Maharaja Movie Review

Vijay Sethupathi’s 50th movie ‘Maharaja’, directed by Nithilan Swaminathan, who earlier directed the film ‘Kurangu Bommai’. The film features Anurag Kashyap, Abhirami, Mamta Mohandas, Bharathiraja, Natraj Subramaniam and many others in the star-cast. Ajaneesh Loknath is composing music for this film.

The protagonist (Vijay Sethupathi) approaches police station stating that burglars have looted ‘Lakshmi’ from his house, but doesn’t reveal the identity, leaving the cops puzzled whether its a human or object. What unfolds next is a chain of events that leads towards a shocking twist in the climax.

The first half might be a cherry-pick for the commercial film lovers, but then, for a pure cinephile, it would look directionless as the scene in non-linear editing looks like a distraction. However, when during the post-interval phase, when everything gets justified, we are kept intact and engrossed with the proceeding. The first half exhibits the innocuous avatar of Vijay Sethupathi, and at times, he evokes laughter with his signature style. In the second half, the screenwriting gets crispy, and one might start wondering, if the first hour had a same impact, it would have been more appealing. The scene, where Vijay Sethupathi narrates the ‘Dustbin’ episode is an attention-grabbing moment.

On the flip side, the makers seems to have believed that roping in familiar actors from various industries will add a Pan-Indian value to the film. Yes, Anurag Kashyap is a genius actor, but his characterisation is just a normal one in this movie. Moreover, his lip synching with dialogues is a little disappointment. The other actors like Mamta Mohandas have done their roles perfectly. The writing has to improvise in certain places, where a person to be antagonised or projected that way, need not be shown in a cliched manner. Natraj Subramaniam’s screen presence is good.

The songs aren’t up to the mark, but BGM compliments the narrative in the perfect style.

The last 30 minutes of the film is the biggest plus, and it eclipses the little drawbacks in the first half.

Overall, Maharaja differs from regular cinema with an impactful storytelling embellished by performance and screen presence of Vijay Sethupathi, thereby making it a watchable one.