Passion Studios, The Route and Think Studios’ Maharaja (dubbed from the Tamil film of the same name; UA) is a thriller. Maharaja (Vijay Sethupathi) is a simple barber whose life revolves around his profession and his young daughter, Jyothi (Sachana Namidass). One day, their dustbin gets stolen. Maharaja wants the police to file a complaint for the dustbin which the father and daughter fondly refer to as Lakshmi. The cops at first don’t take him seriously but Maharaja refuses to budge from the police station. Why is the dustbin so important for Maharaja?
Nithilan Swaminathan has written a fairly interesting story but the screenplay is unable to hold the audience’s interest for too long if only because it is quite convoluted. The drama loses steam along the way because it becomes confusing. Dialogues are average.
Vijay Sethupathi shines in the title role. Sachana Namidass is very good as Jyothi. Mamta Mohandas has her moments as Jyothi’s PT teacher, Aasifa. Anurag Kashyap performs brilliantly as Selvam. Natarajan Subramaniam acts ably as police inspector S. Varadharajan. Abhirami is alright as Kokila. Divya Bharathi is good as Maharaja’s wife, Selvi. Singampuli (as Nallasivam), Aruldoss (as sub-inspector R.K. Perumalsamy), Munishkanth (as constable Kuzhandhaivelu), Vinod Sagar (as Sabari), Manikandan (as Dhana), Kaalaiyan (as councillor Karunakaran), Kalki (as the thief), P.L. Thenappan (as the salon owner), Saravana Subbaiah (as the inspector), Vetrivel Raja (as the constable), Bharathiraja (as Gopal Thatha), Mohan Raman (as doctor uncle), and the others provide the necessary support.
Nithilan Swaminathan’s direction is nice. B. Ajaneesh Loknath’s music is fair. Lyrics are okay. Song picturisations are passable. The background music is good. Dinesh Purushothaman’s camerawork is alright. Action and stunt scenes don’t afford much thrill. Editing (Philomin Raj) ought to have been sharper. Dubbing is nice.
On the whole, Maharaja is a fair entertainer but it won’t be able to do anything worthwhile in Hindi — mainly because there’s no awareness about it and also because of very limited release.
Released on 28-6-’24 at Glamour (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Rishab Enterprise. Publicity: almost nil. Opening: poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was weak everywhere.