Maharaja (transl. The Great King) is a 2024 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film directed by Nithilan Saminathan. It is jointly produced by The Route, Think Studios and Passion Studios. The film stars Vijay Sethupathi, alongside Anurag Kashyap, Mamta Mohandas, Natty Subramaniam, Abhirami Gopikumar, Divyabharathi, Singampuli, Aruldoss, Munishkanth, Sachana Namidass, Manikandan and Bharathiraja. The film follows Maharaja, a barber in Chennai, who goes to the police station to retrieve his stolen dustbin only for the police officers to find his intentions to be something else. 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, predominantly taking place in Chennai throughout a single schedule. The official title was announced in July, coinciding with the filming being wrapped and Think Studios joining as co-producers. The music was composed by B. Ajaneesh Loknath, with cinematography by Dinesh Purushothaman and editing by Philomin Raj. Maharaja was released worldwide on 14 June 2024 in theatres to critical acclaim from critics, who praised Sethupathi's performance, Philomin's editing and Swaminathan's script and direction. It set several records, including the highest-grossing South Indian film in China, and emerged as the fourth highest-grossing Tamil film of 2024.

Plot

Maharaja is a quiet man who works as a barber in Ramki Saloon in Chennai. One day, a truck slams into a house he and his family were visiting, leading to his wife's death. His daughter, Jothi, survives when a dustbin accidentally falls and covers her. Maharaja and Jothi name the dustbin "Lakshmi" out of affection. One day, Maharaja visits the local police station to report a robbery, citing that Lakshmi has been robbed, much to the cops' amusement. He recounts the incident: an armed gang raided his house, attacked him, and took Lakshmi. The police do not want to invest effort in finding an empty dustbin but accept once he promises a bribe of ₹5 lakhs for the culprits. They rope in Nallasivam, an unofficial police informant. Past (2009): Selvam and Sabari are two criminals who raid houses, rape women, and kill them. Selvam lives happily with his wife, Kokila, and baby daughter, Ammu, who don't know about his crimes. One day, Sabari informs Selvam that their crimes are in the newspaper. Selvam happens to be in Ramki Saloon for a beard trim during the phone conversation and suspects that Maharaja overheard. He leaves but forgets a gold chain at the saloon that he wants to gift Ammu on her birthday. Maharaja visits Selvam's house to return it, but the police simultaneously arrive, shoot down Sabari, and arrest Selvam, who believes that Maharaja exposed him. Kokila is shocked after knowing the truth and disowns Selvam. Present (2024): A delinquent named Dhana works in a car garage; Maharaja witnesses him get into a fight at a bar. Meanwhile, Nallasivam agrees to act as the perpetrator to "solve" the dustbin case. Over the phone, the police ask Maharaja to narrate the incident so that Nallasivam can act accordingly. Maharaja recounts the incident, but a flashback depicts the actual event, revealing that the incident happened not to him but to Jothi. Jothi had returned home from a sports camp organised by her P.T. teacher, Aasifa, while Maharaja was at work. Three men, revealed to be Selvam, Dhana, and Nallasivam, are in the house to kill him. Selvam believes Maharaja ratted him out 14 years ago and vowed revenge, but Maharaja isn't home. Instead, the trio physically assaults Jothi and Nallasivam rapes her multiple times. Jothi is hospitalised. Back home, a fallen receipt leads Maharaja to the aforementioned bar fight Dhana was in. Dhana reveals that one of his accomplices is inside the police station itself before Maharaja beheads him. This is when he goes to the police station, as shown in the beginning, and invents a story about how his dustbin was stolen. Inspector Varadharajan and his team take Nallasivam, now flustered, to Maharaja's home to return the dustbin. Varadharajan then reveals that his team had discovered Nallasivam's involvement in Jothi's rape while investigating Dhana's death. Thus, they carried out the ruse of bringing him to Maharaja for vigilante justice, giving Maharaja the freedom to punish him. Maharaja kills him, but not before finding out who the third accomplice is. He arrives at the construction site where Selvam works, incapacitates him, and brings Jothi to him as per her wish. Jothi tosses a bag of jewellery at his face, assuming he had come to their home for it. Selvam finds the gold chain that he had bought for Ammu on her birthday—the same one that Maharaja had come to return so many years earlier. The scene from when Maharaja's wife died in the beginning is revealed with more context. After Selvam's arrest, Maharaja, his wife, and their daughter had come to Kokila's new house to return the chain. When Maharaja went to buy Ammu a gift from the shop across the street, a truck rammed into Kokila's home, killing everyone but Ammu, who was saved by the dustbin Lakshmi. Maharaja adopted Ammu, changed her name to Jothi, and raised her as his daughter. In the present, Selvam sees a scar on Jothi's shoulder, the same one as Ammu, and realises that he had been unwittingly complicit in his daughter's rape and assault. Ammu leaves with Maharaja and her teacher Aasifa. Out of guilt, Selvam commits suicide by falling off the building.

Cast

Production

After the success of Kurangu Bommai (2017), Nithilan Saminathan was signed by Sudhan Sundaram's Passion Studios to direct his next directorial under their production. However, the project was in development hell for several years due to unknown reasons. Nithilan then narrated the script to G. Dhananjayan, who suggested to the director that he should narrate it to Vijay Antony, which he did and impressed the actor. Nithilan, however, had to receive a no-objection certificate (NOC) from Sundaram's production house. The company was not in favour of passing the project to another house, therefore not giving the NOC. Soon after, the company then stated that they would narrate the script to Vijay Sethupathi, and if he declines being part of the film, they would pass the project. Sethupathi, who was impressed by the script, agreed to be part of the film, leading to him replacing Antony. Sundaram's company made a public announcement on 1 February 2023, confirming the project. The project would signify Sethupathi's 50th film as a lead actor. 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. 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 Natty Subramaniam were announced to play the lead roles alongside Sethupathi, while Divyabharathi, 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

The music and background score is composed by B. Ajaneesh Loknath, in his first collaboration with Sethupathi; second with Saminathan after Kurangu Bommai. The second single "Raja Paya Onnu" was released on 15 June 2024, after the film's release.

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 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 was premiered in Los Angeles on 28 June 2024, as it was selected as one of the closing night selections at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. The film was released in China on 29 November 2024, in over 40,000 screens.

= Distribution

= NVR Cinemas bought the distribution rights of the film for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. AV Media Consultancy Release In Kerala Through. Mani's Cine World, a Kerala-based distributor released the film across North India.

= Home media

= The digital streaming rights were acquired by Netflix, where it began streaming from 12 July 2024.

Reception

= Critical response

= Maharaja received critical acclaim from critics, who praised Sethupathi's performance, Philomin's editing, and Swaminathan's screenplay and direction. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 83% of 6 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.7/10. Arjun Menon of Rediff.com 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". Rakesh Tara of ABP News gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "Maharaja is an ambitious attempt to blend serious societal issues with commercial cinema elements. While it succeeds in parts, particularly through strong performances and engaging music, it falls short in delivering a cohesive and compelling narrative." Roopa Radhakrishnan of The Times of India gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Vijay Sethupathi is wonderful in his 50th film, and he has a 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." G.A. Gowtham of Uyirmmai wrote "The film Maharaja wears the crown of Box office by its gripping screenplay." Ananda Vikatan gave 48/100 and wrote this film gives punishment hiddenly to those who have similar thoughts on children. 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."

= Box office

= Maharaja grossed ₹4.7 crore (US$540,000) on its opening day. The film earned ₹7.75 crore (US$890,000) on the second day and ₹9 crore (US$1.0 million) the third day. The film surpassed Garudan to become the third biggest opening for a Tamil film in 2024, behind Captain Miller and Aranmanai 4. It grossed an estimated ₹52.6 crore (US$6.0 million) on its opening weekend of three days, becoming the highest opening weekend for a Tamil film in 2024. On its fourth day, the film crossed ₹48.50 crore (US$5.6 million) from India, bringing its worldwide gross to ₹50 crore (US$5.7 million). The film's worldwide collection crossed ₹66 crore (US$7.6 million) globally in five days earning ₹60 crore (US$6.9 million) from Tamil Nadu. It grossed ₹77 crore (US$8.8 million) in the six days of its release. The film became the fastest worldwide grosser for a Tamil film in 2024 and the fastest film of Sethupathi to reach the ₹50 crore mark. The film grossed ₹63.50 crore (US$7.3 million) globally in seven days, becoming the highest grossing Tamil film of 2024 in its opening week. The film collected over ₹70 crore (US$8.0 million) worldwide and over ₹48 crore (US$5.5 million) from the Indian box office in nine days. It crossed the ₹80 crore mark at the box office worldwide in the 10 days of its release, grossing ₹81.8 crore (US$9.4 million). After its release in China, it grossed ₹76.50 crores in the China box office, emerging the highest grossing Tamil film in China.

Potential remake

After the success of the film, it was announced that Aamir Khan Productions acquired the Hindi remake rights, with its proprietor Aamir Khan planning to portray Sethupathi's role.

Notes

References

External links

Maharaja at IMDb Maharaja at Rotten Tomatoes