Maharathi (2008)

Simply A Masterpiece

Great Film overall

Fresh and Exciting

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Whilst searching around online to try and answer a question which had been asked on the IMDb Film Noir board,("Is there a movie based on the Hadley Chase novel There's Always a Price Tag?")I was very happy to find that there was a 2008 Bollywood adaptation of the novel,due to having searched for a good while to find a Bollywood Noir,which I hoped to use as an introduction to the genre for a friend,who is a pretty big fan of Bollywood films. The plot:Whilst driving back home,washed-up film producer Jaisingh Adenwalla suddenly crashes his car.Luckally for him,a man called Subhash Sharma is near by.Sharma,realising that the car could blow up at any moment,bravely pulls Adenwalla safely away from the wreckage.As Adenwalla begins to regain consciousness,he tells Subhash that he has been completely taken aback,by how much a total stranger was willing to risk his own life to save another's.To show his gratitude for Subash, (who has been attempting to become a film star for the last 10 years) Adenwalla pushes Sharma into excepting a job offer of being his private driver,whose wages he will pay for himself.Sadly,this does not go down too well with Adenwalla's "trophy wife" Mallika,who is constantly trying to get money out of him,to repay some of the debt from his box office disasters-ten years ago.Although his wife tries to get Subhash fried,by playing some very nasty games,Adenwalla stubbornly refuses to fire him,partly because he sees in Sharma someone who he would have pushed into the spotlight,during his heyday.Shortly after the argument over the hiring,Mallika becomes extremely angry,when she is told by Adenwalla that all her cheques will now permanently bounce,due to him having cancelled all the transfers of his cash going into her account.Hearing this,Mallika ends up throwing Jaisingh's breathalyser away,during a horrible asthma attack.Thankfully,Subhash is near by,and he is able to get hold of the breathalyser in time.Being distraught over the treatment from his wife,Adenwalla gathers Subhash,to secretly give him a letter,which he orders to be delivered to his lawyer the next day.Later on that same day,Jaisingh tells Mallika and Sharma to come and sit with him,so he can announce something to both of them.To Mallika's shock,Adenwalla tells her that he has changed his will,so that she would be unable to collect any of his money if he commits suicide.Jaisingh then tells Sharma that he asked him to be here,so that he would not be set up as a murderer.Suddenly,Adenwalla pulls out a gun,and kills himself!Whilst they both try to gather there thoughts,Subhash decides to open the letter that Adenwalla had left for his lawyer.To his amazement,Subash discovers that the will has been changed for him to be the main benefactor.As he gets to the end of the letter,Subash realises that Adenwalla had written the letter,so that Sharma would also not be able to get the money if he commits suicide. Quickly realising that if he and Mallika make it look for a few days that Adenwalla is still alive,they would be able to convince people that Adenwalla has actually been murdered,Subash stops Mallika from phoning the police,and tells her that if she wants to get hold of any of her husbands money,then she must follow his plan...View on the film:The first people who I feel should be really praised for giving the film a great Noir mood are the wonderful cast,with Naseeruddin Shah delivering a scene-stealing performance as the boozed-up movie producer,who whilst softening to Subhash,still has a very crusty,bitter side.For the role of his trophy wife,Neha Dhupia has Mallika be someone who attempts to dig her nails deep into her husbands bank account,hoping that nothing will cause her to lose her grip.Playing the main character who devises the cunning plan to cover Adenwalla's suicide,Paresh Rawal excellently shows the cunning,darker side of Subhash gradually creep in,with Subhash being shown to strongly believe that,if,he and Mallika are able to convince people that a murder has taken place,he will at last be able to get hold of all of the riches,that Subhash has been trying to grip on to,since attempting to break into the film industry. With the very good directing of the film,director Shivam Nair wisely leaves out any songs,until the end credits.Instead,he unexpectedly gives the film a David Fincher look,with some stunning shoots in the film,being ones that would not be out of place in Finchers under- appreciated 2002 thriller Panic Room.Nair also cleverly keeps Mallika in distance shoots,until the suicide of her husband,leads her to "crossing the floor" and grudgingly talking to Subhash.Sadly,the praise the can be given to the excellent cast and great directing can not be given to the screenplay by Uttam Gada.After having done well to build up to Adenwalla's suicide in the first half Gada. Sadly gets the film to full into a hole,which it is never able to completely escape from,with the death of a major character in the middle section of the film,giving a huge opportunity for the film to end on a Noirish,moody note.Shockingly,Gada decides to handle the death of the character as badly as possible,with no explanation being offered,and any possible hint of the other characters having a motive for the killing,being swiftly brushed under the carpet. Final view on the film:A very well directed,overlooked Bollywood Film Noir,with great performances from the excellent cast,let down by an unexpectedly tangled screenplay.

For starters the title is not apt. it gives an impression of a mythological drama (Ramayana/ Mahabharata). Well, it is clearly inspired by the success of Johnny Gaddar a la James Hadley Chase. Perhaps as a novel, it does ensure edge-of-seat excitement with twists and turns at every turn of page but sadly it failed to translate on screen. Again Johnny Gaddar should be a good reference point.Performances::§ Naseer:: Lesser mortals like us are in no position to comment on his work. § Paresh Rawal:: He was good if not excellent. The smart one-liners seemed stuffed into is mouth. His act of putting on the loyalty mask, seemed OTT. His frequent dispute with Neha Dhupia and Boman Irani were kind of show-stoppers to the narration.§ Om Puri - Very short role and hence didn't get an opportunity to display histrionics.§ Boman Irani - Very confident performance. § Neha Dhupia - Passable.§ Tara Sharma - The "Little Red Riding Hood" act does raise the suspicion bar. Plus her choice of donning the same role every time is getting monotonously boring.One gets a feel of watching a two-part episode from the Karamchand series, if you know what I mean. Shivam Nair won critical accolades for his work Ahista-Ahista, however seems this time putting shoulders to the wheel wasn't quite sufficient.

Shivam Nair assembles a fine cast in 'Maharathi'. With actors like Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri in one movie, you would expect something great. I enjoyed the execution. It has that film noire feel to it. The interiors of Adenwalla's mansion is stunning. The cinematography is first rate. The editing is sharp. The element of mystery, suspense and drama is well maintained. The events unfold smoothly but surprisingly. Every time one would expect the story to follow a certain track, the viewer is thrown off with something unexpected. Paresh Rawal does a very good job carrying the film. Boman Irani isn't bad either. Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri also do nothing short of a fine job (unfortunately they don't share screen space). Neha Dhupia looks the part but struggles to convince. It was great to see Tara Sharma after a long time. While I liked the whole mystery part, I was disappointed by the ending. I would have preferred a darker finale. In the conclusion, Subhash is portrayed as a character of little fault but he is almost as guilty as Adenwalla's wife. It was his plan to start with, as a consequence of which someone actually died. Yet, he turns out to be the good guy because the one who died is of 'loose' morals in comparison. This is a major flaw that prevents me from calling 'Maharathi' excellent. I also find it less convincing that a millionaire would leave his entire estate to a stranger he knows so little about. However, I didn't mind it at all for a one time watch because it's well made and has some good performances.

Gujarati play?? Hmmm.. Its a rip-off of the James Hadley Chase classic, THERE'S ALWAYS A PRICE TAG!! Glyn Nash and Helen Dester try to pass of Dester's suicide as a murder, to claim insurance but things go horribly wrong.. A very poor version of the path-breaking novel, if I may say so!! Chase must be turning in his grave, to see his block busters being produced in all sorts of ways.. without even a wee bit of credit to him. There has also been a TV version of the story, if I remember correctly. I know that it is quite impossible to bring Chase's multi-dimensional characters to life on the screen.. but a little credit or acknowledgment would surely be in order?