Maharaja Cast: Vijay Sethupathi, Anurag Kashyap, Mamta Mohandas, Natty (Natraj), Bharathiraja, Abhiram, Singampuli, Aruldoss, Munishkanth, Vinoth Sagar, Boys Manikandan, Kalki, Sachana Namidass
Crew:
Music Director: Ajaneesh Loknath
Cinematographer: Dinesh Purushothaman
Editor: Philomin Raj
Director: Nithilan Saminathan
Producers: Sudhan Sundaram, and Jagadish Palanisamy
Maharaja Movie Rating: 3/5
Vijay Sethupathi has become a Pan-India actor with his performances in big blockbusters. He has been part of big star films like Jawan, Master, Petta, Vikram as supporting lead. At the same time, his main lead performances have been memorable too. Now, his landmark 50th Film, Maharaja, released on 14th June in Telugu and Tamil languages. Nithilan Saminathan directed the film and Mamata Mohandas, Anurag Kashyap are part of the cast. Let’s discuss about the film in detail.
Plot:
A hair stylist Maharaja(Vijay Sethupathi) lives a secluded life from city while being in city. His routine involves him going to his shop, taking his daughter to school and cooking for her. He lives for her and can do anything for her. One day, he walks into a police station and complains that the dustbin – namely- Lakshmi is missing from his house. He complaints to police that three robbers broke into his house and robbed the dustbin. Why he is adamant for Lakshmi? What’s the case all about? Watch Maharaja to know more.
Analysis::
Nithilan Saminathan took seven years to bring his next film, Maharaja, after Kurangu Bommai. The talented director’s screenplay stands out for major portion in this film too but it doesn’t emotionally hook us. Problem lies in mixing investigation with predictable emotion. He keeps hinting us at the obvious and then tries to misdirect us with non-linear narrative as well.
This leads to a guessing game in the head of viewers. Christopher Nolan’s magic lies in not letting us guess but involve into the experience. Take a film like Prestige, which tries to hide the secret behind biggest magic trick, but does hint at emotional baggage it lead to on characters. While the non-linear narrative does throw new information at us constantly, the emotional hook for audiences to travel with characters is evident from first frame.
Maharaja tries to give a shock and emotional awe but then deviates into an introduction for the sake of introducing characters mode. And these introductions does take major portion of the film in first hour. Maybe, directly jumping to Maharaja complaining about missing “Lakshmi” after the first accident portion might have led to a tighter screenplay.
Technically, movie is brilliant in production design, visual grammar and symbolism. Director gives a secluded setting to protagonist – who can be easily misunderstood as a man with unholy purpose. While he lets antagonist be a social person and trustworthy among a friendly society. At least, he sets them up in such a fashion, protagonist gets called as “waste” while antagonist gets to be “super skillful”. Even the shops both work at showcase their “financial imbalance”.
The symbolisms he tries to achieve with snake, dustbin and red shoes, all get a little bit overboard with over-stretched second hour. The timely pre-climax twist does help to bring narrative back on track but emotional connect needed to drive movie home. And here it lacks in providing a solid punch.
Ajaneesh Loknath’s Background score, Dinesh Purushothaman’s visuals and Philomin Raj’s cuts all help to elevate the script to an extent. Vijay Sethupathi carries the movie on his shoulders when he is let to. His performance once again stands out and Anuraj Kashyap is brilliant too. On the whole, Maharaja could have been better while it remains watchable.
Positives:
Vijay Sethupathi’s committed performance
Anurag Kashyap’s non-chalant presence
Ajaneesh Loknath’s score
Meticulous Production Design
Negatives:
Over dependency on twists
Lack of proper emotional hook
A bit too convenient Climax for this film
Maharaja Movie Bottom-line: For Vijay Sethupathi