Inside Edge Season 3
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
Cast: Vivek Oberoi, Aamir Bashir, Richa Chadha, Tanuj Virwani, Sapna Pabi, Amit Sial
Ratings: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Be it a content creator, editor of a TV or newspaper, magazine, or content manager of a website, everyone understands one thing very well that cinema, crime, and cricket are the three subjects that gain everyone’s attention, no matter what you write about them. That means if a producer-director makes something with cinema, crime, and cricket, that is, “three in one”, it is bound to be a hit. The third of ‘Inside Edge’ was recently released on Amazon Prime Video and like the first two seasons, there is cricket, there is cinema and there is crime.
The third season showcases the dark side of sports administration, and a lot of research has gone into its presentation. Those who watch the first two seasons will find this season even better.
Looking at the series, one realizes that cricket, which is not even the national sport of our country, is still the biggest sport in our country because a few decades ago, its administration came in the hands of some people who used it as a means of making money. Cricket didn’t remain just a game but turned into a business. With the advent of T20 cricket, the duration of each game became shorter and money became bigger.
Karan Anshuman, the creator of Inside Edge, is a great writer and a great director. Both his works are enough to gauge his talent. On the one hand the web series “Mirzapur” is set in the typical areas of Uttar Pradesh and on the other side “Inside Edge” is being played in the bedrooms of the money people living originally in Mumbai-Delhi. The result of his thinking is that Inside Edge has got the third season and at the juncture where the story stands, it seems that the fourth season will also come. Neeraj Udhwani, Ananya Modi, Vatsal Neelkantan, Vaibhav Vishal, and Nidhi Sharma along with Karan in the writing troupe have made this season very tight.
The way in which the stories of sports administration and the bribes given to the presidents of different cricket boards are mentioned in scenes, it seems that the writers have worked hard. Neeraj Kumar is that policeman of India, due to which all the stories like match-fixing, illegal betting, crime, and blackmail of players came to the fore and India witnessed a huge cricket scandal. He has written books on some of the selected cases handled by him as a police officer and has uncovered many secrets in Betting Syndicate, Dubai, Nepal, Money Laundering, Hawala, and many more. The story of becoming the President of the Cricket Board, which is shown in this series, seems so authentic that the audience may start hating cricket.
It wouldn’t be correct to say that there’s one major character in Inside Edge. Instead, all the characters are important and everyone has the ability to increase or decrease the pace of the story according to their own. However, in season 3, there are three characters that leave a huge impact – Bhai Sahab i.e. Chairman of the Cricket Board Yashvardhan Patil (Aamir Bashir) who is a dreaded and ruthless administrator, as well as a father embarrassed to see tales of his corruption unfold in front of his daughter. The second important role is that of his brother Vikrant Patil aka Vikrant Dhawan (Vivek Oberoi). Vivek did a wonderful job in season 2 as well. He is very solid as a clever and consummate businessman. Richa Chadha in the character of Zarina is the pivot that gives rise to conflict, and crime throughout this web series. Seeing Richa Chadha in this character, it is very easy to understand the inclination of cinema towards cricket.
Tanuj Virwani as Vayu Raghavan and Sayani Gupta as Rohini Raghavan have been proving themselves time and again since season 1. The graph of Tanuj Virwani’s character is very well composed. He is a cricketer, a chick-magnet which he takes advantage of, and he takes drugs. He is a talented cricketer but when he falls in love, he starts looking at his life in the right way. He does not like any emotion other than anger and revenge and he keeps himself away from any emotional situation. Sayani’s character in the character of his sister has also been coined after much research.
Season 3 of Inside Edge is far more powerful than the first two seasons. This season is also being liked due to good writing and good acting, although its promotion was reduced like the first two seasons. It could also be that on the same day Bob Biswas and Sooryavanshi were also being released on other OTT platforms, Amazon did not consider it necessary to spend money on it. The third season of the web series is better than the first two seasons. It’s a must-watch if you can spend 7 hours and 28 minutes. By the way, if you have not seen the first two seasons, do not watch the third one because you’ll be unable to connect the episodes.