Official Trailer:
[SPOILERS AHEAD…]
The story is a simple, a father takes revenge on the guys who assaulted his daughter. What sets this movie apart is how the movie is built. It comes across as a picture puzzle where you have to put together the pieces to view the full picture. In Maharaja we get precision engineered segments like Lego blocks. They are given to us in a non-linear fashion. We collect the blocks but not able to put them together yet, till we reach a point when we get the best WOW moment, a clue about the narration, that we are observing events from two different timelines. What I liked about that WOW moment is, the director doesn’t amplify it with a loud BGM or a forceful cue. It is a matter of fact visual with excellent staging. We get a reveal in each segment, but the director keeps us guessing till the final piece of the puzzle. Keen observers could possibly guess the final twist since there are clues strewn in each segment. Not so keen observers would enjoy the movie better in repeat viewing in spotting the clues.
This is Nithilan Saminathan’s second directorial outing after his first Kurangu Bommai. Kurangu Bommai is also an engaging thriller but suffered a little on production front due to low budget IMO. That changed in Maharaja with Vijay Sethupathi (VJS) and Anurag Kashyap (AK) in. I am really happy for Nithilan since even with big names like VJS and AK in the project, this is a director’s movie. I guess credit goes to VJS and AK also to be part of the director’s vision. Those who have watched Kurangu Bommai can spot the easter eggs in Maharaja (Monkey doll in the opening scene, chaos in the police station, crashing ceiling in the police station). There is also reference to Naduvala Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom. A big applause to Nithilan for designing and moving the plot crisply and ending each plot on a high. There are many WOW moments, but my favorites are the reveal about the timeline and the one when we figure out Maharaja is actually surveilling the cops in the station and is not there to file a FIR.
VJS, Singampuli, AK catch our attention with their performances. Munishkanth, Aruldoss, Natarajan S, Sachana have given what is asked of their roles. Mamta Mohandas, Abhirami characters are there as fillers. To say it differently, there is not a single strong women character. Even Jothi’s character is not formed enough to buy in to the dialogue (message for the claps?) she utters to AK. I got the same feel with Natarajan’s cop character, Varadarajan. While the FIR for missing Lakshmi, the dustbin, comes across as funny, it doesn’t make sense why Varadarajan agrees to take up the case. Yes, he is shown as a corrupt person, but it would have helped if we are shown or given a clue about his inference on the real story behind Lakshmi. I wasn’t able to buy in to Varadarajan knows about Nallasivam twist. Yes, we are shown flashback of few investigative scenes and we a get a glimpse of his daughter, but not enough. The twist would have worked better if there are hints given earlier about Varadarajan’s moral compass with few scenes, similar to what we get to show his corrupt behavior.
Similar to Varadarajan, AK’s character is also less convincing. AK is shown as a person who loves and adores his girl child. His first accomplice from pre-arrest timeline is a rapist. Now he hires similar guys, two this time, after he gets out of jail. He doesn’t commit the rape crime (but he breaks the legs of Jothi though) but lets his accomplices. This doesn’t fit the character. Maybe the director didn’t want to push the envelope, to show AK as the guy who commits the wicked crime. Do we still need to use rape as a trope in movies to construct the revenge plot? There are so many other ways to build the revenge drama, right? John Wick goes on a killing spree because the bad guys killed his pet dog that was gifted to him by his wife. That is enough to build the drama. Here, it could be some item, living or non-living, that is valuable to Jothi?
As a whole, the movie is engaging with WOW moments and clever construction if you can ignore the flaws in character development.