Maharaja (2024 film)

Maharaja is a 2024 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film  directed by Nithilan Swaminathan and jointly produced by The Route, Think Studios and Passion Studios. The film stars Vijay Sethupathi in the title role, alongside Anurag Kashyap, Sachana Namidass, Mamta Mohandas, Natarajan Subramaniam, Abhirami Gopikumar, Aruldoss, Munishkanth, Manikandan, Singampuli, Samarth Kaimliya and Bharathiraja.

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 by joining as co-producers. The music was composed by B. Ajaneesh Loknath, while cinematography and editing were handled by Dinesh Purushothaman and Philomin Raj.

Maharaja was released worldwide on 14 June 2024 to positive reviews from critics. It had the highest opening weekend and emerged as the second highest-grossing Tamil film of 2024.

Plot
Maharaja is a barber by profession living in Pallikaranai, Chennai. He works in Ramki saloon, a barbershop. One day, while him buying a stuffed animal in a shop across the street from their house, a truck slams into the house leading to his wife's death but his daughter, Jothi, survives when a dustbin accidently falls and covers her. Maharaja and Jothi later names the dustbin "Lakshmi" out of affection and they anthropomorphize it. Maharaja later moves to a new place with Jothi, now a teenager, and Lakshmi. Maharaja is very protective of Jothi but is a very quiet person who is often critiqued by his fellow barbers. Jothi is active in sports at school; she leaves the city for a sports camp in Coimbatore, accompanied by her sports teacher, Aasifa.

Meanwhile, Maharaja visits the local police station to report a robbery, citing that their dustbin Lakshmi has been robbed, much to the amusement of the station. He recounts the whole incident to them, saying that an armed gang raided his house, attacked him, and took Lakshmi. The police initially snub the case, as they believe they cannot invest their efforts and time in finding a trivial object like an empty dustbin. Despite their constant snubbing and even violent threats, Maharaja stands his ground. They eventually accept the case once he promises a bribe of ₹5  lakhs upon finding the culprits. The policemen rope in Nallasivam, a convict turned informant, to find Lakshmi.

Past (2009): Selvam and Sabari are a dacoit duo that raid houses, rape women, and kill all the victims after taking the loot. On Selvam's toddler daughter Ammu's birthday, Sabari phones Selvam to inform him that a newspaper has published an editorial on their crimes without revealing their identity. Selvam happens to be in Ramki saloon for a beard trim during the phone conversation, and after hanging up the call, he suspects that Maharaja may have overheard the conversation. Selvam leaves the saloon but forgets a gold chain at the saloon that he wants to gift Ammu. As Maharaja visits Selvam's house to return it, policemen simultaneously arrive to arrest Selvam and Sabari. Police gun down Sabari and arrest Selvam in a humiliating fashion. Kokila, Selvam's wife, who was unaware of his criminal activities, keeps Ammu away from Selvam out of disgust, anger, and betrayal. Selvam stares at Maharaja, believing that Maharaja ratted him out.

Present (2023): A delinquent named Dhana works in a local car service. A local politician beats and threatens him on an allegation that he stole his sunglasses from his car. Dhana seeks revenge as he beats him at a local bar, where Maharaja is also present. As the police continue to investigate the dustbin case, Nallasivam helps get a dustbin cast and dents to make it look identical to Lakshmi. To find wilful scapegoats, cops start calling thieves who take up such assignments, but they scoff at the idea of being accused of petty theft of a dustbin. Eventually, Nallasivam agrees to turn in as the criminal, saying that he has a penchant for acting. They asked Maharaja over the phone to narrate the entire incident once again so that Nallasivam could act accordingly.

Maharaja recounts the event in the same manner but a flashback reveals the actual event, where Jothi had returned home from the sports camp in the absence of Maharaja. Three men revealed to be Selvam, Dhana, and Nallasivam, are present in the house to kill Maharaja. Selvam still believes Maharaja ratted him out and vows revenge against him for ruining his family, but Maharaja isn't present. Instead, they physically assault Jothi, leaving her battered and unconscious, while Nallasivam and Dhana rape her multiple times. Then all three of them leave the house, believing that Maharaja will take too long to return. Upon reaching home, Maharaja finds Jothi in a critical state and hauls her to the hospital. Jothi requests her dad that she wants to confront the men responsible for this. Jothi tells him that one of the men who attacked her had a tumor on his back. After admitting Jothi to the hospital, Maharaja returns home and, out of frustration and anguish, beats himself unconscious. When he wakes up, he sees a toll plaza receipt with the car number of the local politician whose sunglasses were stolen, which eventually leads him to the aforementioned barfight between Dhana and the politician. Maharaja follows Dhana out of the bar and a fight ensues between them, with Maharaja having the upper hand and asking who his accomplices were on the day of the robbery. Dhana tells him that one of them is inside the police station itself, and stabs Maharaja in his thigh. Before Dhana escapes, Maharaja beheads him. This is when Maharaja goes to the police station and invents a story about how his dustbin was robbed. He had the dustbin at his home all along. He made up his story to the police to keep track of everyone in the police station and to find the man with the tumor.

Meanwhile, in the present, Inspector Varadharajan and his fellow policemen convince Nallasivam, now looking rather flustered, to spend the night at their place so that they can comfortably reach Maharaja's place the next day to return the dustbin. Nallasivam enacts and confesses his 'crime' of stealing the dustbin when Maharaja realizes that Nallasivam has a tumor on his back. Varadharajan compels Maharaja to give him an appropriate punishment, thereby revealing that they had also found out about Nallasivam's involvement in the robbery and rape of Jothi. Another flashback shows that while investigating Dhana's death, the police found Nallasivam calling Dhana's phone. Further inquiring with Maharaja's phone number and with the doctor's information about Jothi, they had carried out the ruse of bringing Nallasivam to Maharaja. The police hand over Nallasivam to Maharaja, giving him the freedom to punish Nallasivam, with Varadharajan and team bearing the responsibility. Maharaja kills Nallasivam, but not before finding out who the third accomplice is. Maharaja arrives at the construction site where Selvam works and the two men fight. Eventually, Maharaja incapacitates Selvam, and Aasifa brings Jothi to Selvam. Jothi proceeds to insult Selvam, and then tosses a bag full of jewelry at his face, assuming that he had come to their home for that. Selvam finds in the jewelry the gold chain he had bought for Ammu on her birthday – the very one that Maharaja had come to return so many years earlier.

The full scene from when Maharaja's wife died at the beginning of the movie is now revealed in a final flashback. After Selvam's arrest, Maharaja, his wife, and toddler daughter had come to Kokila's new house to return the chain. When Maharaja had gone to buy Ammu a gift in a shop across the street, a truck rammed into Kokila's house, killing everyone but Ammu, who was saved by Lakshmi. Maharaja adopts Ammu and raises her as his own daughter, Jothi. In the present, as Jothi leaves the building, Selvam sees a scar on Jothi's shoulder, the same as one he helped nurse on toddler Ammu's shoulder. He realizes that he unwittingly had been complicit in the rape and assault of his own daughter. Selvam, out of guilt, falls off the building and dies as Jothi walks out with Maharaja and Aasifa.

Production
After the success of Kurangu Bommai (2017), Nithilan Swaminathan 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 however not in favor 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 denies 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 as 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. Jagadish Palanisamy's The Route and Think Studios later joined as co-producers. 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
The music and background score is composed by B. Ajaneesh Loknath, in his first collaboration with Sethupathi; second with Saminathan after Kurangu Bommai; and his fourth Tamil film after Kurangu Bommai, Richie (2017), and Nimir (2018). The first single "Thayee Thayee", sung by Sid Sriram and written by Vairamuthu, was released on 7 June 2024. The second single "Raja Paya Onnu" was released on 15 June 2024, after the film's 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.

Distribution
NVR Cinemas bought the distribution rights of the film for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Home media
The digital streaming rights were acquired by Netflix and the satellite rights by Star Vijay. The film was premiered on Netflix from 12 July 2024.

Critical response
Maharaja received positive reviews from critics, who praised Sethupathi's performance, Philomin's editing, Swaminathan's screenplay and direction.

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 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."

Box office
Maharaja grossed inr 47000000 on its opening day. The film earned inr 77500000 on the second day and inr 90000000 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 inr 526000000 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 inr 485000000 from India, bringing its worldwide gross to inr 500000000.

The film's worldwide collection crossed inr 660000000 globally in five days earning inr 600000000 from Tamil Nadu. It grossed inr 770000000 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 inr 635000000 globally in seven days, becoming the highest grossing Tamil film of 2024 in its opening week. The film collected over inr 700000000 worldwide and over inr 480000000 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 inr 818000000.