Kota Factory Review

TVF’s Kota Factory follows the story of a small-town boy Vaibhav who, like many others, dreams of making it into IIT. The name of the series itself indicates how the city is known for manufacturing the “ideal” students for IIT. It goes away from the conventional colour to black and white, which sets the mood perfectly – monotonous and gloomy, along with the intense pressure of emerging victorious in this tough competition. However, in the midst of the gloom, we get to see Vaibhav’s blooming friendship with his fellow Prodigy students, Meena and Uday. While all three of them have different shades of character, they all share the same goal, help each other through their insecurities and act as constant pillars of support to each other. What makes the series even better is the trio’s relationship with their teacher, Jeetu, who not only guides them through Physics but also through life as their “agony aunt”, making us all wish we had a mentor like him. However, the show is not without its faults with its extreme level of promotion of Unacademy, deviating from its focus with the introduction of Vaibhav’s love interest, Vartika, and the gross stereotypical portrayal of Meenal, the batch topper of the trio. With Vaibhav now moving to the more prestigious institute Maheshwari in the last episode, it will be interesting to see what is to come for him and his friends.