Maharaja (2024)
Maharaja has been watched. A brutal and dark mystery thriller on the lines of Kurangu Bommai but much more impactful than that.
Vijay Sethupathi enacts the role of the lead character Maharaja in the movie but the real king is the screenplay of the movie. Maharaja works very well because of the well written screenplay that keeps you interested for its entirety. Nithilan Saminathan(the director) raised a few eyebrows with his debut movie Kurangu Bommai which was equally a good movie.
Maharaja follows a similar route as Kurangu Bommai with multiple stories, grey characters and an underlying mystery. The movie becomes better than the former because of the effective performances of the artists in it. The casting is almost perfect.
Vijay Sethupathi's major complaint has been that he continues to be Vijay Sethupathi on the screen as well and not the character. Maharaja is no different as we see a typical Vijay Sethupathi performance. However, what stands out is his conviction to the character. A helpless middle aged man who has an underlying sadness, the portrayal is as efficient as it can be. The next two big positives are Natty Natrajan and Singam Puli. Natty excels in the role of a gray shaded police but Singam Puli was the real surprise, terrific would be an understatement.
The theme of the story is sensitive and the handling is sure to stir a debate but I take the director's side. The presence of such despicable characters in plain sight is news that has become common these days. The presentation was indeed shocking but it wasn't false.
The movie has a non linear and as well a back and forth narration, kudos to the technical team and the screenplay work that has gone behind which made it not confusing at all. The background score was done very well.
The movie is not without shortcomings. There are visible logical loopholes in the movie and the brutality could definitely be toned down. But, these are minor hindrances that don't spoil the movie much.
~𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗹, 𝗮 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹-𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝘄𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗲𝘀.
P.S.: The movie is not family friendly.
