Aarya Season 3′ review: Sushmita Sen is a woman of steel in this engaging gangster drama

Rating: 3.5 stars on 5
When Sushmita Sen appeared as Aarya Sareen for the first time on the small screen in the remake of the Dutch crime-drama Penoza, there was a lot of speculation as to how the web series would turn out. But director Ram Madhvani and Sushmita Sen gave us a totally gripping drama about family, relationships, gangs, the drug business and lust for money.
‘Aarya Season 3’, on Disney+Hotstar, obviously picks up where the previous season ended –Aarya’s husband is shot dead by her father and she in turn doesn’t even think twice about killing her biological father. Aarya (Sushmita Sen), the drug don, continues to want to protect her children at all cost but the enemies out to destroy her and her drug business have gotten more dangerous. Aarya gets into business with the Russians and as she transports a Rs 1000 crore worth consignment of drugs, it’s not just the cop Khan (Vikas Kumar) who is on her heels but also her rival Sooraj (Indranel Sengupta) who wants her dead for reportedly killing his wife.
But Aarya’s kids cause her stress and grief too. Her elder son, Veer, falls in love with one of her employees, Roop, and as expected, there are complications. Her daughter has turned into a poet and her younger son keeps getting into trouble in school.  In enters another drug baroness, Nalini Sahiba (Ila Arun) who causes more conflict in her life. How will Aarya survive all this this time round?
Aarya is one woman who is surrounded by men who rarely support her. The strength she portrays as she has to fight a constant uphill battle has you cheering her on and wanting her to win. She doesn’t like what she is turning into – but she has no choice as she needs to protect her children and give them a future that she didn’t have.
Sushmita Sen essays Aarya so beautifully that she actually lives the character – the tenderness of a mother and the steeliness of a dug don, comes through effortlessly in her performance. She is the anchor of this web series and easily grabs your attention on screen. In this season, Aarya has some worthy villains in Indraneil Sengupta and Ila Arun and there is enough fighting between the various gangs to keep the narrative continuously moving forward. Of course, some of the old rivals appear too, like ACP Khan.
The makers of Aarya have released only four episodes so far so we don’t really know where the story will go. But the four episodes of ‘Aarya Season 3’ released so far are exciting and Sushmita Sen as a drug don cum ‘sherni’ protecting her cubs is a really good watch.