Maharaja (2024 film)

Maharaja
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Nithilan Saminathan
Written by	Nithilan Saminathan Raam Murali (dialogues)
Based on	Oldboy by Park Chan-wook
Produced by	Sudhan Sundaram Jagadish Palanisamy
Starring	Vijay Sethupathi Anurag Kashyap Mamta Mohandas Natarajan Subramaniam
Cinematography	Dinesh Purushothaman
Edited by	Philomin Raj
Music by	B. Ajaneesh Loknath
Production companies	Passion Studios The Route Think Studios
Distributed by	see below
Release date	14 June 2024
Running time	142 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	est. ₹20–30 crore
Box office	est. ₹10 crore

Maharaja (transl. Great King) is a 2024 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film directed by Nithilan Saminathan, who co-wrote the dialogues with Raam Murali. It is jointly produced by Passion Studios, The Route and Think Studios. The film stars Vijay Sethupathi, alongside Anurag Kashyap, Mamta Mohandas, Natarajan Subramaniam, Abhirami, Aruldoss, Munishkanth, Manikandan, Singampuli and Bharathiraja. It follows the titular barber, who tells the police that his "Lakshmi" is missing after a home robbery, leaving them confused over whether it is a person or object.

The film was officially announced in February 2023 under the tentative title VJS50, as it is Sethupathi's 50th film as the lead actor. Principal photography commenced the same month and was predominantly shot in Chennai. The official title was announced that July, after filming wrapped. The film has music composed by B. Ajaneesh Loknath, cinematography handled by Dinesh Purushothaman and editing by Philomin Raj.

Maharaja was released worldwide on 14 June 2024 in theatres to positive reviews from critics, who praised Sethupathi's performance, the writing, climax and social message, while the excessive violence received criticism.

Maharaja is a barber by profession in K. K. Nagar, .Maharaja's loses his wife and a daughter in an accident wherein a truck slews into a house they are sitting in. Maharaja adopts another toddler, who survives the same accident without letting her know she is adopted. Jothi ( Maharaja 's adopted daughter) survives that accident due to a metal dustbin, which they later name "Lakshmi" out of affection and anthropomorphize it , that apparently covers toddler Jyothi and protects her from the falling debris. Widower Maharaja moves to a new place with Jyothi and "Lakshmi", who is a teenager and attends a school run by RK institution. Jyothi is very active sports and athletes. She leaves the town for a sports camp, accompanied by her sports teachers and other students. On a phone call , she asks his father Maharaja to buy a new pair of shoes, when she returns back. On the day when her daughter returns, Maharaja finds her in violated bloody state at his house apparently in a nude state. He admits in her hospital and learns that she was attacked by a gang who attacked and raped her. As she is admitted in the hospital, Maharaja complains to nearby police about losing "Lakshmi" to a group of armed robbers who raided his house. The police initially snub the case, as they think they can't invest their efforts and time in finding a trivial object like a dustbin. Despite cops' constant snub and even violent threats, Maharaja stands his ground. The police accepts the case once Maharaja promises a bribe of 15 lakhs. Upon further investigation, cops find that there it is more than just a robbery dustbin it is found that his daughter by raped by a gang lead by Selvam, who is a professional robber and killer. It is revealed that 13 years ago, Maharaja overhears Selvam's conversation, who visits Maharaja's salon for a haircut, with his aide over phone about a news coverage about their crimes. Maharaja snitches about his whereabouts to police and consequently Maharaja gets arrested at his toddler daughter's birthday function in a humiliating fashion .It is also revealed that Selvam raided Maharaja's house to kill him on the night when Jyothi was raped.Selvam kills 2 associating aide of Selvam, who accompanied him that night. In the final act Maharaja beats Selvam and incapacitates him in an under construction building.Jyothi confronts Selvam and insults him and throws a bunch of jewellery pieces on his face, as she thinks Selvam raided her house for robbery. Selvam finds a piece of gold chain among the bunch which resembles to the same chain he bought for his toddler daughter on her birthday when he was arrested. Selvam cries and begs to meet Jothi as she leaves but Maharaja denies. Dejected Selvam jumps from the building and dies as he realises that Jothi is his biological daughter. It is later shown that Maharaja with his wife and daughter visited Selvam's house to return the gold chain ,which he left in the salon , on the day the accident happened. The accident not only killed Maharaja 's wife and biological daughter but also Jothi's biological mother ( Selvam's wife) only leaving Jothi ( Selvam's biological daughter) and Maharaja ( who wasn't inside the house) alive

Cast

• Vijay Sethupathi as Maharaja
• Anurag Kashyap as Selvam
• Mamta Mohandas as Aasifa
• Divya Bharathi as Maharaja's wife (cameo appearance)
• Natarajan Subramaniam as Inspector S. Varadharajan
• Abhirami as Selvam's wife
• Aruldoss as Sub-inspector R. K. Perumalsamy
• Munishkanth as Constable Kuzhandhaivelu
• Manikandan as Dhana
• Singampuli as Nallasivam
• Sachana Namidass as Jyothi Maharaja
• Bharathiraja as Gopal Thatha
• Mohan Raman as Doctor Uncle
• Vinod Sagar as Sabari
• P. L. Thenappan as Ramki Saloon Owner
• Poovaiyar
• Lizzie Antony as a victim of robbery
• Saravana Subbiah as an Inspector
• Kaalaiyan as Karunakaran
• Kalki as Policu
• Sangeetha V as Varadharajan's wife
• Supergood Subramani as Selvam's neighbour
• Vetrivel Raja as a Constable
• Mullai Arasi as a thief's wife

Production

On 1 February 2023, Vijay Sethupathi was announced to collaborate with Kurangu Bommai (2017) director Nithilan Saminathan for his 50th film as a lead actor and the director's second directorial. Tentatively titled VJS50, principal photography began shortly after a muhurat puja held the same day at a film studio in Chennai with the presence of the film's cast and crew. The project was funded by Sudhan Sundaram's Passion Studios and Jagadish Palanisamy's The Route. In early April, Sundaram stated that fifty of eighty-five filming days were completed, and only ten days were remaining for Sethupathi. On 12 July, in addition to the principal photography wrapping, the film's official title, Maharaja, was announced by the production houses. Anurag Kashyap, Mamta Mohandas and Natarajan Subramaniam were announced to play the lead roles alongside Sethupathi, while Divya Bharathi, Abhirami, Aruldoss, Munishkanth, Manikandan, Singampuli, Bharathiraja, Vinod Sagar and P. L. Thenappan would appear in the supporting roles. Dubbing works were completed by 31 December 2023.

Music

Maharaja
Soundtrack album by B. Ajaneesh Loknath
Released	7 June 2024
Recorded	February–July 2023
Studio	Sound Town Studio, Chennai RM Studio, Chennai Abbs Studios, Bangalore
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	3:08
Language	Tamil
Label	Junglee Music
Producer	B. Ajaneesh Loknath
B. Ajaneesh Loknath chronology
Yuva (2024) Maharaja (2024) Vaamana (2024)
Singles from Maharaja
"Thayee Thayee" Released: 7 June 2024

The music and background score is composed by B. Ajaneesh Loknath, in his first collaboration with Sethupathi; second with Saminathan after Kurangu Bommai. As well as in his third Tamil film after that film and Nimir (2018). Junglee Music acquired the audio rights of the film. The only single "Thayee Thayee", sung by Sid Sriram and written by Vairamuthu, was released on 7 June 2024.

No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Thayee Thayee"	Vairamuthu	Sid Sriram	3:08
Total length:				3:08

Release

Theatrical

Maharaja was theatrically released on 14 June 2024 in theatres. Apart from its original Tamil language, it was also dubbed and released in the Telugu. A press screening was held two days prior to the release, 12 June. It was initially planned by the makers to release in May 2024, but was later shifted to June due to unspecified reasons. The film will have its Los Angeles Premiere on 28 June 2024, as it was selected as one of the closing night selections at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles.

Distribution

NVR Cinemas bought the distribution rights of the film for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Tentkotta, which would distribute in association with Simbaaaa Productions, acquired the distribution rights for the United States and Australia, and Ahimsa Entertainment did so for the UK. United Indian Exporters acquired the overseas distribution rights of the film, and released the film themselves in Sri Lanka and Germany and in the company of X Gen Studios in Singapore.

Home media

The digital streaming rights were acquired by Netflix and the satellite rights by Star Vijay.

Reception

Critical response

Maharaja received positive reviews from critics, who praised Sethupathi's performance, the writing, climax and social message, while the excessive violence received criticism.

Only Kollywood gave 4.5/5 stars and wrote "Maharaja is one of those films that gets every department right, and when a film does that, it ought to be celebrated. Right in the sixth month of the year, we have got a film that has beaten every other film out there so far, and will be a tough one to beat in the days to come as well. Brilliant, from top to toe." Arjun Menon of Rediff gave 4/5 stars and wrote "Maharaja is a surprisingly novel outing, rejuvenating the tired tropes of revenge films with a morally challenging revelation in the final hour, that compensates for the little contrivances in the writing." Manikandan KR of Times Now gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "Maharaja is a fairly good revenge/investigative drama that primarily works because of fine performances from its entire cast and some exceptional work by its stuntmen and stunt choreographer."

Goutham S of Pinkvilla gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "Vijay Sethupathi stands out in the action-packed revenge flick with a well-written screenplay by Nithilan Swaminathan" Roopa Radhakrishnan of The Times of India gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Vijay Sethupathi is wonderful in his 50th film, and he has well-written role at his disposal." Anusha Sundar of OTTPlay gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Maharaja is a film that feeds you information in every frame and second, so losing a grip on it might leave you unable to understand when the knots are tied." Bhuvanesh Chandar of The Hindu wrote "Maharaja is yet another sign of the serious filmmaker Nithilan is, and shows us how a good writer can convert even a dated idea into a gripping big-screen experience." Latha Srinivasan of Hindustan Times wrote "Director Nithilan Swaminathan and Vijay Sethupathi have delivered a film that’s definitely worthy of your time."

Swathi P Ajith of Onmanorama wrote "Maharaja is undoubtedly a thrilling revenge drama that deserves to be watched in theatres." Janani. K of India Today gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "Maharaja has a lot going on. Sadly, the hits and misses are not proportional, with the latter having the upper hand. These good moments get buried under dark humour, which hardly works, and many other shortcomings." B. V. S. Prakash of Deccan Chronicle gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "Director Nithilan deserves a pat since he makes the girl victim stronger and determined who wants to meet scrupulous characters and question them for their heinous act face-to-face and throws up another twist in the end." Kirubhakar Purushothaman of The Indian Express gave 2/5 stars and wrote "The overarching problem with Maharaja is its ‘wannabe’ nature to come across as a gritty, dark, and emotional rollercoaster. It is more concerned about how it wants to come across than what it really is."

In response to the positive reviews, the film, which had a limited release at the Telugu states, had its shows increased there on the second day after the release, with extra screens being added after each passing show.

Box office

Maharaja grossed ₹10 crore (US$1.2 million) worldwide on its opening day, which was the highest first day gross for Sethupathi as the lead, with over ₹4.5 crore (US$540,000) from India. The film surpassed Garudan to become the third biggest opening for a Tamil film in 2024, behind Captain Miller and Aranmanai 4.

External links

• Maharaja at IMDb