbul, who will play a vital role in the fourth season. Maqbul’s importance in revealing a number of unpalatable truths will be the key to completely changing the relationship dynamics in the Tripathi family, which might lead to Kaleen Bhaiya’s inevitable downfall as well.