In the fifth episode of the third season of Mirzapur, the makers introduce a young man Rahim (Pallav Singh). Obviously, he recites couplets that speak truth to power but in a form where the poetic first line is followed by a punchline filled with expletives. While the opening verse prepares the audience for the profound, the latter wins applause. Living with emasculated dreams, we are told that he wanted to become a civil servant but is currently in prison with a purpose that is as prosaic as the choice of abuses in his poetry.
To my mind, Rahim personifies what Mirzapur is all about. Once again, it takes off like an earnest take on how the nexus between crime and politics in the hinterland fascinates or hallucinates young minds but soon changes gears to provide forbidden pleasures of lugdi sahitya (pulp fiction) that used to sell in large numbers on railway stations before the youth got mobilised towards fantasies made available by cheap data.
