Maharaja Review: Deceptively Twisty Screenplay Rules this Thriller
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
“Maharaja” has the kind of first half that makes you think of action flicks like John Wick, where Keanu Reeves’ character goes on a killing spree against the men who killed his pet dog, the last gift from his deceased wife. But as the plot thickens, the 2024 Tamil action-thriller turns out to be more complex than viewers are led to believe.
Directed and written by Nithilan Saminathan, “Maharaja” stars Vijay Sethupathi as the titular protagonist. After some burglars break into his home, Maharaja reports to the police that his “Lakshmi” is the only thing missing and pleads with them to find her. The police are initially baffled when they discover that Lakshmi is not a person, convinced Maharaja is a sentimental madman for wanting something seemingly worthless. However, his relentless determination to pressure the cops into finding the mysterious Lakshmi convinces them that there is more to the case than meets the eye.
Right from the start, Nithilan Saminathan and his team keep the viewers confused about what “Maharaja” is about. Vijay Sethupathi is introduced as an introverted barber, who raises his daughter Jyothi (Sachana Namidass) alone after a tragedy and is fiercely protective of her. Suddenly, the story shifts gears to a random rich guy making a violent ruckus over someone stealing his expensive sunglasses. After which, the focus is on a different burglary at a wealthy man’s house. So, expectations soar over the different characters and their stories converging at some point.
Anurag Kashyap (AK vs AK/Bad Cop/Haddi/Kuttey) plays one of the primary antagonists in the tale, a two-faced thief called Selvam, who carries out burglaries with his friend and often cooks meals at the homes of his victims. Selvam and his friend are creepily ordinary, and Selvam’s deviant side is camouflaged by his regular family life – he is a doting father to a toddler who runs an electrical supplies shop in the day. Selvam isn’t the typical blustering, loud villain we see in action movies, so it feels like a lot of other actors could’ve played the part. What’s interesting is how the characters of Maharaja and Selvam are portrayed like two sides of the same coin. They’re both doting fathers, willing to go to any lengths for their family, but while Maharaja is a law-abiding citizen (at least until the burglary incident at his home), Selvam is a thieving brute. Vijay Sethupathi, on the other hand, is riveting as the reticent Maharaja, a man of few words, who is made to dance around in circles by the cops, but he never gives up on his hunt. All the actors who play corrupt cops taking Maharaja for a ride are excellent in their bit parts.
If there’s one thing that’s irksome about “Maharaja,” it’s some of the unnecessary violence, like in the scene where a wealthy man beats a poor mechanic to a pulp just because he suspects the man of stealing his sunglasses; or another scene where a man lands a tight slap on his wife’s face in front of the cops over a burglary that occurs in their house. Both these scenes could’ve simply been deleted and instead, the makers could’ve given viewers more action scenes with Maharaja facing off with the bad guys. The few brutal action scenes Vijay Sethupathi does get to play are quite killer. The soundtrack accompanying the fight scenes and the rest of the runtime is barely noticeable, which is fine, it neither stands out, nor disappoints.
The story and the screenplay for “Maharaja” are what make it an entertaining action-thriller, and the trick to its good climactic twists lies in the fragmented focus on different characters, along with a non-linear timeline. Much like how George Kutty/ Vijay Salgaonkar paints their own picture for the police in the thriller “Drishyam,” Nithilan Saminathan cleverly deceives the viewers through Maharaja. While I was becoming restless with the way the story was unfolding in the first half, I didn’t see one of the biggest twists in the tale coming. It’s the kind of thriller where you don’t even know there was supposed to be suspense, not until the twist is thrown at you. It’s a slyly constructed tale, where the director takes the risk of tiring out viewers who’d expected a more serious tale because it begins like an absurd action-comedy, and then becomes somber and tragic without warning.
Much like Rajinikanth’s action-thriller “Jailer”, Vijay Sethupathi’s “Maharaja” too treats viewers to not one but multiple surprises in the end, although their nature is very different. The primary conflict in “Maharaja” stems from a misunderstanding, which feels underwhelming, especially considering the horrifying consequences that are a result of one angry man misreading a situation. But one of the final twists in the film almost elevates it to a Greek tragedy, where both the hero and the villain are subjected to a mortifying truth that changes their lives forever. The climax is distressing but satisfactory and the patient viewer is rewarded with poetic justice in the end.
Stream Maharaja on Netflix.
