IIT and Kota is a combination more famous than burgers and fries in our Country. Whether you are from the maths stream or not, you definitely know what Kota is & how it operates. And TVF being the king of relatable content, presents for us and of us the story of Kota. The creator of this Indian web series named it Kota Factory, thereby signifying that the city Kota is akin to a production unit for IITans.
Just like others, a new raw material named Vaibhav Pandey (Mayur More) comes to the factory. He comes with his father to Kota after 10th and wants to join the best coaching class in town – The Maheshwari Institute but he does not get admission there. Then he is taken to another Institute i.e PRODIGY which completely runs on the shoulders of its star teacher, an ex IITian, Jitendra Kumar aka Jeetu bhaiya . As other main characters, we have a small town naive guy Meena (Ranjan Raj), a cool dude Uday (Alam Khan) and the smart & bold Shivangi (Ahsaas Channa).
Episode 1 (Inventory) shows us how Kota is a ruthless factory, which aims at nothing but producing results. Vaibhav is in the Prodigy A10 batch. He takes up a challenge from Jeetu bhaiya to solve a paper overnight & he will be reshuffled. Which he does but with his friend’s help. Jeetu bhaiya catches his bluff but praises him for his attempt & says, “You are a fighter student and that is what a teacher needs” & promotes him to A5 batch
Episode 2 called ‘Assembly Line’ shows how a guy new in the city struggles to adapt. How he is struggling with basic things like water, food, washroom, sleep, and concentration and how the OG Jeetu bhaiya solves it with simple advice that is by “doing”. He gives him a 21-day challenge to create a new habit and in the end, Vaibhav succeeds.
In the 3rd episode (Optimization), we see Vaibhav complaining & ranting about the subject of Organic Chemistry in an interesting monologue, and as usual Meena his best friend takes him to Jeetu bhaiya, who with weird examples tells him to strategize and optimize subjects he is good at.
The 4th episode, named ‘Shut down’, is where students are on a 5 day leave so as to sit for their practical exams. They are attending school for the first time. Here Vaibhav meets Vartika (Revathi Pillai) and starts liking her. Meena is also falling for Meenal (Urvi Singh). The gang decides to go for an outing but Vartika wants to study & hence Vaibhav also stays back. He starts to teach her Organic Chemistry for Maheshwari’s entrance exam & although his intention had been to spend more time with her, he also ends up taking the exam.
‘The Overhaul’ is the 5th & final episode where we see a sad Vaibhav telling his friends how he has passed the Maheshwari entrance exam and Vartika has failed. However, he doesn’t want to leave his friends and Jeetu bhaiya but as always he is confused. And at the end, Jeetu bhaiya tells him not to waste the opportunity in the name of emotions and take admission at Maheshwari, and with a very heavy heart, Vaibhav follows his advice.
Kota Factory is an amazing series that one can relate to for it talks about the struggles of a student’s life, friendships, first love, academic pressure, etc. Jeetu bhaiya is the teacher most have never had in real life & are bound to feel envy. With some power-packed dialogues of Jeetu bhaiya like “Student Kota se nikal jatey hain per Kota students se nahi jaata” and “Aakhri time tak fight marenge”, he consoles and gives hope to the viewers who may be facing similar situations. The series is in black and white suggesting the pale & flavourless lives of the students whose lives are reduced to only one idea i.e to crack IIT. All those who have seen the series have somehow felt themselves to be a part of it. Meena’s final goodbye to Vaibhav saying “Dosti koi lesson thodi na hai ki revision kar liya” made our hearts weep. At the end, when Vaibhav meets a new boy at Maheshwari’s hostel who looks as naïve as him & motivates him, we see the frame getting colourful for the first time.
The 2nd season of Kota Factory, directed by Raghav Subbu, will start streaming on Netflix from 24th September and we can’t wait for it!
